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For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, May 31, 2022

“People are tired of politicians making their own rules.”

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Toledo Blade editorial board took Jon Husted to task for his unprecedented move to take a paid corporate job while also collecting a six-figure taxpayer-funded salary. The editorial board points out that taxpayers don’t know how much Husted is making at his second job, raising questions about why Husted needs to hide that fact. The Blade calls on Husted to decide what’s more important: his own personal financial interests or the interests of the Ohioans he was elected to serve.

The Ohio Democratic Party has called on Husted to answer key questions about his move to take a paid corporate gig while in office.

“Jon Husted and Republicans aren’t even trying to hide it anymore: they’re just openly lining their own pockets from special interest buddies rather than doing the jobs they were elected to do. Ohio deserves transparency and accountability from leaders, something we are sure to keep losing if Mike DeWine and Jon Husted remain in office,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

You can read more from the Toledo Blade here and below:

• Jon Husted is taking state politics into groundbreaking new territory. It’s ground better left unbroken.
• The lieutenant governor joined the Board of Directors of Columbus area–based Heartland Bank in March. The bank job is a paid position. His job with the state pays $176,000.
• Mr. Husted won’t say how much the bank is paying him. The required paperwork revealing that isn’t due until after the November election. Taking the job isn’t a violation of state ethics laws. That is extraordinary and disturbing. Public officials in the executive branch shouldn’t be taking two paychecks, one from the taxpayers and another from a private entity.
• Mr. Husted’s decision to join the bank board shows pathetic judgment and is tone deaf to the concerns of the people of Ohio. People are tired of politicians making their own rules.
• Ohio’s weak ethics laws and financial reporting laws create an ethics-be-damned atmosphere in Columbus. Any elected official undertaking new private employment should be required to disclose their compensation immediately.
• That the lieutenant governor thinks this is OK stinks. It’s not OK. It’s not that he plans to do anything wrong. It’s the appearance of impropriety.
• It’s become commonplace in Columbus and Washington for public officials to spin through the revolving door into lucrative private sector opportunities after leaving office.
• But Mr. Husted is the first in Ohio with the gall to do it while holding office. If this sort of thing continues, you can be sure Mr. Husted won’t be the last dual payroll Ohio lieutenant governor.
• The lieutenant governor’s decision shows poor judgment. First, he should tell Ohioans what he’s being paid by the bank. Then he must decide whether he wants to serve the people or devote his time to private employment.

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For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Columbus, OH — It’s now been more than three weeks since Ohio Democrats sued Mike DeWine over his refusal to turn over records connected to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and resubmitted public records requests to get to the bottom of what DeWine knew and when. None of those records requests has been fulfilled despite empty claims from the DeWine team about the governor’s commitment to “transparency and accountability.” The lack of answers from DeWine leads to even more questions about what DeWine is hiding, especially as the scandal inches closer and closer to DeWine and his inner circle.

“Ohio Democrats are demanding answers from DeWine on behalf of Ohio voters. Ohioans are being saddled with a $287,000 bill every single day because of the Republican-led scandal, and we can’t even get answers from DeWine about what he knew and when. Enough with the stall tactics, Ohioans deserve answers,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

Since October, Ohio Democrats have been working on getting answers to who knew what and when about the FirstEnergy scandal – which Ohioans continue to pay $287,000 every single day for – but have been stonewalled at every turn by the DeWine administration. The lack of accountability from DeWine is leading Ohioans in all corners of the state to wonder what he’s hiding and why.

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For Immediate Release:
May 31, 2022

Columbus, OH — Presented without comment.

HuffPost: J.D. Vance On Porn: Ban It To Save Families
Liz Skalka
May 29, 2022

• Going beyond even the GOP’s own platform, Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance told a Catholic magazine last year that pornography should be banned because it’s stopping Americans from getting married and starting families.
• “I think the combination of porn, abortion have basically created a lonely, isolated generation that isn’t getting married, they’re not having families, and they’re actually not even totally sure how to interact with each other,” Vance said in a newly unearthed interview with Crisis Magazine from August 2021.
• The writer spoke with Vance at a gathering for young conservatives where Vance was a keynote speaker. She wrote that after asking him “his thoughts on porn and birth control and their effects on familial decline, Vance admitted he wants to outright ban pornography.”
• Vance’s campaign didn’t provide a comment about his more recent thoughts on porn, and how they would factor into his priorities as a senator.
• In 2016, the GOP, in its own official platform, declared porn “a public health crisis,” but stopped short of calling for it to be outlawed completely.
• Vance, who wrote in his memoir about witnessing firsthand poverty and addiction and their impact on families in Ohio, has made conserving “traditional families” and ending abortion main planks of his conservative platform.
• In his statement on the Uvalde school shooting, Vance cited the absence of strong family values — and not the lack of gun control — to explain why a gunman would murder 19 children and two teachers.
• “We need to address the culture of fatherlessness and drug addiction in our country, focus on the importance of family so that our next generation is guided and empowered with strong support systems,” Vance said.
• The “Hillbilly Elegy” author’s attitude on porn may be a throwback to the social conservatism that defined the 1970s with President Richard Nixon’s “War on Porn.” Those in favor of restricting access to porn now cite the nation’s declining birth rate, the potential to promote sex trafficking and the “common good.”
• Vance seemed to get at that during the same conservative gathering where Hawley made headlines lamenting the decline of men. Americans are getting married less frequently and having fewer children, he said, “and we know that at least one cause of this is that we have allowed, under the banner of libertarianism, pornography to seep even into our youngest minds through the channels of the internet.”
• “Again, we made a political choice that the freedom to consume pornography was more important than the public goods, like marriage and family and happiness,” he continued. “We can’t ignore the fact that we made that choice and we shouldn’t shy away from the fact that we can make new choices in the future.”

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For Immediate Release:
Friday, May 27, 2022

Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters issued the following statement after Ohio Republicans used a federal court to maintain control of the state legislative redistricting process and push through GOP-gerrymandered statehouse maps that the Ohio Supreme Court twice ruled unconstitutional.

“Republicans in Ohio will stop at nothing to ensure they can choose their own voters rather than the other way around. We’ve seen the consequences of Republican rule for our state: costly corruption, ineptitude and an economy that works only for the wealthy and well-connected. Ohio Republicans don’t want to be held accountable, so they’re rigging the system in their favor instead. Using a federal court to ram through a GOP-gerrymandered map that reads like an Ohio Republican Party wishlist is not what Ohioans were looking for when they called out loudly for redistricting reform.”

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For Immediate Release:
Friday, May 27, 2022

Columbus, OH — Ahead of Memorial Day weekend, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters issued the following statement to honor all the Ohioans in uniform who gave their lives for our country.

“This Memorial Day, we pause to remember all the brave Ohioans who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. We honor their memories and hold the loved ones they left behind in our hearts. Ohio Democrats are committed to ensuring the legacies of these servicemembers live on and that the rights, freedoms and democratic values they gave their lives to protect are maintained,” said Chair Walters.

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