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Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Cleveland.com editorial board pulled no punches this week in going after Republican politicians in Columbus for their multi-pronged effort to effectively kill citizen-led ballot initiatives.  

“It’s also not hard to see that behind HJR 1 and the revival of the August special election is the idea that a simple majority of Ohio voters shouldn’t be enough — that majority shouldn’t rule, that a majority of citizens’ wishes don’t count when it comes to overruling what Statehouse figures want. Yet, if we are to draw any lessons from the Larry Householder/House Bill 6 corruption scandal, it is that what Statehouse figures want is sometimes very, very bad for Ohio,” writes the editorial board. 

High-level Republicans, ranging from Matt Huffman to Frank LaRose (who Cleveland.com dubs Ohio’s cynic-in-chief), are pulling every lever they can to take away citizen-led ballot initiatives in Ohio, including by pushing legislation to create a $20 million taxpayer-funded special election in August – after they eliminated August special elections only months ago. 

Read more from the Cleveland.com editorial board HERE and below:

• As an exercise in cynicism, it’s bad enough that GOP lawmakers contend proposed House Joint Resolution 1 is just to keep the Ohio Constitution from being cluttered up with all sorts of special-interest nonsense.
• In reality, the measure, which is still in committee, would all but trash citizen-initiated constitutional amendment rights Ohioans have enjoyed since 1912.
• But the cynicism of HJR 1 is made worse, if that can be possible, by the push to revive the August special election option that legislators virtually abolished just two months ago. Abolished so definitively, in fact, that Republicans have had to introduce another bill to allow (and authorize $20 million to pay for) a possible special election Aug. 8 to try to get HJR 1 passed before the November election.
• It’s also not hard to see that behind HJR 1 and the revival of the August special election is the idea that a simple majority of Ohio voters shouldn’t be enough — that majority shouldn’t rule, that a majority of citizens’ wishes don’t count when it comes to overruling what Statehouse figures want.
• Yet, if we are to draw any lessons from the Larry Householder/House Bill 6 corruption scandal, it is that what Statehouse figures want is sometimes very, very bad for Ohio — and that, if citizens as a whole want to amend what happens at the Statehouse, they should be able to, without poison-pill legislative maneuvering or dark-money corruption.
• In January, August special elections were seen as unneeded, costly exercises by Ohio cynic-in-chief Frank LaRose, who as Ohio secretary of state is Ohio’s chief elections officer. LaRose was full of praise in January when Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 458 into law. The bill, into which all manner of major electoral changes, including photo voter IDs and tighter absentee-ballot deadlines, had been crammed, started out life — and is titled — “Eliminate August special elections except for US House nomination.”
• Now, he and others can hardly wait to hold another August special election, courtesy of $20 million of our tax dollars (if Senate Bill 92, which is now pending in a Senate committee, or another measure authorizing this passes, of course).
• Far less widely noted are two provisions that apply only to citizen-initiated efforts and that would make it almost impossible for regular citizens even to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. HJR 1 would mandate petition-signature targets in all 88 Ohio counties, not just the 44 required now, and it would eliminate the 10-day “cure” period to fix any deficiency in signatures by gathering more if some are disallowed.
• At one stroke, HJR 1 could wipe out those reforms and leave Ohio citizens’ referendum rights in tatters.

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Columbus, OH — Today, former President Donald Trump called on Republicans to defund the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI. Just days after Senate candidate Matt Dolan and his likely opponents Frank LaRose, Warren Davidson, and Bernie Moreno “rush[ed] to Trump’s defense,” will they stand by the former president’s comments that federal law enforcement agencies should be defunded?

“Ohio’s GOP Senate candidates were stumbling over themselves to kiss Trump’s ring last week. As the fight for his endorsement heats up, Ohio voters deserve to know if Matt Dolan, Frank LaRose, Warren Davidson, and Bernie Moreno will stand with Trump as he calls to defund the police,” said Reeves Oyster, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.     
 

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Columbus, OH — It’s barely April and one thing is clear: the fight for Donald Trump’s endorsement has already begun in the #OHSEN primary — and it’s only going to get messier from here. After news of Trump’s indictment broke, confirmed and potential candidates were “quickly jumping” to defend the former President, whose endorsement was called “the most powerful voice and endorsement in the country” by one Ohio GOP official. 

And while the race to win over Donald Trump rages on, some candidate’s vulnerabilities in a GOP primary are already rising to the top:
 

“The knives are starting to come out in the Ohio Senate Republican primary,” said ODP spokesperson Reeves Oyster. “From battling for Trump’s endorsement to attacking one another to get ahead, it’s clear already that whoever emerges from this primary will be bruised, battered, and unpopular with the voters that will decide the general election.”

Read more about the fight for Trump’s endorsement: 

NBC: GOP Senate prospects in 2024 battlegrounds rush to Trump’s defense

Henry Gomez

March 31, 2023
 

• “Candidates and elected officials quickly jumping to defend President Trump against the politically motivated prosecution proves that President Trump is still the most powerful voice and endorsement in the country,” Emily Moreno Miller, executive chair of the Cuyahoga County Republican Party in Ohio and a former Trump campaign aide, told NBC News.

• Businessman and likely candidate Bernie Moreno — Miller’s father — tweeted that Trump’s indictment was “un-American & corrupt to the core.” Another possible GOP contender, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, advanced the inaccurate claim of “record-setting crime” in Manhattan while scolding District Attorney Alvin Bragg for pursuing the Trump case. 

• “This is what happens when liberal activists take over the mechanisms we use to deliver justice,” tweeted LaRose, who once aligned himself with No Labels, a bipartisan organization known for embracing centrist politics and eschewing incendiary rhetoric. “America is fed up.”

• Even Matt Dolan, the one GOP Senate hopeful in Ohio who has avoided cozying up to Trump, offered sympathetic words in a statement circulated by his campaign.

• “There is little doubt that the actions taken today in New York are politically motivated,” said Dolan, a state senator. “Let there be no mistake, Democrats and the media want to make 2024 about nothing more than endless investigations and show trials. We need a Republican nominee that will defeat Sherrod Brown, not someone who willfully plays into his hands.”

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Columbus, OH – Ohio Republicans are having a bad week with their blatant political games  on full display. After eliminating August special elections only months ago, GOP politicians ranging from Frank LaRose to Matt Huffman are now pushing for a $20 million taxpayer-funded special election in August so that they can effectively kill citizen-led ballot initiatives in Ohio. And they’re rightfully being called out for it. 

“Ohio Republicans know they’re on the wrong side of the issues voters care about which is why politicians like Frank LaRose and Matt Huffman are playing political games at taxpayers’ expense to rig the rules in their favor. Ohio voters don’t get to play by a different set of rules when things don’t go their way – neither should their politicians,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

See what Ohio voters are reading about Ohio Republicans’ hypocritical power grab: 

Columbus Dispatch: Editorial: Terrified Ohio lawmakers ready to slap voters in the face to stop abortion vote

• A word sums up an effort led by Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Senate President Matt Huffman, State Rep. Brian Stewart and others to steal a power Ohioans have enjoyed since 1912: undemocratic.
• It is amazing that some Republicans in the Statehouse would push so hard to change how the state amends the constitution by forcing a vote during a low-turnout August election months after the same lawmakers voted that such elections should be limited. This entire effort slaps voters in the face and betrays our democracy.
• It is particularly despicable and disappointing that LaRose, the officer charged with ensuring fair Ohio elections, pretends placing such a measure on an August ballot would be just.
• LaRose, Huffman and the rest want to stack the deck against Ohio voters. The basic rules of engagement shouldn’t be changed just because they fit one political agenda or another. That’s not democracy.

WVXU: Commentary: How determined is the Ohio GOP to stop abortion? Let me count the ways…

Howard Wilkinson

• Still, some Republicans in the Ohio Statehouse find themselves so desperate to control every aspect of peoples’ lives in this state that they will break their own rules to achieve it.
• It would be a Hail Mary attempt to convince whatever microscopic portion of Ohio’s electorate who would break away from their swimming pools and golf courses to vote in August that they should approve an unnecessary and undemocratic constitutional amendment.
• Aconstitutional amendment in which Ohio voters would, in effect, be saying to Huffman — please, sir, we’d like you to take away part of the power of our votes.
• Republican Frank LaRose, Ohio’s secretary of state and chief elections officer, used to agree with Stephens on the uselessness of August elections.
• But, on Tuesday, he said he had changed his mind.
• Did we mention that this “special election” to serve the political purposes of Huffman and his Statehouse crew would cost the taxpayers $20 million?

WEWS-TV: Special interest groups seek to protect constitution from special interest groups, special interest groups say

Morgan Trau

• The supporters of the resolution say the current system is easily influenced by special interest groups and outside organizations, but so far, critics argue that only special interest groups – some not even from Ohio – are pushing for the legislation.
• “They’re redistricting reformers or they’re folks that are worried about reproductive rights,” Turcer said. “They are folks who live in Ohio and want to have a good life in Ohio that want to change the Ohio Constitution.”
• She says Ohio already has guard rails against people meddling in the constitution, and there are rarely any citizen-led amendments because of how difficult it is to meet all the requirements.
• “The only people who are concerned about changing the Ohio Constitution are special interests themselves and the state legislature who want to take power away from voters by diluting their ability to change the Ohio Constitution,” she added.

Statehouse News Bureau: After supporting the elimination of August elections, Ohio’s Secretary of State now says sometimes they’re ok

• In testimony on House Bill 458 in December, LaRose wrote about some August 2020 special elections with what he called “embarrassingly low turnout” of 11.8% and 6.8%.
• “That means just a handful of voters end up making big decisions. The side that wins is often the one that has a vested interest in the passage of the issue up for consideration. This isn’t how democracy is supposed to work.”
• But if Republican lawmakers approve Senate Bill 92, reviving the August special election to vote on the requirement of 60% voter approval for constitutional amendments proposed by state lawmakers, LaRose said he’s ok with that.
• “As a course of action, normal course of doing business, yes, I do not believe in having elections in August as a normal way of holding elections. But if the state legislature decides to hold an election in August, it’s not unusual,” LaRose said.
• In fact, it is unusual. There have been only two August statewide votes regarding the constitution, one to approve an entirely new constitution in 1874, and one for an amendment in 1926. Both were overwhelmingly rejected.

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Columbus, OH – In case you missed it, Haley BeMiller of the Columbus Dispatch reported today that Frank LaRose is now all in for a $20 million taxpayer-funded special election after – a year ago – calling August special elections “unnecessary,” and saying they “aren’t good for taxpayers, election officials, voters or the civic health of our state.” 

Frank’s latest cave comes as Statehouse GOP leaders are pulling all the political levers they have in order to effectively kill citizen-led ballot initiatives in Ohio. LaRose, the “front man” for the anti-voter initiative who spoke out against special elections in August just last year, has now suddenly changed his tune to cater to his own political ambitions.  

“Frank LaRose is once again making clear that the only thing he cares about is advancing his political career. Frank’s latest craven political stunt would cost Ohioans more than $20 million, and we’ll continue to remind voters who to blame when the bill comes due,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Testifying about August special elections in 2020, LaRose pointed to low turnout in counties around the state and said: “That means just a handful of voters end up making big decisions. The side that wins is often the one that has a vested interest in the passage of the issue up for consideration. This isn’t how democracy is supposed to work.”

Read more from the Columbus Dispatch here and below: 

• Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Tuesday defended a potential August election for the effort to make it harder to amend the state constitution − just months after advocating to limit those elections.
• House and Senate Republicans have introduced resolutions to require 60% of voters to enact constitutional amendments, instead of a simple majority. Three-fifths of both chambers need to approve the question to place it on the ballot, giving voters the final say in whether the rules should change.
• Senate GOP leaders want voters to make that decision on Aug. 8 to get ahead of a possible November ballot question on abortion access. But the state Legislature, with LaRose’s support, passed a new law last year to eliminate most August elections due to low turnout and cost.
• LaRose’s comments came ahead of two committee hearings on the Senate resolution scheduled for this week. Republicans advocating for the August ballot are on a tight timeline: The measure must clear both the House and Senate by May 10, and lawmakers won’t meet during first two weeks of April.
• Under Ohio’s new election law, local governments and school districts can hold August elections only if they’re under a fiscal emergency. LaRose told lawmakers last year that very few voters participate, citing a Hamilton County special election in 2020 that generated 11.8% turnout.

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