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Columbus, OH — Another day, another self-serving political calculation from Jane Timken comes to light. This time, Buckeye Flame uncovered that before entering politics, Timken used her position on the board at Kent State to support transgender rights. Don’t ask her about it though, because in typical Timken fashion, she has abandoned that position since it does not suit her pursuit of higher office. 

“The only consistent thing about Jane Timken is that she is a political fraud who is willing to do or say anything to stand out in this crowded and nasty primary,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.  

Buckeye Flame: Senate candidate Jane Timken uses International Women’s Day to attack trans Ohioans

March 8, 2022

• Rather than using International Women’s Day to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women across the world, Jane Timken instead used the occasion to attack trans Ohioans.
• Interestingly, Timken has a background of being involved with some pro-trans equality actions before she entered politics.
• Formerly the chair of the Kent State University Board of Trustees, Timken voted to revise the university policy regarding discrimination to include transgender people as a protected under the gender discrimination statute. Her tenure on that Board of Trustees also coincided with the opening of Kent’s LGBTQ+ center.
• Since her entry into politics, Timken has been vigorously campaigning against LGBTQ+ equality.
• At a Center for Christian Virtue forum in October 2021, Timken was asked about the Equality Act, which would grant LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections nationally. Timken said, “While I’m a Christian and don’t believe in discrimination, I believe this is fundamentally an attack on religion.”
• In December 2021, Timken released an education plan that includes barring transgender women to participate in sports events that correspond with their gender identity. 
• The Buckeye Flame reached out to Jane Timken’s communications director for comment. This article will be updated with her response if one is received.

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Repealing The Affordable Care Act Could Spike Healthcare Costs, End Protections For Ohioans With Pre-Existing Conditions  

Columbus, OH — Yesterday, Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson admitted that if Republicans take back the U.S. Senate, they are prepared to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which would spike healthcare costs for working Ohioans, close rural hospitals, kick nearly 1 million Ohioans off their health insurance, and end protections for Ohioans with pre-existing conditions. The threat comes just days after Senate Republicans rolled out a plan that

“calls for new taxes on tens of millions of Americans,” including a tax hike that falls disproportionately on the shoulders of working-class Ohioans and retirees living on a fixed income.

This attack on Ohioans’ healthcare is nothing new for the GOP Senate field in Ohio, which includes several candidates who have already called for the repeal of the ACA outright. Josh Mandel said he was “hopeful” he would be the 51st vote to repeal the ACA. Jane Timken admitted she got involved in politics because she was motivated to repeal the ACA. Mike Gibbons called the law “a disaster” and said, “After we repeal ObamaCare, we need to start from scratch.” Matt Dolan said that the law was “conceived wrongly, implemented poorly and has become a tool of partisan grift.”

The exception is J.D. Vance, who in 2017 said he opposed one of the many Republican attempts to repeal the ACA. But as we have seen throughout this campaign, Vance has changed his position on many issues since 2017, so he may well have reversed himself here.

“While working families are already feeling the squeeze from rising costs, Republicans are freely admitting they plan to raise healthcare costs and rip coverage away from nearly 1 million Ohioans. The out-of-touch millionaires running for U.S. Senate owe Ohioans an answer for why they want to end protections for Ohioans with pre-existing conditions, close rural hospitals, and raise prescription drug costs in order to cut taxes for their wealthy and well-connected friends,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

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Columbus, OH — In an interview with Spectrum News’ Taylor Popielarz, Multimillionaire Matt Dolan admitted he’s so rich he didn’t know he had invested tens of thousands of dollars in China until he ran for U.S. Senate.

He told Spectrum News that “through the exercise of my financial disclosure form, [he] found… out” he had invested in Alibaba Group. It’s a fitting excuse for a millionaire who is self-funding his struggling campaign to the tune of over $10 million, and whose family has formed a super PAC and dumped $3 million into the race to boost his bid while neglecting the struggling Cleveland Guardians.

According to Dolan’s personal financial disclosure, he has invested $15,001 to 50,000 in Alibaba Group Holding Limited American Depositary. According to NASDAQ, Alibaba Group Holding Limited is headquartered in China. The company’s website says their businesses “are comprised of China commerce, international commerce, local consumer services, Cainiao, cloud, digital media and entertainment, and innovation initiatives and others.”

Alibaba is currently under review by the Biden administration for whether its cloud business poses a “risk to U.S. national security” since the Chinese government could compel the tech company to turn over sensitive customer data. According to Reuters, the Trump administration also issued a warning in August 2020 against Chinese companies including Alibaba, warning that “U.S. citizens’ most sensitive personal information and our businesses’ most valuable intellectual property” could be “stored and processed on cloud-based systems accessible to our foreign adversaries.”

“Millionaire Matt Dolan is so out of touch he didn’t realize he was cashing in with a Chinese company under review for threatening our national security until he decided to run for U.S. Senate. Ohioans deserve leaders who are actually tough on China, not politicians like Matt Dolan who stand to profit from turning a blind eye to their abuses,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

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For Immediate Release:

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Darrel Rowland penned a column for The Columbus Dispatch today that highlights how the election chaos caused by Republicans is hurting both candidates and voters alike as Ohioans wait for the fair maps they overwhelmingly voted for in 2015 and 2018. The ongoing GOP-gerrymander is already costing Ohioans millions of dollars, putting the votes of Ohio service members in limbo and making a May 3 primary all but impossible.

“But this ignorance cannot be blamed on sleeping through civics class. It stems from a failure by Republicans who control Ohio’s redistricting process to convince a bipartisan majority of the state Supreme Court that the new GOP maps meet the constitutional requirements of redistricting measures overwhelmingly approved by Ohio voters in 2015 and 2018,” writes Darrel Rowland of the Dispatch.

As Republicans on the commission continue to do the bidding of their own political party and special interest donors, the costs for Ohioans will only continue to rise. Ohioans could pay tens of millions of dollars if the May 3 primary is moved, all because Republicans refuse to do their jobs and pass fair maps. And right now, less than two months before the scheduled primary, Ohio still doesn’t have final maps in place.

Read more from The Columbus Dispatch here and below:

• Ohioans are seeing the flip side in 2022: congressional and statehouse candidates can’t name whom they represent.
• “We have candidates that don’t know what district they’re running in, they don’t know who they may be running against, what their districts may ultimately look like, when their primary election may take place,” said Matt Keyes, communications director for the Ohio Democratic Party. “I think this is certainly frustrating for our candidates. I think it’s more frustrating for voters.”
• But this ignorance cannot be blamed on sleeping through civics class. It stems from a failure by Republicans who control Ohio’s redistricting process to convince a bipartisan majority of the state Supreme Court that the new GOP maps meet the constitutional requirements of redistricting measures overwhelmingly approved by Ohio voters in 2015 and 2018.
• The upshot: Every candidate for Congress and the state Senate and House this year had to file candidacy petitions for districts that have yet to win the court’s blessing. In fact, the districts that legislative candidates filed to run in last month already have been tossed out by the high court and replaced by another set.
• Currently, justices are considering a third state legislative map, plus a second congressional map after declaring the first one unconstitutionally gerrymandered – with the deadline for the first ballots due in less than two weeks.
• Excuse even the most politically savvy Ohioans for struggling to keep up.

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  March 7, 2022 

Good Monday afternoon, and welcome back to Mike Check, your weekly source of all the infighting, conspiracy spewing and corruption that’s making headlines in and around the Republican governor’s race and Mike DeWine’s statehouse, courtesy of the Ohio Democratic Party.

As the gubernatorial race heats up, Republicans are in disarray with Mike DeWine’s popularity dropping by the day, facing attacks both inside and outside of the Republican Party and having to answer for the largest public corruption scandal in state history. It’s hard to keep up with all of the corruption and mess surrounding Mike DeWine and the GOP gubernatorial primary, so here are some stories you may have missed:

WILL DEWINE ‘DO SOMETHING?’ Following the passage of extreme legislation that would put Ohioans and law enforcement at risk of increased gun violence, Mike DeWine needs to decide if he’ll keep his promises to ‘do something’ and veto this dangerous bill or cave once again to radicals in his own party. Senate Bill 215, known as Ohio’s permitless carry bill, would allow anyone over 21 to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, ultimately avoiding a background check in the process. The legislation has been widely opposed by groups across Ohio, including the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, the Ohio Mayors Alliance and many others. After a tragic mass shooting in Dayton in 2019, Mike DeWine promised Ohioans that he would ‘do something’ to address the threat of gun violence. Now, DeWine has an opportunity to do just that and veto this dangerous bill. We’re calling on DeWine to put Ohioans above politics and keep his promises. There’s a first time for everything

A ‘HORRIBLE JOKE’. In case you missed it, Howard Wilkinson recently eviscerated Mike DeWine and his fellow Republicans for failing to do their jobs on redistricting, calling the latest gerrymandered map a “horrible joke” and comparing the redistricting process to “Groundhog Day.” In his column, Wilkinson explains how the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Ohio Republicans, including DeWine. “They are so desperate to hold their grip on power in the Ohio Statehouse that they will throw the entire election system in Ohio into utter, absolute chaos and pretend they are blameless and the victims of a rogue majority on the Ohio Supreme Court, who have rejected their state legislative and congressional district maps at every turn,” writes Wilkinson. A joke indeed, but as Wilkinson mentions, not a funny one and one that’s being made at the expense of Ohio voters.

THANK YOU FROM MIKE D. As DeWine tries desperately to find some support, somewhere, last week he took his clown show on the road and tried to claim credit for infrastructure spending secured by Democrats. But recently, we here at the Ohio Democratic Party uncovered a thank you note from the governor to Ohio Democrats we thought we’d share with all of you 😉 Find the note here.

We’re glad Mike DeWine has finally seen how valuable the infrastructure bill will be to working Ohioans and our state’s economy, and we look forward to his public statements moving forward that condemn his fellow Republicans for voting against the legislation and thanking Ohio Democrats for getting it signed into law.

Thanks for catching up with us, that’s all the Mike Check we’ve got for this week. If you have questions my email is [email protected]. Have a great week!

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