“Legal Precedence,” “Flipping Ohio The Bird,” “Missing Money” and “Not A Leader:” What’s Making Headlines With Republican #OHGOV Candidates This Week
November 15, 2021
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 THE REAL PAT DEWINE PLEASE STAND UP… and recuse himself already? Amid more calls this week for Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine to recuse himself from a Supreme Court case involving his own dad, there are more and more reasons for him to do so, including the fact that he already has before. A recent report shows Pat did step down from an unemployment case in August also involving dad to “avoid any appearance of impropriety that might result from my father’s public involvement in this matter.” Why would the rules be different now, with Ohio’s political future on the line? Because the DeWines, as always, are only looking out for themselves.
A BIG, FAT GERRYMANDERING PARTY. Cincinnati.com eviscerated Republicans (including Mike DeWine) last week for ignoring Ohio’s constitution, playing political games and stomping on the will of hard-working Ohioans by “flipping everyone the bird” in the redistricting process. Jason Williams uses his column to point out all the ways Ohio Republicans are betraying the voters they’re supposed to serve and taking our state backward in the process. And with two weeks to go until the final congressional deadline, the only thing we know for sure about these maps is that GOP politicians will continue only looking out for themselves and leave Ohioans’ interests behind.
SHADY SAM BACK IN HOT WATER. Despite DeWine being warned about Shady Sam Randazzo’s close ties to big energy, he appointed Sam to head PUCO anyway. Now, we know that appointment directly cost hard-working Ohioans. New documents surfaced last week showing this corrupt duo kept money out of your pockets. Text messages show Randazzo provided FirstEnergy a myriad of favors from inside the DeWine administration, including dropping a few key sentences into the 2019 state budget that saved FirstEnergy millions of dollars by preventing Ohioans from receiving refunds based on the major profits the company received. This certainly smells like statehouse corruption to us, but DeWine loves to defend his pal Randazzo by saying he “did a good job.”
GAG GIFS. Tis (nearly) the season for gag gift exchanges, and Jim Renacci is getting an early start with some gag GIFs and tweets for Ohio voters. Fundraising materials sent from the Renacci campaign by email and social media show just how seriously fellow Republicans are taking Mike DeWine and his leadership. Hint, they don’t.
The GIFs and tweets blame DeWine for COVID and the supply chain shortage by asking if you’ve “got milk?” and say he’s “Not a Leader, A Loser.” This messy primary is only set to get messier from here.
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!