Ohio Democrats

Donate

DeWine dodged debate with primary opponents earlier this year

DeWine Debate Watch: Day 12

Columbus, OH — As debate season starts to ramp up in the closing weeks and days of the election cycle, Mike DeWine has continued to duck committing to debates across Ohio with Mayor Nan Whaley, even as the Mayor has already publicly agreed and challenged DeWine to a number of debates. DeWine also dodged a debate with his primary opponents earlier this year, signaling that he is scared to defend his record to Ohioans, especially since he’s debated political opponents in the past. It’s ‘DeWine Debate Watch’ Day 12, reminding Ohioans that DeWine won’t even try to make his case to them as he seeks re-election to the highest statewide executive office. 

“Mike DeWine clearly knows his record over the last four years of selling out working families in favor of the wealthy and well-connected is not going to be popular with Ohio voters. If DeWine can’t even muster the political courage to tell Ohioans why they should re-elect him, he doesn’t deserve the job and should be held publicly accountable for his cowardice,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Ohioans deserve answers from DeWine on a number of key issues, including his promise to ‘go as far as we can’ to rip away reproductive rights, his broken promise to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence in Ohio, his connections to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and his role in the failed redistricting process that produced GOP-gerrymandered maps and cost Ohioans millions of dollars. 

Read more from the Cincinnati Enquirer here and below: 

Cincinnati Enquirer Opinion: Dan Sewell: Ohio Governor Might Sit Out Debates While Sitting On Poll Lead
Dan Sewell
September 7, 2022 

  • Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is sounding like a debate-dodger. The Republican incumbent hasn’t agreed so far to debating his Democratic challenger, former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley. He hasn’t ruled out formal debates, but he keeps talking about alternatives such as newspaper endorsement meetings.
  • Apparently, people should have taken the opportunity to ask the governor about Ohio infrastructure needs while he was eating a sauerkraut ball or admiring the 4-H Club members’ market lambs.
  • “I don’t think there’s been any governor that’s ever had more press conferences than me,” DeWine also said. That might be true, and DeWine has usually been accessible to the news media over the years.
  • But that’s not the point.
  • Debates are an opportunity for voters to compare and contrast candidates in real time; seeing how they answer each other’s challenges to their records, how quick they are thinking on their feet when hit with unexpected questions that go beyond their talking points, and how clear they are on their visions for the state.
  • And they can produce defining moments, such as the angry nose-to-nose confrontation this year between former state Treasurer Josh Mandel and businessman Mike Gibbons that made them look decidedly un-senatorial during a Republican primary debate for the Senate nomination.
  • So why is DeWine, who at 75 has been running in campaigns in Ohio since Whaley, now 46, was a baby, balking at debating? “If Mike DeWine is afraid to debate me and defend his record as governor, why is he even running for-election?” [Nan] Whaley asked in a Sept. 2 tweet.

###

DeWine Debate Watch: Day 11

Columbus, OH — As debate season starts to ramp up in the closing weeks and days of the election cycle, Mike DeWine has continued to duck committing to debates across Ohio with Mayor Nan Whaley, even as the Mayor has already publicly agreed and challenged DeWine to a number of debates. DeWine also dodged a debate with his primary opponents earlier this year, signaling that he is scared to defend his record to Ohioans, especially since he’s debated political opponents in the past. It’s ‘DeWine Debate Watch’ Day 11, reminding Ohioans that DeWine won’t even try to make his case to them as he seeks re-election to the highest statewide executive office. 

“Mike DeWine clearly knows his record over the last four years of selling out working families in favor of the wealthy and well-connected is not going to be popular with Ohio voters. If DeWine can’t even muster the political courage to tell Ohioans why they should re-elect him, he doesn’t deserve the job and should be held publicly accountable for his cowardice,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Ohioans deserve answers from DeWine on a number of key issues, including his promise to ‘go as far as we can’ to rip away reproductive rights, his broken promise to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence in Ohio, his connections to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and his role in the failed redistricting process that produced GOP-gerrymandered maps and cost Ohioans millions of dollars. 

Read more from WVXU-FM here and below: 

WVXU-FM: Commentary: Mike DeWine Appears To Be Running Out The Clock On Debating Nan Whaley 
Howard Wilkinson
September 7, 2022 

  • Why won’t Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine meet his opponent, former Dayton mayor Nan Whaley, in a good old-fashioned, face-to-face, debate?
  • Well, the answer is that, after 46 years running for every significant public office in Ohio, he is flat-out afraid. Knee-knocking scared to death.
  • Terrified of talking about issues that could motivate the Democratic opposition to vote in huge numbers or alienate his Republican base voters, many of whom already look at the governor with a jaundiced eye.
  • “There’s only one reason for Mike DeWine to refuse to debate his opponent,” said David B. Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron. “Fear. Just plain fear. That’s the only possible explanation.”
  • So what’s he scared of? Well, there are a number of subjects the governor would just as soon avoid talking about in this campaign, including:
    • Abortion, and the likelihood that if the Ohio General Assembly passes a bill banning abortion, without exceptions, that he would sign it into law, thus firing up the opposition once again.
    • His administration’s response to the COVID crisis of 2020. DeWine got high marks from some — mostly Democrats — but most of the Trump devotees in his party are still accusing him of trampling on individual rights.
    • Gun control, which became a big problem for DeWine after the August 2019 mass murder in Dayton’s Oregon District. The governor promised action on gun control but abandoned his own agenda at the first sign of opposition from the Republicans in the legislature. Instead, he ended up signing a number of bills that will do nothing but make guns more prevalent.
    • The governor’s links, as reported in the media, to First Energy and the House Bill 6 bribery scandal.
  • I hate to break the news to the DeWine campaign, but “newspaper endorsement screenings” are nothing like “de facto debates,” even if they feature both candidates sitting in a board room together and even if they are live-streamed so that voters can listen in.
  • Trust me on this. I sat in on more of these newspaper endorsement meetings than I care to remember in my 30 years at the Cincinnati Enquirer. They are not free-wheeling discussions of a broad range of issues important to the public; they tend to be limited to whatever parochial interests the newspaper editors have. And the interests of the editors rarely match the interests of voters at large.
  • DeWine, over his 46 years in Ohio politics, has blown hot and cold when it comes to debating opponents. He does it when he thinks it can benefit him; he refuses when he thinks it could hurt him.
  • “It would appear (DeWine) has no intention of debating,” Cohen said. “It’s really remarkable.”
  • “A sitting governor should be able to go in front of the people of his state and make his case,” Cohen said. “If he can’t do that, he should get into another business.”
  • Ohio voters deserve to hear from both DeWine and Whaley. If George Voinovich was still around, I have a feeling he would tell DeWine just that — suck it up and do it.

###

DeWine Debate Watch: Day 10

Columbus, OH — As debate season starts to ramp up in the closing weeks and days of the election cycle, Mike DeWine has continued to duck committing to debates across Ohio with Mayor Nan Whaley, even as the Mayor has already publicly agreed and challenged DeWine to a number of debates. DeWine also dodged a debate with his primary opponents earlier this year, signaling that he is scared to defend his record to Ohioans, especially since he’s debated political opponents in the past. It’s ‘DeWine Debate Watch’ Day 10, reminding Ohioans that DeWine won’t even try to make his case to them as he seeks re-election to the highest statewide executive office. 

“Mike DeWine clearly knows his record over the last four years of selling out working families in favor of the wealthy and well-connected is not going to be popular with Ohio voters. If DeWine can’t even muster the political courage to tell Ohioans why they should re-elect him, he doesn’t deserve the job and should be held publicly accountable for his cowardice,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Ohioans deserve answers from DeWine on a number of key issues, including his promise to ‘go as far as we can’ to rip away reproductive rights, his broken promise to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence in Ohio, his connections to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and his role in the failed redistricting process that produced GOP-gerrymandered maps and cost Ohioans millions of dollars. 

Read more from Ohio Capital Journal here and below: 

Ohio Capital Journal: Gov. Mike DeWine’s Shifting Record On Debating 
Nick Evans
September 6, 2022

  • In about two months Ohioans will decide on their next governor. But so far, Gov. Mike DeWine has refused to debate his Democratic challenger, former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.
  • In general, challengers are champing at the bit to get on the debate stage early and often. Incumbents meanwhile, tend to push for a limited debate schedule. DeWine has found himself on both sides of that argument.
  • Thanks to the archives of the Columbus Dispatch, it’s possible to track much of DeWine’s record.
  • Looking at DeWine’s overall record, he’s eagerly sought the debate stage and stubbornly avoided it whenever it has suited him. Sometimes he’s won and sometimes he’s lost, but it doesn’t appear he has paid a political price yet for ducking a debate.
  • If he holds out and refuses to debate Democratic nominee Nan Whaley, it won’t be unheard of, but DeWine will certainly be an outlier.

###

DeWine Debate Watch: Day 9

Columbus, OH — As debate season starts to ramp up in the closing weeks and days of the election cycle, Mike DeWine has continued to duck committing to debates across Ohio with Mayor Nan Whaley, even as the Mayor has already publicly agreed and challenged DeWine to a number of debates. DeWine also dodged a debate with his primary opponents earlier this year, signaling that he is scared to defend his record to Ohioans, especially since he’s debated political opponents in the past. It’s ‘DeWine Debate Watch’ Day 9, reminding Ohioans that DeWine won’t even try to make his case to them as he seeks re-election to the highest statewide executive office. 

“Mike DeWine clearly knows his record over the last four years of selling out working families in favor of the wealthy and well-connected is not going to be popular with Ohio voters. If DeWine can’t even muster the political courage to tell Ohioans why they should re-elect him, he doesn’t deserve the job and should be held publicly accountable for his cowardice,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Ohioans deserve answers from DeWine on a number of key issues, including his promise to ‘go as far as we can’ to rip away reproductive rights, his broken promise to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence in Ohio, his connections to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and his role in the failed redistricting process that produced GOP-gerrymandered maps and cost Ohioans millions of dollars. 

Read more from the Toledo Blade Editorial Board here and below: 

Toledo Blade Editorial: DeWine’s Debate Decision Will Be Telling 
Editorial Board  
September 5, 2022 

  • Labor Day is the traditional starting point for the all-out political campaigning for the fall general election. But some of the standard campaign activities can’t be taken for granted anymore.
  • The polls apparently tell Mr. DeWine he has more to lose than gain from engaging in the political combat of debate. We understand why he would like to skip adversarial questions about the First Energy scandal; PUCO appointments; abortion law, and gun carry laws.
  • The governor’s claim that joint interactions at newspaper editorial boards, which can be streamed for internet viewing, serve the same function as a televised debate is ridiculous. Even more outlandish is the contention that interaction with voters at county fairs and political stops is somehow equivalent to the give and take with an opponent.
  • But if the governor is reelected behind a wave of money — much of which is generated from interests with business before Ohio—his moral authority will be non-existent.
  • Gov. DeWine’s debate decision will tell us if he wants to lead Ohio or simply win a second term.

###

DeWine Debate Watch: Day 5

Columbus, OH — As debate season starts to ramp up in the closing weeks and days of the election cycle, Mike DeWine has continued to duck committing to debates across Ohio with Mayor Nan Whaley, even as the Mayor has already publicly agreed and challenged DeWine to a number of debates. DeWine also dodged a debate with his primary opponents earlier this year, signaling that he is scared to defend his record to Ohioans, especially since he’s debated political opponents in the past. It’s ‘DeWine Debate Watch’ Day 5, reminding Ohioans that DeWine won’t even try to make his case to them as he seeks re-election to the highest statewide executive office. 

“Mike DeWine clearly knows his record over the last four years of selling out working families in favor of the wealthy and well-connected is not going to be popular with Ohio voters. If DeWine can’t even muster the political courage to tell Ohioans why they should re-elect him, he doesn’t deserve the job and should be held publicly accountable for his cowardice,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Ohioans deserve answers from DeWine on a number of key issues, including his promise to ‘go as far as we can’ to rip away reproductive rights, his broken promise to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence in Ohio, his connections to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and his role in the failed redistricting process that produced GOP-gerrymandered maps and cost Ohioans millions of dollars. 

Read more from Cleveland.com here and below: 

Cleveland.com: Once obligatory, debates continue to fade from Ohio political landscape
Andrew Tobias
September 1, 2022 

  • When Republican then-Gov. John Kasich declined to debate his Democratic opponent in the 2014 election, he was the first incumbent Ohio governor to do so for nearly 40 years.
  • But if current Republican Gov. Mike DeWine also ends up not participating in a debate for this year’s election – something that seems more likely than not, given the tellingly noncommittal stock answer he gives when he’s asked about the subject – it officially will become a trend.
  • With a little more than two months to go until the Nov. 8 election, DeWine hasn’t officially said “no” to a debate. But he’s set no firm commitment, either, to debating his Democratic challenger, ex-Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley. When he’s asked, he said he’s thinking about it.
  • But DeWine has telegraphed his plans to not agree to a debate, in part by taking the position that some of his existing commitments, like plans to attend an upcoming endorsement interview with the editorial board for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer are themselves de facto debates.
  • DeWine also has a recent history of dodging debates with Republican primary opponents, including in his 2018 race against then-Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and earlier this year, when he defeated ex-congressman Jim Renacci and Columbus-area farmer Joe Blystone.
  • The process of debating is a longstanding tradition in politics. Supporters of the institution say it offers voters a chance to see candidates in a more spontaneous setting, showing how they’re able to think on their feet while getting them somewhat off their tightly scripted campaign messaging.
  • They also can produce moments that change the dynamics of a race. For example, a March debate among the candidates seeking the U.S. Senate nomination, a vulgar, near-physical altercation between two candidates, Mike Gibbons and Josh Mandel, is in retrospect appears to have been a turning point in the race, contributing to Gibbons falling in the polls and Trump endorsing Vance.
  • “I think debates present an opportunity for those who are interested to hear the two candidates answer questions that they have not been exposed to before,” Ted Strickland, a former Democratic Ohio governor, said in an interview on Tuesday. “They may come up with a canned answer, but it’s healthy for debates to be conducted and healthy in terms of our democracy. Because so many campaigns consist of pre-planned news releases or TV or radio or Internet ads.”
  • Strickland said DeWine, who he talks to occasionally, should agree to debate Whaley for the good of voters. “The governor may be thinking, ‘Why should I debate her? Because I’ve got all these built-in advantages.’ And that may be the decision he makes politically. But is that the right decision for the citizens of Ohio who are trying to make up their minds about two candidates? I don’t know,” Strickland said.
  • In the aftermath of Kasich’s 2014 decision to not debate FitzGerald, a group of civic organizations and legacy media outlets in 2018 formed the Ohio Debate Commission.
  • The organization has hosted multiple debates, including in the 2018 governor’s race between DeWine and Democrat Rich Cordray. The debate commission also held events earlier this year for the Republican and Democratic primary elections for governor, and the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
  • But when, earlier this week, the debate commission announced its events for this year’s governor, U.S. Senate and Ohio Supreme Court chief justice races, only Democrats had agreed to participate.

###