Labor Showdown in Ohio

LABOR
How Progressives Won the Labor Rights Showdown in Ohio (By Amy B. Dean, United Steelworkers) “In Wisconsin the only means available to us [for opposing Gov. Scott Walker] were partisan elections,” Booth said. “In recall elections, you have to overcome the bias against recalling sitting officials. And because of the constitutional framework in Wisconsin, we could only run recalls in districts that had been won by the Republicans in 2008, not the swing districts they seized in 2010. So it was a heavier lift. In Wisconsin, a very high percentage of the people who voted for Walker voted against the recall of their state senators.” Ohio, Booth noted, presented a different situation: “Doing a ballot measure is a non-partisan exercise. So 30 percent of the people who voted for Kasich in 2010 voted ‘no’ on the referendum. While we split the independent voters in the Wisconsin recall elections, we got a solid majority of them against Senate Bill 5 [in Ohio].”

The Partisan Prism: Ohio Voters' Defeat of SB5

2012
Following SB5 vote, GOP and Dems begin decoding Ohio voters ahead of 2012 (By David S. Lewis, The American Independent) But the Governor was elected in 2010, when Democrats were purged nationwide, the result of a massive effort by the Republican Party to place blame on the Obama administration and cast every Democrat as guilty by association.  Even so, Kasich was only elected by a 2-percent margin, or roughly 77,000 votes, over incumbent Ted Strickland, who was elected by nearly 50 percent more votes than his Republican challenger J. Kenneth Blackwell in 2006.

Threat to Collective Bargaining Right Rejected by Ohio Voters

OHIO ELECTION RESULTS

• Ohio repeals law restricting unions; Miss. blocks ‘personhood’ amendment (By Aaron Blake and Rachel Weiner, Washington Post) Ohioans voted Tuesday to repeal a Republican-backed law that restricted collective bargaining for public workers, while Mississippi voters blocked an amendment that would have defined a fertilized egg as a person.
• Ohio Voters Reject Law Limiting Public Unions (By Caitlin Huey-Burns, Real Clear Politics) Ohio voters on Tuesday gave Democrats and President Obama a welcome shot of the arm in the key battleground state by rejecting Republican Gov. John Kasich's signature achievement: a law that curbs collective bargaining rights for public employees. Voters resoundingly defeated the measure, 63 percent to 37 percent.
• Ohio voters reject Republican-backed union limits (AP - CBS News) The state's new collective bargaining law was defeated Tuesday after an expensive union-backed campaign that pitted firefighters, police officers and teachers against the Republican establishment. In a political blow to GOP Gov. John Kasich, voters handily rejected the law, which would have limited the bargaining abilities of 350,000 unionized public workers. With nearly 95 percent of the votes counted late Tuesday, about 61 percent were to reject the law.
• Elections may signal a pause in conservative trend (By Paul West, Washington Bureau, LA Times) AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, in Columbus, Ohio, to cheer a badly needed victory for organized labor and its Democratic allies, called the results a defeat for "those who spend their time scapegoating workers and pushing a partisan agenda."

Voters should be given the option to vote on whether Newark OH should eliminate political labels

NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS
Election is important to Newark, Ohio (Written by Marc Guthrie, Newark OH Advocate) A few words about nonpartisan local elections: Well more than 50 percent of Newark voters are registered "independents." The majority of Ohio's charter communities have eliminated partisan labels from local elections. Voters should be given the option to vote on whether Newark should eliminate political labels. Council doesn't need a majority leader and a minority leader because Ohio's sunshine law prohibits political caucusing about legislation, outside of public view. Newark needs eleven council members who are committed to serve citizens, without regard to partisanship or personalities.