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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Time names Gee one of top 10 university presidents
In an issue due out Friday, Nov. 13, Time magazine paints Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee as a tireless fund-raiser, a cunning political operator, and a man pushing for dramatic change in higher education.
Gee tops Time’s list of 10 Best College Presidents. The magazine names the bow-tie wearing Gee as the “big man on campus” while the others on the list are “nine presidents to watch.”
Among the nine to watch is University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman. Absent from the list are any Ivy Leaguers.
Gee, 65, oversees an enterprise with a $4.4 billion annual budget, 39,987 employees, and 63,217 students. He is paid $802,125 a year as a base salary and this year Gee elected to donate his $220,584 bonus and raise to student scholarships.
Gee led OSU between Sept. 1990 and Jan. 1998 and returned to the president’s job in 2007.
To read the Time article on Gee, click here.
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Garrison pushes petition reforms
Democrat Jennifer Garrison, who is running for Secretary of State next year, plans to introduce legislation that aims to clean up the petition circulating process in Ohio that has been marred in recent years by fraud, dead voters, and lying workers.
Garrison, a state representative from Marietta, wants petition firms to be licensed by the Secretary of State, circulators to be registered with the state, and training to be offered to anyone who is circulating ballot petitions.
Earlier this year, the signatures of 23 dead people showed up on petitions in Montgomery County; in 2008, workers circulating pay day lending petitions inaccurately told voters the issue would lower loan rates; and in 2007, there was misconduct among circulators of a strip club referendum.
“Ohio must beef up its laws to protect direct democracy,” Garrison said. “And if it does not, our system will continue to be hijacked by well-financed special interests that subvert the process through illegal or misleading activity.”
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Poll: Ohio voters back U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, including more troops
Ohio voters believe the United States is doing the right thing in Afghanistan and support the recommendation from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander, to send 40,000 more U.S. troops, according to a poll released on Thursday, Nov. 12.
The Quinnipiac University Poll found that voters support U.S. involvement, 48-43 percent. By a 51-40 percent margin, they support sending the additional troops, the poll found.
However, 55 percent said that they’d be willing to commit U.S. troops for two years or a shorter time period.
That limited support “is hardly a mandate for the type of long-term commitment that the Pentagon has said will be needed for victory,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a press release.
The poll was taken from Thursday, Nov.5 to Monday, Nov.9 with 1,123 Ohio voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
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Obama, other Dems slide in new poll
For the first time, more Ohio voters disapproved of Democratic President Barack Obama’s performance in the White House than approved, according to a poll released on Thursday, Nov. 12.
The Quinnipiac University Poll also found that for the first time Republican Rob Portman of suburban Cincinnati is moving ahead of the two Democratic candidates in Ohio’s 2010 U.S. Senate race.
In earlier polls, the Democrats led Portman.
The poll found that 50 percent of the voters disapproved of Obama’s performance while 45 percent approved, down from a September poll when 53 percent approved and 42 percent disapproved.
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In the Senate race, Portman, a former U.S. House member and trade representative and budget director for President George W. Bush, led Democrat Jennifer Brunner, the secretary of state, 38-34 percent and Democrat Lee Fisher, the lieutenant governor, 39-36 percent.
Among Democrats, Fisher led Brunner, 24-22 percent, with 51 percent undecided.
For the Republican nomination, Portman led Tom Ganley, the Cleveland-area car dealer, 26-7 percent, with 64 percent undecided.
Obama’s slippage should catch the White House’s attention, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
“Ohio is still the most important swing state in the country,” said Brown. “The fact that the president is under water in Ohio is a sign for the White House that something is going on.”
The slip in the president’s overall approval rating was just one of the negative signs for Obama, who carried Ohio in 2008.
Others included:
*For the first time, voters split 40-40 on who is doing he better job handling health care — Obama or congressional Republicans.
*Voters disapproved Of Obama’s handling of health care, 57-36 percent.
*Voters disapproved of the president’s handling of the economy, 53-42 percent.
Brown cautioned that it’s too early to read too much into the Senate race results.
“Nobody knows who they are,” Brown said. “Nobody knows who any of the four candidates are.”
The Thursday poll results followed a Wednesday poll that showed likely Republican challenger John Kasich tied 40-40 percent with incumbent Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland.
The fates of all the Democrats are tied to Obama’s, said Brown.
“Politics is a team game. The players on the team are affected by the captain..In this case it’s captain Obama,” Brown said.
Republicans still have their own problems, he said.
“The Republicans don’t have a captain,” he said. “Nationally, the Republican brand is still in bad shape.”
The poll was taken from Thursday, Nov. 5 to Monday, Nov. 9 with 1,123 voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
