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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2010 > September > 13
Monday, September 13, 2010
Bennett and Wilhelm to work at University of Akron
The University of Akron’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics is adding two heavy hitters to its line up: former Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett and former Clinton campaign manager David Wilhelm.
Bennett will be a visiting lecturer in the fall 2010 semester and Wilhelm will do so in winter 2011. Bennett and Wilhelm will give lectures, hold small group meetings, consult faculty and attend public events.
They will be compensated $50,000 each, using Bliss Institute endowment funds, said Bliss Institute Director John Green. Each will be on campus at least six full days per semester, he said.
“We will actually be getting a lot more contact hours than we’ve had with guest speakers on campus,” Green said. He noted that Colin Powell was recently paid $120,000 as a guest speaker at the university.
Republican John Kasich was paid $50,000 a year as a presidential fellow at Ohio State University for seven years and his long-time staffer was paid $20,000 as a campus aide. Gov. Ted Strickland has been highly critical of the arrangement.
Watch the debate with fellow fans
Montgomery County Republicans and Democrats will hold “watch parties” for Tuesday’s debate between Gov. Ted Strickland, and former U.S. Rep. John Kasich.
Strickland supporters will meet in the community room of Park Layne Apartments, 531 Belmonte Park North, Dayton. That even begins with a 5:30 p.m., when volunteers will call people and urge them to vote on Nov 2.
A second watch party begins at 5 p.m.at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall, 6550 Poe Ave., Dayton.
Kasich supporters will meet at 8 p.m. at the Montgomery County Republican Party headquarters, 8534 Yankee Rd., Washington Twp.
The one-hour debate is at 8 p.m. at Columbus Center of Science and Industry will be broadcast live on WHIO-TV Channel 7 and the Ohio News Network. It is sponsored by the Dayton Daily News and other members of the Ohio Newspaper Organization.
A second debate will be held Oct. 7.
Dems to file IRS complaint over Kasich group
The Ohio Democratic Party will file a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service alleging that New Century Project Issues Forum, a non-profit policy group established by Republican John Kasich in 2005, did not deserve tax exempt status.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said there is little evidence to support the claim that New Century Project Issues Forum was a social welfare organization and that it qualified for tax exempt status.
Shortly before Kasich left Congress, he established the New Century Project PAC and the New Century Project 527 group. Those political operations, however, evolved into the issues forum, which advocated for lower taxes, school choice and other conservative political ideas.
The three entities employed Don Thibaut, Ben Kanzeg and Tod Bowen, who had worked for Kasich for years and who are now working to get Kasich elected Ohio governor. Funding came from Kasich’s wealthy political supporters from across the nation.
“This is fundamentally an issue of honesty,” Redfern said. “If Congressman Kasich created these political slush funds that skirted the law for years to keep his political ambitions alive, how can we trust him to run Ohio’s government legally and ethically?”
The Kasich campaign spokesman Rob Nichols responded, “Ohio Citizen Action looked at this nearly a year ago and agreed there was nothing to these attacks. This is just more of what we’ve seen for almost a year from Ted Strickland. He can’t say anything good about himself so his only option is to try to smear and attack John Kasich. What we need are solid ideas to begin creating jobs and that’s what John Kasich continues to offer.”
Montgomery County sends absentee applications
Absentee ballot applications were mailed to all Montgomery County active, registered voters today, Sept. 13.
The applications were sent along with notification to voters of where they should vote. This is the first General Election since the board completed the largest ever consolidation of polling places, a money-saving move approved last year.
Early voting begins Sept. 28. Ballot applications will be accepted until noon, October 30. Ballots may be dropped off at the board office until 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 2. Mailed ballots from inside the U.S. must be postmarked no later than Nov. 1 and those mailed from overseas must be postmarked by Nov. 2. Both must be received within 10 days after the election.
For more information call the board at 225-5656 or visit www.mcohio.org/boe.
Fisher, Portman clash on trade, job losses during Dayton session
Democrat Lee Fisher and Republican Rob Portman clashed on issues including trade, Ohio’s job losses and the new federal health care plan as they brought their campaign for the U.S. Senate to a meeting of the Dayton Daily News editorial board.
Disagreement on trade policies sparked several heated exchanges in a session that lasted more than an hour and a half on Monday, Sept. 13. Fisher is Ohio’s lieutenant governor. Portman is a former Cincinnati-area U.S. House member who served as budget director and U.S. trade representative for President George W. Bush.
Portman cast Fisher, Ohio’s lieutenant governor, as a protectionist who embraced policies that are “going to kill jobs.”
Fisher said trade must be “fair and balanced.”
He said that “my attitude is that every single trade agreement ought to be renegotiated.”
Asked about that statement, he amended it to say each agreement “should be reassessed …and then determined whether or not it should be renegotiated.”
Portman countered that trade agreements are constantly being reassessed.
Fisher lashed out at claims from Portman and Republicans that Fisher and Gov. Ted Strickland are responsible for the 382,000 Ohio jobs has lost since they took office in 2007.
“That is not only nonsense, it’s offensive,” said Fisher. The job losses are due to a national and global recession and Strickland-Fisher policies have worked to retain and create jobs, he said.
Portman said that under the Strickland-Fisher administration, Ohio has “fallen behind” and cited NCR’s 2009 decision to move its headquarters from Dayton to Georgia. Fisher said intense bipartisan efforts to keep NCR involving him and state Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, didn’t’ succeed.
Fisher said he supported the health care overhaul signed into law by President Barack Obama, but added there was room for improvement. Portman called the health care overhaul “a huge missed opportunity” and said major changes are needed.
They also clashed on the $787 billion federal stimulus plan. Portman said it’s been ineffective while Fisher said it has been “absolutely indispensable” in limiting damage from the economic downturn in Ohio.
They are running to replace Republican U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, who is retiring.
