Talking
Points...
The
Next Labor Vs. GOP Fight: Ohio
By Eric Kleefeld
August 12, 2011, 6:00AM
Following
Democrats’ and organized
labor’s near-miss in the Wisconsin state Senate recalls, in which they
fell
just short of picking up the magic number of seats that would have
flipped
control of the chamber, the political world will now turn to a new
battle:
Ohio.
The
Wisconsin fight was triggered due
to newly-elected Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union
legislation,
which eliminated most collective bargaining rights that unions had
previously
enjoyed for decades.
Over
in Ohio, where Gov. John Kasich
passed similar legislation, labor and other liberal groups have pursued
a
different tack under that state’s election procedures: Triggering a
referendum
for this November, in which voters will be able to strike down the
legislation
directly, and which has in fact placed the very law itself on hold
pending
their decision.
Melissa
Fazekas, spokeswoman for the
group heading up the referendum campaign, We Are Ohio (similarly named
to We
Are Wisconsin, the labor-backed campaign group in that state), told TPM
that
the two states’ contests were not the same.
“It’s
really difficult to compare the
two, just because Wisconsin was focused on specific senators, and the
recalls
in specific districts,” said Fazekas. “And in Ohio, our referendum is
on the
entire bill, and it’s a statewide referendum.
In
an e-mail to the state GOP’s
supporter list, chairman Kevin DeWine boasted of the success that their
Wisconsin co-partisans achieved in turning back the Dems.
“Taxpayers
and American job creators
won a victory over politically partisan union bosses and Obama
Democrats in
Wisconsin Tuesday night,” DeWine wrote. “Wisconsin voters reaffirmed
their
support of Republican leadership in their state and rejected the
job-crushing
spending habits of liberal Democrats. Here in Ohio we’re witnessing the
same
thing as our reform agenda continues to gain support and momentum.”
The
state GOP did not return TPM’s requests
for comment.
Organizers
turned in nearly 1.3
million signatures this past spring, which was several times more than
the
relatively small required minimum.
Normally,
triggering a repeal
referendum required organizers to collect signatures equal to just six
percent
of the total votes in the last gubernatorial election, with additional
requirements that they be sufficiently spread out with at least three
percent
of the gubernatorial vote across at least half the counties in the
state. That
meant the threshold was only 231,150 signatures -- but organizers fired
their
opening political salvo by collecting far more than that, thus creating
a
greater base for the actual campaign.
Last
week, the state Ballot Board
officially decided on the wording of the referendum, with the question
corresponding to passage of the legislation itself -- a “Yes” vote will
be to
uphold the bill, while a “No” vote will be to repeal it.
As
the Associated Press reported, this
wording provides an advantage to the anti-Kasich forces:
It echoes years of Ohio ballot tradition, but
also counts as a victory
for the law’s opponents. Voters against or confused by an issue tend to
vote
against it.
Proponents of the law signed by Gov. John
Kasich in late March wanted a
“yes” to favor repeal of the controversial Senate Bill 5 and a “no”
vote to
oppose repeal. They argued the committee fighting the law has spent
more than
$4 million making clear it is a repeal question.
Read
it at Talking Points
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