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Columbus
Dispatch...
Opponents of SB 5
fill Kasich’s email inbox
By Joe Vardon and Darrel Rowland
Sunday, April 3, 2011
To relay her disgust over Senate Bill 5 to Ohio Gov. John Kasich,
Bexley teacher Deborah Forsblom asked him in an email, “Are we living
in the year 1930 or 2011?”
“When I read the proposal for Senate Bill 5, I could just hear Woody
Guthrie singing to help laborers have the courage to stand up for their
right to have a union,” she added.
David Gannon, who lives near Canton, emailed the governor to say, “Your
misreading of the will of the people of Ohio in your election is
difficult to comprehend. You were elected to help create jobs and to
reduce the financial deficit. You were not elected to eliminate unions,
destroy public education, and sell off the assets of the state of Ohio
to private businesses.”
Jeremy Frilling of St. Marys typed an entirely different email to
Kasich.
“Please don’t back down to these union thugs. I support what you are
doing,” Frilling said.
During nearly two months of drama between Republican state Sen. Shannon
Jones’ introduction of Senate Bill 5 - which limits
collective-bargaining rights for Ohio’s 360,000 public employees - and
Kasich’s signing the bill Thursday, the governor received thousands of
emails voicing strong opinions on the bill.
The breakdown: 16 percent in favor, 84 percent against, according to a
Dispatch analysis of more than 14,000 emails obtained through a
public-records request. Hundreds of the emails either did not state a
clear opinion on the measure, had nothing to do with collective
bargaining, or were duplicates.
More than half the 11,716 counted emails represented some form of a
standardized message suggested by the Ohio Education Association. In
all, nearly two-thirds came from writers who identified themselves as a
public employee or a close relative - virtually all of whom opposed the
measure.
However, even without the self-identified public workers, the Senate
bill was still opposed by 57 percent of those who emailed Kasich.
And dozens of those who backed the anti-union law are from out of
state, with several remarking that they had seen Kasich on Fox News.
A Quinnipiac Poll released March 23 showed a majority of Ohioans
opposed to virtually all provisions of the controversial measure. A
handful of Republicans joined a solid bloc of Democrats to vote against
the bill in the legislature; GOP Senate leaders had to replace two
members of a committee just to advance the proposal.
If the depth of sentiment expressed in the emails is any indication,
those organizing a petition drive to hold a referendum on the issue in
November shouldn’t have trouble gathering the approximately 230,000
signatures needed.
Teachers blasted Kasich for his support of a bill that removes their
tenure protection, eliminates health care from collective bargaining,
and institutes a merit-based pay system.
Scores of self-identified Republican teachers, police officers and
firefighters who said they voted for Kasich in November threatened or
promised not to vote for him again.
But there were also numerous Kasich supporters, from across Ohio and
out of state, who identified themselves as the “silent majority.” They
applauded Kasich for his stance on the bill and compared him to
Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who moved to limit
collective bargaining in his state.
Kasich press secretary Rob Nichols indicated that the governor’s emails
show that Kasich is prepared to govern by his own convictions and does
not stand alone in his beliefs.
“You cannot begin to base policy decisions or decide what’s right for
the state solely by chalking up letters on one side or the other of an
issue,” Nichols said.
He said the emails are read by a public liaison in Kasich’s office. The
liaison tries to respond to each email, Nichols said, and the governor
“has a very good understanding of what we are hearing.”
A few emails sent to Kasich were laced with profanity. Many chided him
for giving his top staff members six-figure salaries - more than his
predecessor paid in most cases - while seeking savings from lower-level
workers. Some scolded the governor for referring to a police officer
who had given him a traffic ticket two years earlier as “an idiot”
during a public appearance in January.
Last week, Kasich said there were some who support Senate Bill 5, and
the number will grow as more people understand what’s in it. He also
acknowledged many Ohioans’ dissatisfaction with him and parts of his
agenda.
“I really think that people want change, but they’re not sure what it
should look like,” Kasich said. “When the headlines every day are about
change, it unsettles people. But I said that from the beginning, that
this was going to be a time of big change, and that there would be
people who wouldn’t like it.
“I have to tell you, I’m extremely calm. I’m in a good mood. I stand
strong, and we are doing the right thing.”
Dispatch reporters Alan Johnson, Catherine Candisky and Jill Riepenhoff
contributed to this story.
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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