Former state Rep. Robert E. Netzley, a Laura Republican who served 40 years in the Ohio House, died on Wednesday, July 28.
Netzley served longer in the House than anyone in state history.
Former State Rep. Robert E. Netzley
Ohio House Minority Leader William Batchelder, R-Medina, issued a tribute to his long-time colleague:
“Ohio lost one of its greatest legislators in the history of the state when Bob Netzley of Miami County passed away last evening. Having served longer than any other member of the General Assembly (40 years), Bob Netzley served with unparalleled courage, total dedication to the philosophy of conservatism and an unbending adherence to the principals upon which this republic was founded.
“He was, in all of his service, one who could have joined the founders of this nation in courage integrity and adherence to principle. We shall not see his like again.”
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Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher - both on the ballot on Nov. 2 - will join forces in their official capacities on Friday, July 30 to announce “economic development awards aimed at spurring job creation.”
Strickland will do his announcing at 2 p.m. at the University of Dayton Research Institute, said a press release on Thursday.
At the same time, Fisher will be at the Dunham Tavern Museum in Cleveland, Fisher’s home base.
Other Strickland administration officials will make announcements at four other sites across the state in Circleville, Canton, Marietta and Struthers.
Jobs is a top issue in both Strickland’s re-election campaign against Republican John Kasich, the former Columbus-area U.S. House member, and in Fisher’s U.S. Senate race against Republican Rob Portman, the former Cincinnati-area U.S. House member and trade representative and budget director for President George W. Bush.
Kasich and Portman have blamed Strickland and Fisher for the 379,700 jobs the state has lost since the Democrats took office in 2007.
Strickland and Fisher, meanwhile, blame Bush and Republicans who controlled Congress for the state’s slide and say they have put in place policies to reverse the trend.
WASHINGTON - U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, has launched a new fund-raising effort as part of his campaign to win control of the House in November and become the first speaker of the House from Ohio since Nicholas Longworth in 1931. It’s called the “Boehner for Speaker” committee.
Want to join? According to Politico.com, a newspaper and web site in Washington, all it takes is a measly $100,000. You can either contribute to the committee or agree to raise it yourself. In return, Politico says donors will get meetings from Boehner and “VIP access to all events, including roundtables, briefings, breakout discussions and interactive panel discussions.”
And if you don’t have $100,000? Well, apparently, tough luck. You get to watch Boehner on TV or read about him in the newspapers.
Strickland earlier was endorsed by the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police.
“The O.P.B.A. endorses Gov. Strickland based on his strong record on law enforcement and public safety issues, and his continued support for the collective bargaining rights of public employees,” Terry Gallagher, executive director of the association, said in a press release on Thursday, July 29.
Strickland is running against Republican John Kasich, a former Columbus-area U.S. House member.
The O.P.B.A. represents police departments and law enforcement agencies throughout the state, including departments in many suburban communities.
The Ohio Republican Party this week charged that Democrat Ted Strickland took $1.5 million in campaign contributions from the financial industry while slamming his opponent John Kasich and Wall Street values.
Buried on the 23-pages of contributions that GOP counted was $100 from Patricia Diven of Centerville who listed her occupation as ‘finance director.’
But Diven said she is no Wall Street insider. She said she works three days a week for a small non-profit agency with an annual budget of less than $500,000. She admitted that she did once visit Wall Street in the 1970s.
News that she had made the list gave her a chuckle.
“My husband was very amused. He wanted to know where I’m hiding my Wall Street money,” Diven said. “We had a great laugh out of this one.”
The ad: “Jobs 2,” a 30-second TV commercial aired by Senate Republican candidate Rob Portman
Producer: Stevens & Schriefer Group
Video: The commercial offers a blend of grainy black-and-white photos of Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, the Senate Democratic candidate, blended with printed words, such as “Fisher says hold him accountable for his job record,” and “nearly 400,000 jobs lost” in Ohio since 2007, with arrows superimposed over a map of the United States to show the jobs leaving Ohio. Then the viewer sees the words, “Had enough?” followed by attractive color photos of Portman and his jobs plan for Ohio.
Two county Republican parties have filed a complaint against Democratic incumbent Richard Cordray with the Ohio Elections Commission, challenging how Cordray shuffled campaign money.
The story described how Cordray’s campaign gave away $765,000 from his campaign account to the Ohio Democratic Party and two county Democratic parties in February and then received contributions back from those parties in April.
State law prohibits statewide candidates from carrying over too much cash from a previous election cycle, Bischoff reported. After Cordray beat Republican Mike Crites in a special election in November 2008, he has $1.1 million left in his campaign account, she reported.
Rather than refund the money or donate it to the state or a charity, Cordray sent the cash to his political allies before the deadline for the state’s “excess funds law,” her story said.
“The public will see that Cordray’s campaign was wiring money to Democratic leaders at the last minute in an attempt to hold on to $765,000 of illegal money,” Alex Arshinkoff, Summit County GOP chairman, said in a press release.
Adam Herman, Cordray’s campaign spokesman, said in an e-mail that “this is a bogus complaint that is completely without merit.”
The complaint also questioned Cordray’s minimal expenditures on his campaign, noting that the salary for his chief fundraiser doesn’t appear on campaign. Herman said the fundraiser works for the Ohio Democratic Party and provides services for several campaigns.
Cordray is running for re-election against former Republican U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine of Cedarville.
Ohio Democrats and a major public employees’ union on Wednesday, July 28, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging restrictions that bar judicial candidates in general elections from disclosing their party identifications and soliciting funds.
“There is no reason for judicial candidates to be forced to withhold their party affiliation from the electorate,” Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said in a press release. “Ohio voters have a right to know the political party that a judicial candidate is affiliated with. The more information voters have, the better.”
The Ohio Democratic Party, Ohio Council 8 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and three judicial candidates filed the lawsuit in U.S.
Rules barring judicial candidates from disclosing their party affiliations and soliciting funds were recently overturned with regard to Kentucky judicial candidates by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, the press release said.
In Ohio, judicial candidates are nominated in partisan primaries but appear on general election ballots without party identification.
WASHINGTON - In an unusual attack by a sitting senator, Sen. Sherrod Brown Wednesday, July 28, assailed Senate Republican nominee Rob Portman, charging that there is “no candidate running anywhere in the country’’ more responsible than Portman for the current sluggish U.S. economy.
In a conference call with Ohio reporters, Brown, D-Ohio, complained that Portman was an ardent supporter of President George W. Bush’s economic policies throughout the decade, first as a Republican congressman from Cincinnati and then as U.S. trade representative and White House budget director in the Bush administration.
Brown expressed surprise that Portman “of all people,’’ would “blame anybody else’’ for the steep job loss in Ohio since 2007 “when he was the architect of Bush’s economic policies. He had the car keys when he was driving the car into the ditch. Now he wants the voters of Ohio to give him the keys back. I don’t get it.’’
Brown is a major backer of Senate Democratic candidate Lee Fisher, the state’s lieutenant governor. Last night, Portman unveiled a new TV commercial against Fisher, charging that Ohio lost nearly 400,000 jobs since Fisher and Gov. Ted Strickland took office in 2007.
While it is true that non-farm payrolls in Ohio have fallen by 379,900 since December of 2006, the state has lost 568,300 jobs since January of 2000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bush was president from 2001 through early 2009.
Sitting U.S. senators who are not up for re-election tend to avoid attacking other Senate candidates. The most striking exception was in 2004 when then-Senate Republican Bill Frist of Tennessee campaigned against Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
Asked about the Portman commercial during a conference call on clean energy, Brown said he had not seen it. But he asserted “there is no candidate running anywhere in the country more aligned and more responsible for the Bush economic policy that got us here. It was bad trade policy … they gave companies incentives to go overseas and tax cuts for the richest Americans that blew a hole in the government.’’
The Wright brothers, the aviation pioneers from Dayton, fell slightly further behind inventor and first-place finisher Thomas Edison in the final, official count of the popular vote for a new statute to represent Ohio in Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.
The final vote showed Edison with 14,833 votes, 1,018 more than the 13,815 cast for Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Ohio Historical Society said on Wednesday, July 28.
Former U.S. Rep. William M. McCulloch, a Piqua Republican who championed civil rights, finished fourth with 3,851 votes. In third place was Jesse Owens, the Olympic gold medal winner, who had 5,032 votes.
The final count resulted from a review conducted by Rea & Associates, an Ohio-based certified public accounting firm.
The historical society’s final count before the review showed Edison, with 14,261 votes, 898 more than the 13,363 for the Wright brothers.
The National Statuary Collection Committee is expected to meet by the end of the summer to decide on a recommendation to the full legislature, said Kristen Strobel, spokeswoman for Sen. Mark Wagoner, R-Ottawa Hills, the committee chairman.
Wagoner has said the committee will give the public vote great weight when making its recommendation.
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