Once again, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) and the Republican majority on the Ohio Ballot Board have approved language for Issue 1 that is misleading to voters about the nature of the amendment, making it look like a change to promote gerrymandering when it’s actually a proposal to outlaw unfair practices in drawing up boundaries for political districts. CNP, the group responsible for the proposed amendment, and the ACLU agree the language is misleading and have filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court, asking the court to order LaRose to correct the ballot language. The lawsuit describes LaRose’s current version as being “biased, inaccurate, deceptive and unconstitutional.” A decision from the court could come early next week.

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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) prepares to purge more than 150,000 Ohio voters who could potentially not be eligible to vote in the upcoming Presidential election in November 2024. LaRose recently published a list of 158,857 inactive voter registrations who are eligible to be removed from the Statewide Voter Registration Database — meaning they would be purged from voter rolls. Despite the November presidential election just around the corner, LaRose is, once again, eliminating thousands of Ohioans registered to vote. Thousands of voters were erroneously removed during the 2019 purge. In addition, LaRose’s continual allegations of noncitizens violating Ohio’s election laws – he alleged 520 noncitizen voter fraud with only one being legit – have proven LaRose is more interested in playing to the Republican base than increasing voter participation in elections.

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The Biden campaign reached out to schedule debates first and set some conditions for the debate, including that they be conducted by news organizations, not the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, and should have no in-person audience to limit disruptions. The first debate scheduled for June 27th is the earliest ever in a presidential race  and comes before the Democratic and Republican conventions later this summer — when both Biden and Trump will officially accept their party’s nominations.

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Ohio’s Republicans ultimately passed a bill that would both allow President Biden to appear on Ohio’s general election ballot in November, but also bar foreign contributions to ballot issue campaigns. The latter was a direct response to GOP objections to the “Issue 1” campaign last year that constitutionally protected abortion in the state. The move came without Democratic support as the DNC will hold a virtual certification of Biden since the Ohio law signed by DeWine does not go into affect until August 31, 2024. This legislative ‘fix’ is still after the Ohio certification deadline of August 7th for presidential candidates to be on Ohio’s ballot. Disingenuous of Ohio Republicans – no surprise.

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While Lt. Governor Jon Husted refuses to comment on the $1 million dark money contribution made to a group who supported him for governor, now Governor Mike DeWine admits that Sam Randazzo’s connections to FirstEnergy were well known around Capitol Square.  There are multiple ties between DeWine’s administration – especially his Chief of Staff whom Randazzo advised that he had received $4.3 million from FirstEnergy, which he claimed was final payment of a ‘consulting agreement.’ DeWine’s former Chief of Staff and current trusted counselor to DeWine, Laurel Dawson, is cooperating with the state prosecution.

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Two Republican state House lawmakers have introduced another bill to make Ohio a “closed primary” state, which would require voters to declare a party affiliation while banning them from voting or running for office in another party’s primary election. House Bill 437 is in response to a state appeals court judge who previously ran and voted in Democratic primaries, but is now seeking re-election as a Republican. Gee. Sounds like a local county commissioner can identify with this judge. Ohio has had 111 years of open primaries. Now Republicans want to have closed primaries that only elevate extremists and party machines over the power and freedom of voters.

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In its latest move, the Biden administration announced Wednesday that it’s canceling $1.2 billion in debt for nearly 153,000 people enrolled in Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE. In Ohio, 7,540 borrowers will have a combined $60 million forgiven, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

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A record 477,793 Ohioans have enrolled in the Affordable Care Act health plan for 2024. Ohio’s increased enrollment is one example of a larger national trend. On January 24, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that 21.3 million people nationwide selected a Marketplace plan during the open enrollment period. Of those, 16 million renewed their coverage, while 5 million were new users. All three of the GOP U.S. Senate candidates have stated they would vote to repeal the ACA while Senate Sherrod Brown has consistently voted against any efforts to repeal it.

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Embarrassing. Infuriating. Oppressing. Take your pick. They all describe the performative do-nothings in Columbus and Washington. Dodgy politicians who aspire not to serve the greater good but to grandstand in the extreme for notoriety. It’s not for nothing that Ohio’s General Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives (both under the loosely defined management of MAGA Republicans) were historically unproductive last year in terms of lawmaking.

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Plaintiffs in a civil suit related to the HB6 First Energy massive $61 million bribery and money-laundering scandal have subpoenaed documents from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. In addition, they’re scheduling a sworn deposition with Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.

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