Have you received an orange postcard in the mail advising of your real estate taxes going up? After fielding many questions from clients, John Murray, Sr – a local attorney – has provided a perspective on the recent increase in real estate taxes. Read his opinion on this confusing issue facing the majority of Erie Countians.

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YES on Issue 1 yard signs now available! HarrisWalz yard signs, baseball caps, flags, t-shirts and buttons are available. All in LIMITED SUPPLY! Yard signs also available for Senator Sherrod Brown, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and all of our Erie County candidates – State House Representative Alicia Roshong, Leslie Murray and Marcus Harris for Erie County Commission, Erie County Clerk of Courts Luvada Wilson, Erie County Recorder Ellen Olsen, Erie County Treasurer Randy Drewyor and Erie County Engineer Jack Farschman.

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After weeks of speculation, President Joe Biden announced on Sunday he would withdraw as the Democratic presidential candidate. He plans to fulfill his duties as President until the end of his term in January 2025. Within 30 minutes of his withdrawal, President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to run as the Democratic presidential candidate. “I am honored to have the president’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Vice President Harris stated.

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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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