(picture from his public Facebook profile)

I have made my strong disapproval of Mike DeWine known.  As Ohio’s Senator, he showed himself to be a man who lacks principles and helped destroy the Republican party brand. Since the Attorney General is not on the apportionment board, I couldn’t blame a conservative who doesn’t vote for Mike in November.

So how exciting it was this afternoon to hear that DeWine was going to get some primary heat from the right. And he happens to be a professor from the same school that DeWine attended law school:

Hardin County attorney Steve Christopher today, Feb. 8, said he is running for the Republican nomination for attorney general against former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine of Cedarville.

“I feel like the moderates and conservatives need to have a candidate for attorney general who’s not a professional politician and a liberal, which DeWine and Cordray both are,” Christopher, 51, who is part of the Tea Party movement, said by phone.[...]

Christopher said he is a township trustee in Hardin County where he lives on a farm near Forest. He has law offices in Kenton and Findlay in Hancock County, where he filed his designation of campaign treasurer form.

“The overriding theme (of the campaign) is that we need a conservative on the ballot, someone who understands the constitution,” said Christopher.

He also is an adjunct professor at Ohio Northern University. DeWine attended law school at Ohio Northern.

Great! Pro-constitution! Smaller government! Liberal bashing! All stuff I approve of.

BUT, a quick look at campaign finance reports shows that Mr. Christopher has been quite a fan of Mike DeWine, writing substantial checks to DeWine’s campaigns:

6/29/04          Primary 2006-2006    $5
6/26/02          General 2006-2006    $10
2/11/02          Primary 2006-2006    $1,000
10/3/00          GENERAL 2000-2000    $650
9/8/00          GENERAL 2000-2000    $300
7/12/00          GENERAL 2000-2000    $25
9/2/99          PRIMARY 2000-2000    $1,000
8/10/94          GENERAL 1994-1994    $1,000
3/31/94          PRIMARY 1994-1994    $100
10/26/92    GENERAL 1992-1992    $700
10/22/92    GENERAL 1992-1992    $75
10/22/92    GENERAL 1992-1992    $75
8/24/92          GENERAL 1992-1992    $100

So why would a candidate who embodies the principles of conservatism donate thousands of dollars to a “liberal career politician” like Mike DeWine? That’s not very TEA partyish.

I also noticed he donated at least $1800 to pro-trial lawyer (anti-tort reform) American Association for Justice PAC. hmmmm

What an ass:

House Speaker Denies Pro-Life Teen Access to House Floor
Resolution to Honor Teen Oratory Winner Must Be Mailed

COLUMBUS – In an unprecedented act of partisanship, House Speaker Armond Budish (D-Beechwood) denied Shelby County teen Elisabeth Trisler a legislative honor routinely presented to others. Budish is refusing to allow Trisler on the House floor to accept a legislative resolution. The resolution, authored by Rep. John Adams (R-Sidney), honors her accomplishment as the National Right to Life Oratory Contest winner. Such honorary resolutions are routinely presented at the start of Ohio House legislative sessions to constituents, including those who win athletic championships or academic contests.

“Surely Speaker Budish can put aside his partisanship for 10 minutes to honor the accomplishments of a talented and optimistic teenage girl,” said Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Mike Gonidakis. “Perhaps his real message to Ohio’s teens is that excelling in public speaking isn’t worth being honored if their views are different than his.”

Trisler won the National Right to Life Oratory Contest held at the NRLC Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in June, 2009. During the second half of 2009, Rep. Adams’s office worked to schedule the presentation of Trisler’s proclamation on the House floor, as is typical of such awards. The presentation was scheduled for Wednesday, February 3, 2010.

However, on January 29th, the House Clerk informed Rep. Adams’s office the presentation was canceled because the Speaker “had a problem with the subject matter.” The Clerk advised the representative’s staff to take the matter up with the Speaker. Speaker Budish supports abortion.

“The Ohio House chamber is a monument to the importance of oratory and persuasion on the great issues facing our state,” added Gonidakis. “Silencing someone because you disagree is a terrible lesson to teach teens. The Speaker should reconsider his unfortunately petty decision.”

“The Ohio House of Representatives is known as the ‘people’s house’,” said State Representative John Adams. “It is an outrage that Speaker Budish has decided to politicize and deny the presentation of a proclamation honoring national pro-life award on the House floor that was previously approved by the Speaker,” Adams said.

Maybe when Speaker Armondo Budish is showing retired seniors how how to knit on his silly TV show, he should tell them about how he horribly he treated a talented teenage girl, simply because it involves the issue of killing unborn babies. I’m sure that would go over well.

I worked at the House for two years, and can’t count the number of these resolutions that were passed out in the House. Is Budish and Ohio House Dems so insecure this election year that they are threatened by a high school student who wins an oratory award?

It was my understanding that a handful of Ohio House Democrats are pro-life, so what do they think now?

This pro-abortion position doesn’t fit well with Judaism, but Speaker Budish is a staunch liberal before anything else- Budish isn’t that Jewish, but he keeps his supposed faith around for campaign purposes. What a jerk.

From Seth Morgan:

Yikes!:

YOUNGSTOWN — State Rep. Robert F. Hagan said an assault against him at a downtown Youngstown restaurant over the weekend will not shake his faith in the renaissance of the central city. Hagan was punched in the face and knocked to the ground shortly after entering the The Lemon Grove Cafe on West Federal Street with his family at about 11 p.m. Saturday.

“We walked in, and a gentleman asked us to move out of the way,” Hagan, D-60th of Youngstown, said. “I told him to ‘back away, man,’” Hagan said, as the man taunted him with offensive language. The next thing Hagan said he remembered was interacting with ambulance personnel.

Hagan said the injuries required 11 stitches to his chin. He also suffered a concussion and an injured rib, he added.

Police arrested a suspect at the scene, Hagan said.

Hagan said he considered the assault a random act of violence and that he did not think his assailant knew him.

“I will continue to visit and continue to patronize downtown businesses, and I will continue to talk about how great the rebirth and renaissance of downtown Youngstown is, he said.

This story is simply terrible. I hope Rep. Hagan feels better soon and the assailant goes to prison for a long time.

I’m not sure if Youngstown is experiencing a “renaissance,” but Democrats can call it a truly green city…. with its lack of jobs and industry.

Yeah, me neither.

But here is the audio from Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine and MTR Lobbyist Chris Redfern from today anyway.

Both Chris and reporter Mark Naymik are fairly insulting to TEA party activists. And anyone paying attention to the debates over Gov. Bob Taft’s tax increase and how then-Chairman Bob Bennett insulted Republicans for standing in opposition, will be shocked to hear DeWine’s defense of phasing out the income tax. I think it is an admission that conservatism wins elections.

During the debate, Redfern also lies about Ken Blackwell’s proposed Tax Expenditure Limitation Amendment from 2005, which was later implemented only in statute, saying that it would have eliminated the state income tax. The TEL was only a cap on increases in state spending and didn’t even touch creative spending like bond issues and Federal stimulus Obamabucks. But its not like Chris has ever let the facts get in the way of a lame insult.

To give you an idea of how liberal the audience is, here are their first 5 questions:

1) How do we go about creating more “green jobs” and sustainability blah blah blah?

2) I’m an annoying social worker who is proud to be a social worker. Will you (Kevin DeWine) apologize for calling Ted Strickland’s running mate a “social worker?”

3) Kevin DeWine, why does your party oppose the murder of unborn babies, and what are you doing, if anything, to change that?

4) What should the legislature do about the Supreme Court deciding in favor of the freedom of speech in the Citizens United case?

5) What do you do to make sure the extremes (ie, TEA party activists) don’t run parties, and make sure you represent all of Ohio?

And this is why on every election morning, I turn towards Cleveland and pray that it sinks into Lake Erie.

Funny stuff in The Plain Dealer:

From The (East Liverpool) Review:

LISBON – Local businessman Craig Newbold has announced his candidacy for the state representative seat held by Democrat Linda Bolon.

Newbold, founder of the NewLife Technical Institute, will seek the Republican nomination for the state representative seat in the May 4 primary election.

“I have stood by for too long and watched this region of Ohio slide backwards. I believe that I could bring a fresh new perspective to the General Assembly and help shape policies that will put us back on the right track,” said Newbold, in a news release issued Thursday.

Newbold, who grew up in St. Clair Township and graduated from Beaver Local High School, founded Best Consulting in Seattle 20 years ago, which he said grew into a $100 million operation and one of the premier software service companies on the West Coast, with 1,100 employees.

Selling the company in 1996 gave Newbold and his wife, Rose, the opportunity to become what he calls a “social entrepreneur” by returning to the county and using his expertise in the software industry to start a new business.

“Rather than trying to revive the faltered industries of the past, I looked to the IT service industry and launched NewLife, a non-profit IT training school for people that needed a ‘hand up,’ a hand that I could give them,” Newbold said in the news release.

Newbold said he wanted to be able to do more, which is why he decided to run for state office. “Rather than focusing on creating substantive new jobs, we resort to gambling casinos. This is not sound public policy in my mind,” he said.

“Meanwhile, the state is facing budget deficits that are of staggering proportions. Had it not been for the federal government’s bailout, we would have had to shut down much of the state government. This has to be addressed and addressed now,” Newbold said.

Mr. Newbold’s private sector accomplishments are amazing. I would like to know more about his American Spirit Initiative, which has an important cause but unfortunately requested millions in Federal stimulus dollars. (I guess we now know why Gov. Strickland turned down the American Spirit Initiative’s requests… Once again showing how political the doling out of “stimulus” dollars is.)

Newbold was featured in Mahoning Valley Leaders Magazine, which can be read here.

A great interview from Bob Connors with Buckeye Institute President Matt Mayer on 610 AM WTVN in Columbus:

If we didn’t have leaders like Gov. Strickland who would rather focus on gimmicks and Federal pork than improving the state’s business and tax climate, perhaps Bob Connors wouldn’t have been scared out of the state. (Most listeners don’t know, but he frequently does his show from his home in Florida, a state with no income tax.)

Considering how cutting-edge a 39 mph train is, perhaps Strickland’s next innovative plan will involve telegraph lines, river boats, or perhaps a horse-drawn carriage taxi service?

From Howard Wilkinson in The Enquirer:

Manfred R. Shreyer, a German-born businessman from Preble County, is taking on one of the GOP’s top national figures, Rep. John Boehner of West Chester.

Shreyer, who lives in Eaton, where he runs a restaurant, said he’s unhappy with the Republican minority leader, saying he spends too much time as a talking head on TV news programs and on the road raising money for Republican candidates, and not enough time taking care of his six-county district.

“We expect our representatives to be working for the people in this district, not out working on his tan and politicizing national issues,” Shreyer said in a release announcing his candidacy.

His web site is quirky. Boehner certainly deserves to be picked on for supporting the TARP bailout. But his critique of NAFTA should send up all types of red flags to conservatives, as he sounds too much like Sherrod Brown and Pat Buchanan. About 55% of Ohio’s exports go to Canada and Mexico, and the last thing the state needs is for the Federal government to make trade more difficult.

The US House passed a Senate amendment to increase the U.S. Debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion, which increases the amount government can borrow up to $14.3 trillion.  Since Congress is so quick to  raise this ceiling, the Treasury no longer views it as a bound and in November it admitted we would hit the ceiling sometime in mid- to late- December.

Steve Stivers would like you to know that Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, a former central Ohio Socialist Party organizer, voted for it:

The amendment also included a budgetary gimmick known as PAYGO. As Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana explained, what PAYGO really means in Washington is: “You pay and they go on spending.”

I missed this story last week when it first came out in the NY Times. Holy smoley:

Every 15 minutes the chiming bells of the Deeds Carillon mark time’s passage in Dayton. Their ever-repeating song reminds the city of its deep connection to the NCR Corporation, formerly known as National Cash Register, for generations known here as The Cash.

The carillon, a 151-foot tower of limestone and steel, was a gift from a former NCR chief executive and his wife. It sits beside a boulevard named after the eccentric man who founded NCR, not far from other NCR touchstones: an office building here, a former warehouse there, and acres and acres of land.

As those bells tolled one day last June, the company, which specializes in automated teller machines and other self-service devices, announced a “major investment in innovation and people,” though not the people of Dayton. NCR stunned the city of its birth with the news that it was moving its world headquarters to suburban Atlanta.

The decision broke a bond dating to 1884, when John H. Patterson began a cash register company here. That bond tightened as Patterson developed a reputation for ruthless dismissals and eccentric benevolence (having employees weighed, for example, to monitor their health); as NCR helped save Dayton from the great flood of 1913; as technological advances and missed opportunities led to gleeful expansion and painful reduction.[...]

NCR officials said the meeting was about economic development in general. They also said that Mr. Nuti was waiting for the visitors, they were late, he had another meeting — and, well, they just never connected.

Jon Husted, an Ohio state senator, came away from the meeting feeling angry and frustrated. “They already knew they were leaving,” he said.

Dayton is not alone in feeling slighted. Mr. Nuti said that he attended a renewable energy conference in New York the month after that disastrous meeting, and during lunch sat next to Governor Strickland — who, he says, not only did not know who he was, despite his name tag, but never introduced himself.

NCR Left because Ohio’s horrible tax and regulatory structure. But as Lee Fisher, legislators, and the Governor were supposedly trying to buy them off with various special tax breaks and incentives, WOULDN’T YOU THINK TED STRICKLAND WOULD RECOGNIZE BILL NUTI?

This is bizarre. Ted was either not focused on this issue, or his health issues are having a serious impact on his memory and cognitive skills.

From The Telegram:

Jackson County Republican Executive Committee Chair James Milliken has announced the endorsement of John A. Carey for State House of Representatives and Clyde Evans for State Senate.

Milliken explained that Party members met January 4. Members of the Central Committee enthusiastically voted in favor of the endorsements.

Currently Carey, a Wellston resident, is State Senator representing the 17th District which includes Jackson, Vinton, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Pike, Ross, and Gallia counties as well as parts of Lawrence and Pickaway counties. He is term limited and seeks a seat in the House.

Evans, a resident of Rio Grande, currently represents the 87th District which includes Jackson and Vinton counties as well as Gallia and parts of Lawrence and Ross counties in the Ohio House of Representatives.

Evans faces a challenge from fellow Republican Representative David T. Daniels, of Highland County, who serves the 86th District.

I did not realize Sen. John Carey was hoping to return to the House after serving there between 1995 and 2002. He does not have a primary challenger.

Carey is hardly a flaming liberal, but I still don’t understand what justification he could have for voting in favor of Ted Strickland’s 4.2% income tax hike which was just retroactively implemented for 2009.

Earlier this week I mentioned I would be at the Franklin County Central Committee event, cheering on Bill Todd for the State House. Apparently, I was so distracted with the vote counting assignment that I missed all the inside-baseball excitement from the 22nd State House District.

From a friend:

Kathy Eshelman had already filed her petition to challenge John Patrick Carney in the 22nd District and has $25,000 cash on hand in her account. She had the endorsement of the screening committee and the backing of Jo Ann Davidson, Betty Montgomery, Deborah Pryce & Cheryl Grossman. Angel Rhodes was nominated from the floor.

Due to party rules, Eshelman spoke first and Rhodes second due to alphabetical order of last name. Eshelman began her speech by saying that this was the first central committee meeting she had ever attended and finished by calling herself a “Scott Brown Republican.” To the pro-life members of the committee “Scott Brown Republican” is code for pro-choice (which Kathy is).

Angel Rhodes had long-time committee member Bill Schmidt say that Angel Rhodes was ”the only registered Republican” running for the endorsement. Audible gasps could be heard around the room. Schmidt added that Rhodes also had the backing of former Rep. Jim Hughes’ team, now senator, who held that district for 4 terms. Eschelman supporters frantically canvassed the room distributing a board of elections printout showing Eshelman’s voting record, indicating she only voted Democrat in 2008 for “Operation Chaos.” After the vote it was announced that there was a TIE and a new vote would have to be conducted. After the second ballot it was announced that Angel Rhodes won the party’s endorsement.

I’ve heard that after the first ballot, some of Eshelman’s central committee supporters went home thinking that the vote was merely a formality and Eshelman would win. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Rhodes happens to be solidly pro-life and more conservative than Eschelman. It was wild and a case study in how to lose an endorsement despite having $25,000 and backing from GOP luminaries.

I only know the name Kathy Eschelman because she started Grade A Notes, which buys and sells notes from OSU students. It is a million dollar business she started from scratch, and it helped a few friends get through difficult classes.

With raising $24,609.31, that may be a record for a State House candidate before losing a county party’s endorsement.

But it is fantastic news to replace a pro-abortion Jo Ann Davidson-candidate with a conservative. Who knew Central Committee meetings could be so exciting?

Update at 12:30am: More background to the story. (I love hearing these types of details, so please never hesitate to send them to me.)

- Eshelman is a graduate of Jo Ann Davidson’s Political School for Women.

- Jim Hughes father, Lawrence Hughes, held that House seat for many years and Jim felt entitled to it when Dave Robinson won the appointment.

- Jim Hughes has been screwed over at least twice in his political career. First by Jo Ann Davidson and second by Doug White. Hughes won the party’s endorsement for the House seat and Jo Ann appointed David Robinson to the vacancy.

- There was a nasty primary, with the “Jo Ann machine” supporting Robinson, but Hughes won in a landslide, thus serving 8 year in the House.

- Also, When Priscilla Mead resigned from the Senate, Jim Hughes was endorsed by the party to fill the Senate seat and Doug White appointed Steve Stivers, who never even screened with the party for the endorsement. I believe that Jim and Stivers are on good terms, but it wouldn’t surprise me that Jim is still bitter with Jo Ann.

There is a fantastic column today in the WSJ from Matthew Slaughter of Dartmouth’s business school, dealing with how proposed changes in tax law could destroy jobs, including those at Cincinnati-based Procter and Gamble:

Deep in the president’s budget released Monday—in Table S-8 on page 161—appear a set of proposals headed “Reform U.S. International Tax System.” If these proposals are enacted, U.S.-based multinational firms will face $122.2 billion in tax increases over the next decade. This is a natural follow-up to President Obama’s sweeping plan announced last May entitled “Leveling the Playing Field: Curbing Tax Havens and Removing Tax Incentives for Shifting Jobs Overseas.”

The fundamental assumption behind these proposals is that U.S. multinationals expand abroad only to “export” jobs out of the country. Thus, taxing their foreign operations more would boost tax revenues here and create desperately needed U.S. jobs.

This is simply wrong. These tax increases would not create American jobs, they would destroy them.

Academic research, including most recently by Harvard’s Mihir Desai and Fritz Foley and University of Michigan’s James Hines, has consistently found that expansion abroad by U.S. multinationals tends to support jobs based in the U.S. More investment and employment abroad is strongly associated with more investment and employment in American parent companies.

When parent firms based in the U.S. hire workers in their foreign affiliates, the skills and occupations of these workers are often complementary; they aren’t substitutes. More hiring abroad stimulates more U.S. hiring. For example, as Wal-Mart has opened stores abroad, it has created hundreds of U.S. jobs for workers to coordinate the distribution of goods world-wide. The expansion of these foreign affiliates—whether to serve foreign customers, or to save costs—also expands the overall scale of multinationals.

[...]

For many global firms there is no inherent substitutability between foreign and U.S. operations. Rather, there is an inherent complementarity. For example, even as IBM has been expanding abroad, last year it announced the location of a new service-delivery center in Dubuque, Iowa, where the company expects to create 1,300 new jobs and invest more than $800 million over the next 10 years.

This is true in manufacturing, too. Procter & Gamble calculates that one in five of its U.S. jobs—and two in five in Ohio—depend directly on its global business.

The current corporate tax structure soaks U.S. corporations at an astounding high and uncompetitive 35%, and increasing foreign taxation only weighs down American companies.

If Ohio had a Governor who was actually serious about “creating jobs,” then that Governor would urge President Obama to oppose these tax increases and save jobs at P&G.

But since Ohio doesn’t have that type of Governor- as a consolation prize, at least we will get a shiny choo-choo train.

With the deadline being today, the legislature certainly moved quickly to put an issue on the ballot when future campaign contributions are at stake:

From William Hershey:

The House and Senate today, Feb. 3, are expected to vote to put a compromise plan for extending the Third Frontier high tech economic development program on the May 4 ballot.

A House-Senate conference committee late Tuesday agreed to a four-year, $700 million bond proposal. The Democratic-controlled House had proposed a five-year, $950 million plan while the Republican-controlled Senate had approved a four-year, $500 million plan.

From the Ohio House:

COLUMBUS — House Republican Leader William G. Batchelder (R-Medina) and Ron Amstutz (R-Wooster), who serves as the ranking minority member on the House Finance Committee, issued the following statement after the full House passed a measure to place a renewal of the Third Frontier initiative on the May ballot.

“We are pleased to see this bipartisan recommendation to extend a program for the future of Ohio’s economy and would like to thank the legislative leaders for working with us to recommend that voters extend the Third Frontier program. The amendments placed in the recommended constitutional language will keep the program on a strong footing by requiring external merit-based review when awarding project funds.”

Lawmakers remain committed to this program as originally introduced in 2002. Since that time, Ohio has seen an impressive early return on investment through generating more than $6.5 billion in economic activity and attracting a nearly 10:1 ratio of private and federal funds, thereby moving Ohio to the forefront in growing early stages of capital flow into Ohio. The measure passed the full House 83-14.

That ratio of “10:1″  is due to the fact that investors and banks feel more comfortable when government handouts/cheap loans are involved. This is forcing taxpayers into doing the job of venture capitalists. Here, taxpayers assume high risk for only supposed benefits on a macro level (unless you hire a lobbyist and start writing checks to Armond Budish and Ted Strickland?), while destroying jobs and confiscating wealth elsewhere in the economy… which is why that supposed ROI is bullhonkey.

And the conservative Republicans who opposed should be applauded: Seth Morgan, John Adams, Jeffrey McClain, Jeff Wagner, Danny Bubp, Bruce Goodwin, Dave Burke, Matt Huffman, Margaret Ruhl, David Daniels, Kris Jordan, Barbara Sears, and James Zehringer. I’m told Lynn Wachtmann was ill today, but there is no question he would have otherwise been another “no” vote.

Think I’m out of line by disagreeing with Republican leaders in the House and Senate on this one? Well, if you want to take a look at what core Republican voters think, just notice that, in addition to candidate for Auditor Seth Morgan, the 3 Rs who are running in 2 serious primaries for the State Senate- Jordan, Daniels, & Evans- all voted “no.”

From Jim Siegel in The Dispatch:

The last of the state income-tax books that normally arrive the first week of January should reach their destinations by early next week.

A prolonged legislative fight in November and December over how to fix an $851 million hole in the state budget forced the state tax department to delay mailing its materials to Ohioans and public venues.

Based on paper returns filed in January last year, tax refunds totaling more than $8 million have been held up because of the budget debate. State leaders were at odds over delaying a 4.2 percent income-tax cut.

Jim Siegel, much like a poop-filled Seagull on a pier, really soiled up that 3rd paragraph. If you think it was a “delay,” then feel free to hold your breath waiting for that additional refund in the mail until you turn blue and die.

To the rest of us who aren’t hack lefty reporters, this is a TAX INCREASE, passed retroactively, to plug the holes in Strickland’s patch-work budget. The average family in Ohio will now have access to $80 less this year. (And the budget still isn’t completely settled since revenues are down and the mis-allocation of tobacco settlement money is in the courts.)

And while this debate raged on and deals were cut to get 5 unprincipled Republicans Senators on board, on top of this tax hike, taxpayers currently  have more than 8,000,000 fewer dollars in their pockets, which was held by the state and earned taxpayers 0% interest. fantastic

Andy Thompson is the conservative Republican who will likely replace Jennifer Garrison, the Democrat who was recently purged from the statewide ticket for her support of unborn babies:

Andy Thompson announced his candidacy for the 93rd House District today which encompasses Guernsey, Monroe and Noble Counties, parts of Washington and Muskingum Counties.

“I bring a small business background to the legislative table, and continue to utilize that experience and viewpoint to enhance the business climate here in Marietta,” Thompson said. “Now I’d like to take that same perspective to Columbus and put it to work for the 93rd House District and across Ohio.

Currently, Thompson is serving his third term on the Marietta City Council as an at-large representative. Additionally, he is the publisher of Bird Watchers Digest, a member of the National Rifle Association and an active member of the Rotary Club.

Thompson is much more than a bird watcher.  As Director of Development, his work was important to the early success of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a fantastic libertarian think tank which fights against the growth of government and the lies of anthropogenic global warming.

And if that isn’t cool enough, his website talks enough about faith to tick off almost any country club Republican. Check it out at andythompsonforohio.com.

(HT: NTU’s blog)

Good news:

Voters unplugged Steubenville’s traffic cameras in 2006. Ballots cast in Cincinnati banned the long lens of the law from that city’s streets two years later. Two communities outside of Columbus — Chillicothe and Heath — rejected photo enforcement last November.

Could Cleveland or another Northeast Ohio community be next?

A local campaign to oust cameras may be developing: “We’re prepared to make this an issue,” said Maryanne Petranek of Cleveland, vice chair of the 150-member Cuyahoga County for Liberty. “This is a case where people have to find their voice, stand up and say no.”

The idea will be among the subjects discussed Saturday during “The Power of Coalitions” program at the Beachland Ballroom on Cleveland’s Waterloo Road. (Cuyahoga County for Liberty is a sponsor.) The chairman of a group tied to three victorious anti-camera campaigns in Ohio is an event keynote speaker.

Jason Gloyd said his organization — the Cincinnati-based Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes, or COAST — will assist efforts to eliminate intrusive click-it-and-ticket equipment in the state.

COAST views red-light and speed cameras as an erosion of civil liberties fueled by government greed for revenue.

“People are starting to realize that they are chipping away, slowly but surely, at our rights,” Gloyd said.[...]

[M[ore than 8,500 Toledo residents signed petitions last year to put a camera question to voters. (A filing error kept the issue of the ballot.)

“If people have a choice,” said Chris Finney, an attorney and COAST board member, “they’ll get rid of them.”

Even though they are creepy, as a general rule I’m not opposed to putting cameras anywhere in a public location that a policeman might otherwise be able to stand. However, not only are red light cameras are a money grab by local communities and camera vendors, you are automatically presumed guilty- ie., can’t face your accusers to plead your case, and as you attempt to fight it- some major late fees will be added.

This is very similar to the “gotcha” late fee on drivers license registration that Ted Strickland and Democrats put into the budget. In both situations, drivers are breaking the law, but all the state and local governments are concerned with is generating extra revenue to help make up for their fiscal mismanagement.

But if these pesky cameras can’t be defeated and as the benefits of public sector employment continue to balloon, perhaps Ted Strickland will support special camera-immune license plates for government employees and their families?