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The Ohio Left, Out Of The Gubenatorial Debate

So Hackwell and Strickland plan a series of five debates. As always, they don’t invite the other parties, in this case the Libertarians and the Green candidate for governor (me). I suspect that the debates will span the political spectrum from A to B. Strickland will increasingly head to the center right as news articles indicate that he’s now picking up Republican money from lobbyists and corporate interests who see him ahead in the polls and want to invest in the next governor. As Strickland takes this Republican-tainted corporate money, he’s essentially to preserve the “pay-to-play” culture of corruption in Ohio, where donations to the governor are made in expectation of state government contracts being steered back to the firms that donate or to the interests represented by the lobbyists.

Ohio should become a clean money state – with matching funds to candidates who qualify on the ballot. Political candidates should be beholden to the people, not to the wealthiest 1% who give 90% of the money to the politicians. In the long run, this will save the state billions of dollars. Hopefully, I can talk the Libertarian candidate into joining me in crashing the planned Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dumb debates. You know my bias, Hackwell has to be Tweedle-dumb.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t count Hackwell out. As long as he plans to count the votes, I’m sure he already has November’s election results pre-programmed. So the Democrats were right recently in calling on Hackwell to step aside. Hackwell plans to do everything in his power to shrink the Ohio electorate. That’s his only way to win. So, we might expect Hackwell to throw red meat to his far-right-wing Christo-fascist and theocratic debate, during the debate, and drag Strickland to the right. Real issues should be discussed in Ohio, from renewable energy to improving Ohio’s educational system and guaranteeing universal health care for all citizens. Strickland and Hackwell won’t do that. Only by including all candidates will a real democratic debate ensue.

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Enquirer Endorses Plain Speaking

Jon Craig at the Cincinnati Enquirer is doing a great job writing about politics. They had the full Robert J. Kennedy Rolling Stone piece on their blog: http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/

The Enquirer plans to ask very direct questions to all the gubernatorial candidates and they included me as an independent. I plan to give them very direct answers. Here are the first two questions they posed and my answers:

Question: On May 15, President Bush announced a National Guard mobilization in which more than 150,000 troops could be sent to border states to help stem the flow of illegal immigrants. Gov. Bob Taft has said he would support Bush by sending troops from Ohio.

As governor, would you support sending Ohio National Guard troops to border states?

Bob: No

Question: In one to three sentences, feel free to explain why or why not.

Bob: This is the job of the border patrol. Moreover, it’s a pathetic symbolic action which reeks of militarizing our border with a friendly ally. The problem is not to patrol our border with an armed National Guard, but to take a look at the minimum wage in Mexico and other conditions that are driving desperate workers into the United States.

Question: House Bill 228 would make it a felony to carry out abortions in Ohio or transport a woman across state lines to have one. Would you sign this abortion bill?

Bob Fitrakis: Never.

Question: Explain why or why not in one to three sentences.

Bob Fitrakis: I believe that Roe v. Wade is good law and that the decision is between a woman and her God, not the self-proclaimed God squad — I would no more sign this bill than I would sign one on witch burning. To criminalize transporting a woman across state lines for an abortion will make Ohio the laughingstock of the midwest. I would do everything possible to make sure no woman has to terminate a pregnancy because of economic circumstances and do everything I can to ensure day care and preschool for all children.

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Prof. Tokaji: No Due Diligence

People have asked me to respond to what they perceive as Ohio State Law professor Dan Tokaji’s “balanced” analysis of Robert Kennedy’s Rolling Stone article about the stolen 2004 election. Tokaji’s piece is entitled “Back to Ohio” and he has a section called “A Gran of Salt” that deals with the Mighty Texas Strike Force. Let me suggest that you take Tokaji’s writing with a grain of salt as well. When I talked to Professor Tokaji, he informed me he relied only on the Conyers Report for his analysis and no additional research. What Professor Tokaji did, and I say this as a graduate of Ohio State Law School, was fail in his “due diligence,” that requirement drilled into every first year law student that one should meet reasonable expectations and put forth efforts ordinarily exercised by a person before they put forth certain statements or claims.

Below is a direct quote from Tokaji’s article:

“A Grain of Salt”

“There are other aspects of Kennedy’s report that would be very disturbing if true, but appear to rest on somewhat weaker evidence. For example:

“* Kennedy describes a group of Republican operatives known as the “Mighty Texas Strike Force” which allegedly “us[ed] pay phones to make intimidating calls to likely voters.” Kennedy’s source for this allegation is a report produced Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee in January 2005, entitled “Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio,” also known as the Conyers Report, which quotes a statement made by an unidentified hotel worker. While this allegation is what we lawyers would call hearsay — actually, it’s triple-hearsay, since the Conyers Report was relying on a statement made at a hearing by someone other than the hotel worker — if true it’s obviously very troubling.”

Now had Tokaji done a five-minute Google search, he would have found the following:

* The Mighty Texas Strike Force

* With new legislation, Ohio Republicans plan holiday burial for American Democracy

* Down to the Wire

* Lone Stars to the Rescue

* Texas Federation of College Republicans “The Mighty Texas Strike Force”.

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Bush And Hackwell About To Be Stoned

Check out Leftyblogs.com – the Top 50 Headlines of the Week includes a blog by Cincinnati’s Andrew Warner. He’s asking Strickland to drop out of Ohio’s governor race, so as not to be a “spoiler” for my campaign. Thanks for the insightful analysis, Andrew!

This Thursday, Rolling Stone subscribers should be getting a historic issue of the magazine with one of the most anticipated articles ever written. Voting rights activists are excited about the article written by Stone reporters, as well as an extended piece by Bobby Kennedy, Jr. on the Ohio 2004 presidential election. The article should be on the web by Friday.

We need to buy as many copies as we can get and make sure they’re widely distributed before the Bush White House breaks open one of its secret slush funds to keep this important article from being disseminated.

If you want to get a feel for what might be in the article, my good friends at the Ecological Options Network have now posted all their videos through Google, so enjoy these and let me know what you think:

Here are the Google links: 

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End The Atrocities In Iraq

This Memorial Day I reflected on the war dead in Iraq. Not just the U.S. soldiers, but the more than 30,000, and possibly as high as 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians killed in this unjust war. When individuals make such atrocious mistakes, based on misinformation and lies, they should immediately cease their sinful actions and offer restitution. Rest assured that our president is a war criminal, guilty of conspiring, planning and waging an aggressive and illegal war on a country that posed no threat to us. J. Kenneth Hackwell, a well-known buddy of neo-con Richard Perle, supports the same policy of regime change embraced by the Bush administration. I believe that all life is intrinsically valuable and I like to call this position pro-life. That’s why I am opposed to war except as a last resort in an act of self defense.

The U.S. Marines who slaughtered the 24 innocent Iraqi civilians in the western town of Haditha are murderers and must be tried and condemned as such. The war in Iraq is over. We have lost the hearts of minds of the Iraqi people. Not that we ever had them. We were told our troops would be greeted with sweets and flowers – an absurd lie, and no imperialist occupying force has ever been thus treated. Now, as in Vietnam, our troops can’t tell the difference between the “good” Iraqis and the “bad” Iraqis. We are in the middle of a civil war, which is draining our country financially and militarily. The Bush regime is perhaps the most hated political regime in American history. Hated not only by the people of the world, but despised by the vast majority of U.S. citizens. If you love this country and support its troops, you’ll do all you can to bring them home and disassociated them with this illegal and immoral war.

As governor of the state I plan to issue a direct order prohibiting the Ohio National Guard from serving in Iraq and to appoint a commission of legal scholars and academics to investigate whether or not the president should be indicted for war crimes. That is the Ohio I would be proud of, the same one that stood firm against slavery during the Civil War. Not one that blindly supports an irrational war-mongering, war-profiteering faux Texan.

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Minimum Wage Is Not Living Wage

When the Republicans that control the state recently raised Ohio’s minimum wage to match the federal rate of $5.15, there was little cause for rejoicing. The federal minimum wage has not been increased since September 1997. Five fifteen an hour comes out to $10,700 annually, to support oneself or family. There’s a statewide initiative that I support that will raise Ohio’s minimum wage to $6.85 and increase the income of one in seven Ohio workers. An estimated 297,000 workers in Ohio make less than $6.85 an hour, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Another 423,000 people would be affected by a “spillover” effect that would cause their slightly-above minimum wages, but less than living wages, to rise. In all, an estimated 730,000 workers, 58% of them women, would benefit from higher wages if the $6.85 an hour initiative goes through.

Not only should the initiative go through, but I propose if I am governor, to tie minimum wage increases to the rate of inflation. It is the poor and the working poor who are hit the hardest by the highly inflationary fuel prices. Moreover, I will instruct Ohio state agencies to only contract with companies that pay a livable wage. Even at $6.85 an hour, workers would only be paid $14,248 a year, which is still 14% below the federal poverty level. All public jobs in Ohio should be paying at least $10 an hour. When we make the state more livable for the least of our brethren, we make the state more livable for all people.

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Granny D Arrested In Washington DC Fighting For Clean Government

I had the privilege of having breakfast with Doris “Granny D” Haddock today. Granny D, who lives in the woods between Dublin and Peterborough, New Hampshire, came to Columbus to campaign for clean money in the state and to end the culture of corruption. Granny D is most famous for walking across the country at the age of 89 in support of campaign finance reform. The single greatest problem in our system is the fact that 1% of the population provides 90% of the money for political campaigns and political action committees (PACs). To clean up politics, you’ve got the get the dirty money out, particularly the corporate money, and get clean citizen-subsidized money into the process.

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Redistricting Bill in Ohio – What’s the Hurry?

My colleague, attorney Cliff Arnebeck, testified today on HJR 13, the redistricting reform bill. First of all, Arnebeck raised the key question: “What’s the hurry?” As polls show, the scandal-ridden Republican Party, in serious trouble nationally and in the state of Ohio, is scrambling to create their version of a “bipartisan” state redistricting apportionment board. Unlike Texas under the influence of Tom Delay, we still redistrict in Ohio the old-fashioned way – every ten years following the census. The real focus should be on securing the November 2006 election from the likes of Ken Hackwell.

Arnebeck asked why the Republicans opposed the 2005 Reform Ohio Now (RON) proposal as likely to produce politicians cutting deals in smoke-filled back rooms. Arnebeck is right in insisting that competitiveness should be at the core of any future redistricting and that we should probably wait until after the 2006 or even the 2008 election before we rush a redistricting plan through in what hopefully will be the last totally Republican-dominated Ohio legislature.

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Returning Democracy to Ohio Politics

Ohio’s electoral problem is based on the bipartisan collusion of a two-party system that makes it difficult for third parties, like the Libertarians and Greens, to get on the ballot.  The problem also stems from gerrymandered, uncompetitive legislative districts that favor incumbents and the party in power – whether Republicans or Democrats. I have fought to change this system for many years.  In fact, I was a plaintiff and sued the state of Ohio to try to get more competitive congressional districts after my 1992 Congressional race.

Another problem with Ohio’s electoral system is that while major party candidates are immediately certified for the ballot in Ohio, third party candidates are forced to turn their signatures in on May 1, and then wait for the Secretary of State to certify them.  In this case, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is himself a candidate for Governor, and he does not have to certify the signatures I submitted on May 1 until July 15.   This waiting period is designed to make it difficult for any alternative voices or ideas to arise in the stagnant political cesspool of Ohio politics.

To clean up this mess in Ohio, we should have Instant Run-off Voting (IRV), where people can vote for a first choice and a second choice. If your first choice isn’t one of the top two candidates, then your vote would go to your second choice. This guarantees that the winner has support from more than 50% of the voters, and works well with a larger number of candidates.

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The Filters Come Off

Here’s an article that ran in the Athens News. I’m actually quite pleased with it, since it doesn’t contain the usual corporate media filters. For example, the writer actually lists my credentials accurately. For 20 years I was only referred to as an “activist” in the Columbus Dispatch, usually no mention that I have a job as a fulltime college professor. When the writer did refer to my teaching, they left me at the lowly rank of instructor, but that’s OK. I’ve never seen any references to my investigative reporting and award-winning articles before.

OK, after you read the article, answer this question. Is this type of direct coverage too bold for my campaign? Or for American politics at this point in history?

Personally I prefer frankness, but what do you think?

http://tinyurl.com/jfol7

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