Buckeye RINO

Editor’s note: Andrew Winemiller has twice been a Republican candidate for Lorain City Council, served as Lorain Safety/Service Director under an interim mayor finishing out a remainder of a term, is secretary of the Lorain Area Republican Club, is active in Lorain County politics by virtue of being a Lorain resident, and active in Seneca County politics by virtue of attending college there.  He is a candidate for state central committee from the 13th District, along with Robert Rousseau (an incumbent that the ORP won’t endorse–which is not a bad thing, in my book) of Lorain County, and Robert Duncan, chair of the Huron County Republican Party.  The 13th District includes Lorain County, Huron County, and the eastern portion of Seneca County.  I invited Mr. Winemiller to summarize his platform as a candidate for GOP state central committee, and he has graciously accepted the invitation, but this should not be construed to be my endorsement in this race.  I’ll have more to post in the near future about this race and the other candidates, including the women contesting the 13th District seat, Marilyn Jacobcik of Lorain county, and Joyce Houck (an incumbent the ORP DID endorse–and I’m not enthused about that) of Huron county.  By the way, the ORP’s state central committee endorsements were initially issued by the ORP paid staff, without the committee’s say so.

Andrew Winemiller, Republican state central committee candidate

In my opinion, a member of our state central committee carries out three vital tasks.  The first of these tasks is to provide adaquate representation for the Republican constituancy within his or her district.  This starts with showing up at meetings.  Our current member has a less than stellar record on this note.  In addition to showing up for meetings, a member must be able to gain the respect of his or her colleagues in order to properly represent his or her district.  The second of these tasks is to support candidates and Republican groups throughout his or her district.  Being at events throughout the entire district is a must.  Again, my opponent’s record of reaching out to every corner of the district leaves much to be desired.  Finally, the last task is to be a leader, a face, and a voice for our party.  This means being a cheerleader for our party and its candidates.

The simple reason I am running is that the tasks above are not carried out under our current leadership.  The person who fills this role must be somebody willing to travel a Senate district representing our party.  These people are not only accountable to party leadership.  Rather, they are accountable to each and every Republican within their respective district.  An open ended discussion must take polace on a normal basis.  This person must make every attempt to reach out to every demographic and every corner of his or her district.  They should be active listeners for the people and motivated cheerleaders for our party and its candidates.

In the end, it is and should be all about beating the other side of the aisle in November.  However, these little-known, volunteer positions have real implications.  I want to play an active role in moving our party toward a brighter future.  I’m excited to be the voice of every Republican in Ohio’s 13th Senate District, and the way I’m going to do that is by constantly reaching out to all Republican voters.  I’ve been traveling the entire 13th District for two years now.  I’ve seen the triumphs and troubles of our district.  I’ve shook countless hands, and now I want to represent each and every one of those good people.  If we work together, as a united party, we will win in November, and that is my ultimate goal.

This February, I attended a Lincoln Day Dinner for the Erie County Republican Party held in Huron.  The featured speaker was Ohio House Minority Leader Bill Batchelder.  State rep Batchelder always gives rousing and provocative speeches, and this was no different.  He ticked off a long list of the failings of the Democrats in the Ohio House of Representatives and the Governor’s office.  One would think that it’s time for a Republican rebound.  Four years ago, when Ohioans went to the polls and repudiated Republican leadership, voters thought they had probably hit rock bottom.  It seems, under Democrat leadership, Ohio has bored through the rocks at the bottom and is now in free-fall as we seem to have tumbled into a bottomless abyss.

It would seem that the stars are aligning for a Republican resurgence.

But there’s still a reasonable chance that Republicans will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

How so?

Consider that though Ohioans, as a whole, repudiated Republican leadership, the Republican party, itself, still has to repudiate it’s 2006-era leaders.  We’ve got Mike DeWine and Jon Husted on our statewide ballots?  What’s up with that?  Husted was Speaker of the House back in the day, and Republicans were trying their level best to do the very things that they chastise Democrats for doing right now–spending and taxing at unsustainable levels.  DeWine was unceremoniously drubbed from his cushy Senate office in DC in 2006.  It’s 2010, and they’re still here.  Make them go away. Please.

Beyond the candidates that are the face of the party, though, there’s also the employed staff of the ORP.  Think some of those operatives are still hanging around that powered the Republican defeat back in 2006?  Absolutely.  It’s more because of the Jason Mauks that still linger at the ORP headquarters that I still believe that the state party is still capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (why I hold up Jason Mauk as an example will be explained later).

ORP financial resources are dwindling, so perhaps its getting to be cutthroat time down at ORP headquarters.  When Republicans only control one statewide executive branch office, and even she’s on her way out since she’s the Lt. Gov. candidate, potential donors might not be inclined to think that giving to the ORP is a very good risk when there’s so little clout that can be obtained.  The economy is brutal, dampening donations further, and less wealthy rank-and-file Republicans inclined to donate smaller sums are becoming too savvy to donate to a state or national party–for they understand that they have no way of knowing whether or not their money is doing any good if they donate anything beyond the individual candidate or local party level. So, the stragglers still employed by the ORP have to soldier on somehow, and they do it by becoming more parochial.

Welcome to the nano-tent.  Oh, sorry, it’s too small to welcome you.  You aren’t welcome anyway.  You have to be invited in order to enter.

One year prior to the Erie County Lincoln Day Dinner where Batchelder was the featured speaker, Erie County hosted a Lincoln Day Dinner where Kevin DeWine was the featured speaker.  I chatted with Kevin DeWine for a few minutes during a reception prior to that dinner.  During the conversation, DeWine talked a good game cultivating a GOP that is a big-tent party.  He didn’t believe in purging the party down to a tiny base of purists who passed every litmus test.  A political party can’t function that way.  I wholly agree.  I, myself, while advocating for adherence to the principles I hold most dear, would not seek to drum someone out of the party because their ideology didn’t match the accepted norm.  As far as I’m concerned, in Ohio, if you request a Republican ballot during the primaries, you’re a Republican.  That’s that.  I make fun of the way the term “RINO” is bandied about.  Can’t you tell?

Actually having a big tent party, with a commitment toward greater inclusiveness and involvement, might help the ORP’s fundraising.  But Kevin DeWine just talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk.

Don’t get me wrong.  Kevin DeWine doesn’t weed anybody out on the basis of ideology, but the rank-and-file Republican has limits placed on just how much one can be included and involved.

Want to know why the Tea Party movement is still going?  People can be as included and involved as they want to be.  That’s a big tent.  The ORP, hoping to capture some of that magic in a bottle, has been trying in many, many ways to co-opt the Tea Party–but they can’t as long as they keep Republicans at arm’s length without allowing them any decision=making power.

Kevin DeWine has pitched a nano-tent because he and the other ORP employees don’t want any power to extend beyond the confines of the nano-tent.

Who employs the ORP staff?  Who hires the ORP Chair?  The Republican state central committee does.  Who is on the state central committee?  A man and woman from each Ohio Senate district.  How are these men and women chosen?  By election during Republican primaries in even numbered years.

There’s an election for state central committee going on right now, and it doesn’t end until May 4th.  Don’t vote for ORP-endorsed candidates for its own committee. (Talk about self-serving rather than constituent-serving  . . . ugh!)

Tea Party attendees have been able to make their voices heard among lawmakers and other elected officeholders, but they’d probably like it if the political parties heard them too.  The ORP wants to superficially resemble the Tea Party in rhetoric and logo (hattip Bizzyblog), but the ORP does not want to resemble the Tea Party in terms of empowering its members with decision-making powers and in terms of being transparently accountable to its members.

It’s been a while since Ohio has seen this many candidates running for the unpaid position of state central committee member.  Do you think that the ORP Chair and the ORP staff might be nervous about the election outcome?  They are.  In fact, the ORP is using its money to promote many of the state central committee incumbents in literature mailings to voters.  Forget about winning in November against Democrats, the ORP staff wants to burn through all of its money right now in the primaries to preserve itself and perpetuate its dysfunction.

Did the state central committee have an endorsement vote for each of the incumbents that it included on the printed literature the ORP paid for as stipulated in party bylaws?  No.  According to ORP staffer Jason Mauk (there’s that name!), “incumbents are considered automatically endorsed by the ORP.”  Except, of course, when an incumbent state central committee member is not automatically endorsed, or when a challenger for state central committee member is, in fact, endorsed without endorsement votes ever having been conducted.  OOPS!!!  That last little bit of info is the substance of a complaint filed by Thea Shoemake against the ORP (hattip Bizzyblog) that’s due to be heard by the Ohio Elections Commission on April 29th (hattip Right Ohio).  It seems that the ORP staff’s survival instincts are in such a state of overdrive that they’ve overlooked such legal requirements.  As for the snafu where pro-DeWine non-incumbents appeared on ORP literature as endorsed for the state central committee, Jason Mauk said, “Some non-incumbents were put on some cards by mistake.”  Umm, Mr. Mauk, you left out the word “intentional,” as in “Some non-incumbents were put on some cards by intentional mistake.”

My family resides in the 13th District.  ORP literature mailed to Republican households in that district shows an incumbent woman endorsed by the ORP.  The mailing even arrived at the household of Marilyn Jacobcik, the woman challenging the incumbent. The incumbent man, Bob Rousseau, is running to retain his seat, but, though he’s an incumbent, which, according to Mr. Mauk, means that Mr. Rousseau is  automatically endorsed, Rousseau does not appear on the ORP mailings.  Is Mr. Rousseau endorsed, or not, Mr. Mauk?  Which, out of 3, is the man endorsed by the ORP?  Perhaps Kevin DeWine would like to clarify?

You see, entry to the tiny nano-tent of Kevin DeWine, also known as the ORP, is granted only by invitation, an invitation extended only by Kevin DeWine himself.

It’s a very, very, very tiny tent.

Editor’s note:  State rep Lynn R. Wachtmann represents Ohio House District 75.  I, DJW, would personally support stripping funding for the House Faith-Based Initiatives Committee, as I would prune  funding for faith-based initiatives at all levels of government. I think Norma at Collecting My Thoughts wrote a brilliant piece back in January on government funding of faith-based initiatives, particularly when she writes “Once you accept money from the federal government, you must play by their rules . . .,” thus highlighting the risk that the government may exploit such a relationship to begin placing mandates on religion, which would further erode our religious freedom. On that note, I’m glad that a bill has never been assigned to Ohio’s House Faith-Based Initiatives Committee.

House Dems Bloviate While Ohioans Suffer

Rep. Wachtmann Issues Response to Superficial Legislation

COLUMBUS— State Representative Lynn Wachtmann (R-Napoleon), member of the Ohio Workers’ Compensation Council, issued the following statement regarding a press conference held this morning by House Democrats that outlined legislation to reduce the number of boards and commissions.

“Representatives Dodd and Book are unfortunately too little and too late with their simplistic solution to Ohio’s looming multi-billion dollar budget deficit. If they want to scrutinize about saving Ohio taxpayers money, I would urge my Democrat colleagues and Governor Strickland to look around the Statehouse at committees.  For example, the House Faith-Based Initiatives Committee, to which a bill has never been assigned, will have spent more than $32,000 in salaries alone to fund that committee throughout the duration of this General Assembly.

This is just another political stunt and shortsighted sound bite by House Democrats during an election year. If my Democrat colleagues were truly interested in reducing the cost burden on Ohio taxpayers, they wouldn’t have quietly raised taxes by nearly $900 million at the eleventh hour of 2009.

I continue to encourage House Democrats to work with myself and Republican colleagues in enacting true cost-savings measures to mitigate the damage of the projected $8 billion shortfall in 2011.”

Editor’s note:  TeleTech Holdings, Inc. has only been doing business in Lorain County for roughly 5 years, so it’s surprising to me how quickly after TeleTech’s start-up investment at their Lorain County location that they are shutting down.  State rep Terry Boose represents the 58th Ohio House District, which includes many of the western and southern precincts of Lorain County, as well as all of Huron County and eastern Seneca County.

Boose to Key Policy Makers: Where are the jobs going?

Why Are Nearly 600 More Ohioans Are Out of Work, Governor?

Norwalk, OHIO – Small business controller and State Representative Terry Boose (R-Norwalk) today sent two letters to key policy makers in Columbus inquiring why TeleTech Holdings, Inc., a customer service call center in Lorain County, announced its plans to close in May. The closure of TeleTech will leave 585 more Ohioans jobless, joining the ever-growing list of companies leaving Ohio under the current administration.

In a letter to Governor Strickland, Rep. Boose stated, “Governor, what have you done to make sure these positions were fought for? Unemployment in Lorain County is currently at 11.5 percent, and the closure of TeleTech delivers a severe blow to the families of Lorain County and Northern Ohio. This company has been significant within our community, and the loss of yet another corporation from Ohio’s borders is very problematic. How many businesses need to abandon our state before we provide them with adequate reason to stay?”

In a letter to Lisa Patt-McDaniel, director of the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD), Rep. Boose requested the following: “In consideration of Ohio’s rampant job loss, I respectfully ask that you present to me the following information:

1.                  The date on which ODOD first learned that TeleTech Holdings, Inc. was looking to relocate;

2.                  The date on which ODOD first proactively reached out to TeleTech Holdings, Inc.; and,

3.                  The specific incentives that were included in the package to TeleTech Holdings, Inc.”

Steve Christopher filed yesterday with the State of Ohio to challenge Mike DeWine in the May Republican primary election for Ohio Attorney General.

“I made the decision to run against Mr. DeWine in order to give Ohio voters a conservative choice, after Dave Yost was asked by the Ohio Republican Party to run for Ohio State Auditor instead of Attorney General.”

Through a statewide grassroots effort, Christopher was able to garner nearly three times as many signatures as were needed over the past week in order to meet the quota necessary to file for candidacy.

“I am grateful for the efforts of so many who have stepped up to the plate to help in this endeavor.  People were literally hand-delivering petitions to my offices from as far away as Cincinnati and Medina.  These folks are the real heroes.”

Christopher is an attorney with offices in Findlay and Kenton.  He has been in the practice of law for 26 years, as well as serving as acting judge in Hardin County and as a Blanchard Township trustee.  He teaches part-time at Ohio Northern University.  He has lived in Hardin County most of his life, and is married with three grown children.