Ohio Chamber of Commerce - Governmental Affairs

By now you will have received the P.a.C.E. Filing Lists for the Ohio House of Representatives, Ohio Senate and Ohio Congressional Delegation. In the compressed time frame brought about by the early (March 7) presidential primary, elections officials are rushing to meet the deadlines established by law for the preparation of ballots.

No later than today, county boards of elections must certify the validity and sufficiency of partisan candidates for office. Independent candidates may file at any time until the close of business on March 6. Next week, P.a.C.E. staff will be making another round of phone calls to election boards, getting the names of disqualified candidates and candidates who have withdrawn. These updates will be made to the filing lists available on the Ohio Chamber of Commerce Web site.

Congressional District 12: Phil Harmon (R-Worthington) has withdrawn from the Republican primary and will file as an independent in the 12th.

On January 6, 7, and 8, state business political action leaders from around the country gathered for the annual United for State Action Roundtable meeting in Tempe, Arizona. This meeting facilitates the sharing of effective strategies to use in supporting pro-business political candidates, enables states to anticipate initiative and referendum activity and allows states to get a perspective of just how good (or bad) their political environment could be.

This meeting will be the source for a few more articles about important state political topics, but here are some of the "liner notes" from the meeting.

According to Chris Pugliese of the NY Business Advantage PAC, New York has 4,000 legislative staffers and a state legislative budget of $200 million. Ohio, by contrast, has consistently ranked last in per capita expenditure on its state legislature.

In noting record low voter turnouts in the 1999 Virginia State Assembly elections, Clayton Roberts of Virginia FREE said, "Prosperity has sucked the anger out of the electorate."

Several participants in the conference noted that while technology companies are driving the economy, their participation in public affairs and politics is disproportionately low. One said, "They don’t (or won’t) respond to the three biggest motivators to get involved in politics -- fear, duty, or status." With legislators in many states talking about Internet taxation, maybe the fear factor is going to get a big boost.

Though it isn’t getting nearly the attention that the 2000 Supreme Court race between incumbent Justice Alice Robie Resnick and Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Terry O’Donnell is receiving, the race for the other seat on the Supreme Court shouldn’t be overlooked.

The incumbent in the second contest is Justice Deb Cook. Cook, first elected in 1994, faces her first re-election. She has fashioned one of the highest P.a.C.E. Business Evaluation of the Ohio Supreme Court scores, at 62%.

The Democrats believe that Cook is vulnerable, and two Democrat candidates filed for the right to challenge her – Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Tim Black, who received the Ohio Democratic Party’s endorsement in December, and Second District Court of Appeals Judge David Brogan.

Brogan did not screen for the party’s endorsement, and his filing came as somewhat of a surprise. P.a.C.E. is currently evaluating Brogan’s Appeals Court record, and we will report our findings and take a closer look at his background in a future Political Edge.

Black has not run statewide previously and is not well known outside of Hamilton County. However, he possesses several attributes that made him an attractive candidate for the Democrats.

When first elected in 1993 to his current seat on the Hamilton County Municipal Court, he defeated an incumbent Republican judge. He also earned a reputation in that race – in which he reportedly thoroughly outworked his opponent – as an extremely hard campaigner.

Prior to being elected to the bench, Black was a private practice attorney with the Cincinnati law firm of Graydon, Head & Ritchey, a firm with many GOP ties. Furthermore, Black himself used to be a Republican, having switched parties in 1992. Democrats no doubt hope that these Republican connections will allow him to outperform typical Democrat Supreme Court candidates in deeply Republican Hamilton County as well as provide an entrée to the legal community’s financial contributors.

Additionally, Black’s experience as a trial judge is considered an asset that will give him credibility on issues which are typically high on voters’ list of requirements for judicial candidates: crime and law enforcement. As an African-American male trial court judge, Black presents an interesting contrast to Cook, a white female who is a former appeals court judge.

Though Cook is the incumbent and begins the race as the favorite, she isn’t well known throughout the state, given that she’s only run statewide once – albeit successfully – in 1994. And although the judge himself hasn’t been on the ballot statewide, the name Black is generically a good ballot name.

The Democrats’ strategy against Cook will likely be 1) to try to frame the debate around issues like "defending the rights of Ohio’s working families" and crime, 2) count on Black to again outwork his opponent, and 3) hope that high presidential-year turnout in heavily Democratic areas like northeast Ohio, coupled with Black doing better than typical Democrats in Hamilton County, will result in an upset. If Black is able to stay near Cook in fundraising, this scenario is not out of the realm of possibility.

In October of last year, the UAW completed its negotiations with the Big Three auto manufacturers, agreeing to a contract with Ford after striking similar agreements with GM and DaimlerChrysler earlier in the year. With automobile sales at record levels, the automakers agreed to nearly all of the union’s demands, fearful of a strike interrupting production.

While reports of the new four-year agreements focused on the annual wage increases and improved pension and health care benefits, another clause that may have enormous implications on elections across the country – especially in Ohio – escaped most public attention. The new contract provides that Election Day in 2000 and 2002 will be paid holidays for all UAW members.

According to the UAW website, the number of auto workers represented by the union in Ohio approaches 100,000. With Election Day now a paid day off, increased turnout amongst UAW members seems logical. However, it is also possible that auto worker turnout may actually decrease, due to the fact that they won’t be at their workplace on Election Day, thus depriving union organizers of the opportunity to remind and urge them to vote.

But whether or not the union members themselves turn out in higher numbers at the polls, the larger and more worrisome effect could be that union activists – freed from having to work – will have the ability to engage in Election Day get-out-the-vote activity – things like manning phone banks and driving voters to the polls.

Already planning to spend up to $46 million on a massive nationwide grassroots mobilization effort in 2000, this could give labor the manpower necessary to increase turnout, not necessarily amongst union members, but in targeted and heavily Democratic areas.

Many Republicans are angry with the Big Three, scolding the corporations for not considering the potential political ramifications of the contract provision. With a combined daily payroll of DaimlerChrysler, Ford, and G.M. auto workers of about $100 million, Gov. John Engler (R-MI) called it "the biggest corporate contribution in American political history, because the corporations will be paying the wages and the U.A.W. will be using the manpower to attempt to defeat Republican candidates."