Democratic News

Sponsors state Reps. David Leland (D-Columbus) and Thomas West (D-Canton) today announced the Senate passage of their legislation designating October 7 as “Moses Fleetwood Walker Day” in the state of Ohio to honor the nation’s first professional African American baseball player.

“Honoring Moses ‘Fleetwood’ Walker is more than just honoring a baseball player, because anytime we recognize and celebrate the fight for equality in our society, it moves the whole country forward,” said Leland, who also serves on the board of trustees for the Columbus Clippers, the Cleveland Indians’ Triple A farm team. 

The Republican-controlled Ohio House of Representatives held a second committee hearing on legislation that critics say would reduce wages and benefits for non-union and union workers in construction and building trade careers.

The legislation, House bill 163, would effectively limit wages and benefits for workers by kicking communities off the state’s prevailing wage structure before allowing them to reapply. Under current law, local communities and state universities undertaking public construction projects hire contractors who pay employees an industry-recognized standard wage, or prevailing wage, that is in line with their profession.

“Prevailing wages helped build the American middle class while delivering safe buildings to taxpayers on time and under budget,” said the state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan (D-Youngstown), the lead Democrat on the House Commerce and Labor Committee. “It would be a mistake to take us back to a time when poverty wages and dangerous buildings were considered the standard.” 

The Ohio Department of Commerce works with the U.S. Department of Labor to calculate prevailing wages and benefits to protect workers with careers as plumbers, painters, roofers, electricians, masons, elevator technicians, metal fabricators, and bricklayers.

 “Without fair wages, we’re looking at contractors who want to cut corners to increase company profits by hiring out-of-state and foreign workers with little experience for next to nothing,” added Lepore-Hagan. “It’s hypocritical for Republicans to encourage children to learn a trade or go to career-tech while they roll back wages and benefits that let those same workers buy a car, own their home and have a family. People are tired of politicians who say one thing and do another.”

Ohio’s “prevailing wage” laws have encouraged career paths for skilled workers and artisans in the b

A new, bipartisan effort to end Ohio’s Marriage Penalty – extra income taxes on married couples who file jointly in Ohio – will get attention from the House Ways and Means Committee tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 19 at 9:00 a.m. in Room 121 of the Statehouse.

Because Ohio is the only state in the Midwest to require married couples to file state tax returns mirroring their federal filing status, married couples in Ohio pay at least an extra $159 per year according to the Ohio Department of Taxation. State Reps. David Leland (D-Columbus) and John Becker (R-Union Township) are hoping to change that by allowing married people in the Buckeye State to choose the state filing status that suits them best.

In the wake of President Trump’s recent decision to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Ohio state lawmaker is asking Gov. John Kasich to make good on his call for immigrants to come to Ohio.

In a letter to Kasich today*, state Rep. Bernadine Kennedy Kent (D-Columbus) said immigrants with American-born children are being kicked out of the Buckeye State while the governor pleads with the nation to reject Trump’s divisiveness on national TV.

“I applaud you for separating yourself from President Donald Trump in front of a national TV audience, but taxpayers in Ohio need more than words,” Kent wrote in the letter. “The people we represent, and the people you called to come here, deserve a leader who will work hard with the legislature, or independently through executive order, to ensure that honest, caring people who are fighting for the American Dream have a safe place – a sanctuary – to call home in Ohio.”

The freshman is asking Kasich to issue an executive order in Ohio, “barring police and state resources from being used to enforce unstable federal immigration policy.”  

State Rep. Kathleen Clyde (D-Kent) recently shared her experiences as a state lawmaker in a severely gerrymandered state in a bipartisan amicus brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Wisconsin case, Gill v. Whitford, has implications for Ohio’s state legislative districts, which suffer similar constitutional defects. Plaintiffs in the case allege extreme partisan gerrymandering deprived them of their First Amendment right of association and the Equal Protection of the laws guaranteed to them by the 14^th Amendment.

“When the minority party is locked out of the legislative process, so are their constituents,” said Rep. Clyde. “We cannot effectively serve the people of Ohio when half of Ohioans’ concerns and preferences are ignored. I have seen the quality of work at the Statehouse go downhill in my four terms here because of the gerrymandered map that was drawn in a ‘bunker’ and approved by a short-sighted majority in 2011. We need to turn this dysfunctionality around and that is why I joined state lawmakers from Ohio and across the country to share my experiences in the brief."

Akron state lawmakers, Reps. Emilia Strong Sykes and Tavia Galonski, today issued the following joint statement in response to former Akron Police Chief James Nice’s use of racial slurs while in office:

“While our nation seems to be approaching a critical intersection of hateful and divisive dialogue, Nice’s language plays to this ugliness, distorting who we are as a community. We condemn Nice’s behavior in the strongest terms possible. We also urge our neighbors and constituents to look beyond one man’s failings in order to champion the good and righteous within our community. We are more than one person’s bad decisions. We are more than one man or woman’s judgement. We are Akron.”

State Rep. Bernadine Kennedy Kent (D-Columbus) is helping an Ohio woman finally achieve justice, 12 years after she was attacked and almost shot to death by her ex-boyfriend.

“I am shocked, because no one should be able to a shoot or try to kill someone and then not be held accountable in any shape, form or fashion,” said Kennedy Kent. “Any victim of a violent crime should be able to expect the justice system to fulfill its mission, but in this case that clearly did not happen.”

In 2005, Ms. Diona Clark’s estranged ex-boyfriend allegedly shot her in the chest and the wrist before turning the gun on himself. After falling into a coma for a month from the self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head, police never followed up with criminal charges.

In a recent meeting organized by Rep. Kennedy Kent that included Columbus Police Department Deputy Chief Richard Bash and Columbus Public Safety Deputy Director Kate Pishotti, Deputy Chief Bash apologized to Clark for the CPD “dropping the ball” before telling her that her “case was closed” because the statute of limitations for felonious assault had passed.

However, Rep. Kennedy Kent, having examined both the police files and reviewed Ohio law, pointed out that a kidnapping charge may be brought against Ms. Clark’s assailant, who allegedly physically restrained her from escaping the apartment where the shooting incident took place.

Clark, whose case has been re-opened since the July meeting, is currently awaiting word from the prosecutor’s office whether they will proceed with kidnapping charges against her attacker.

Clark has also used her experience to advocate on behalf of modernizing Ohio’s domestic violence laws. Earlier this year she testified at the Statehouse in support of House Bill 1, legislation to allow victims of dating violence to obtain civil protective orders against their attacker. Currentl

Controlling Board member state Rep. Nicholas J. Celebrezze (D-Parma) today raised concerns over a $265,000 no-bid contract between Ohio Secretary of State John Husted and Columbus-based Pierce Communications, Inc.’s for work on Husted’s upcoming “voter education effort.” Husted’s unbid quarter of a million dollar contract comes amid growing public concern and new legal restrictions on taxpayer-funded self-promotion of politicians in Ohio, after it was discovered Treasurer Josh Mandel spent almost $2 million in tax dollars on self-promotional ads with no oversight.

“Ensuring voters have information is fundamental in maintaining a robust American democracy. That’s why it’s equally important that elected officials don’t abuse the public trust by using public service announcements as self-promotional stepping stones to higher office,” said Celebrezze. “Taxpayers shouldn’t have to worry about Columbus politicians using their money to advance personal political ambitions.”

State Reps. Adam C. Miller (D-Columbus) and Bernadine Kennedy Kent (D-Columbus) recently introduced new legislation titled the School Safety Drill bill to help improve emergency response readiness in school districts across the state.

“With a new academic year upon us, school safety is on the minds of parents and remains a hot-button issue in every state, but especially here in Ohio,” said Kennedy Kent, a former high school principal and longtime teacher. “When students, teachers and staff finally get together after summer break, I believe it is important to review emergency procedures as soon as possible to ease stress and ensure everyone in the facility is on the same page.”

House Democratic Leader Fred Strahorn (D-Dayton) issued the following statement in response to the state auditor’s request that management companies, charter school sponsors and vendors reimburse the state when a charter school itself is overpaid for services that were never rendered, as was the case with a $60 million finding against the failing online charter school, ECOT:

“The state auditor is right to pursue overpayments to any and all parties that wrongly receive tax dollars for services that weren’t provided. The General Assembly should be inspired by the auditor’s appetite for following the money, and elected officials at all levels should look closely at how they may have personally benefitted from the free flow of taxpayer dollars to charter school operators and then to campaign accounts.”