ProgressOhio

[In an era of term limits, an economic downturn, especially one of the magnitude Ohio is facing, can paralyze a legislature. But the fact remains that progressive legislation and policies cannot only be revenue neutral, they can sometimes save money. Between now and June 30 (Ohio’s fiscal year end) Shadows will periodically feature revenue neutral, progressive policy ideas that can keep Ohio moving forward even in dire economic times.]

The citizens are safe: the Legislature has finally gone home. But for all the noise and headlines out of Columbus (and even Washington for that matter) things remain the same for Ohioans.

As I write, a video plays in the background announcing that one of the world’s top medical institutions, the Cleveland Clinic, has just completed the first full-facial transplant. It is a breakthrough fitting for Ohio, the home of Edison, Brush, Firestone, Kettering, Glenn and so many other achievers.

But even as we march forward, our economy, in Ohio and the nation, sits in tatters. At the heart of our economic collapse is a healthcare dilemma -- a system where that world-class, pioneering care is increasingly distant from average Ohioans.

Indeed, on the very day they announced their monumental achievement, the Cleveland Clinic also announced a salary and hiring freeze because Ohio’s dire economic crisis had decreased demand – in other words, people still get sick, but now they are uninsured or otherwise can’t afford treatment.

Everyone is burdened by the high cost of healthcare. In fact, ProgressOhio spends 12% of its monthly expenditures on employee healthcare. Individuals are rarely spared – the rising costs are often passed on through decreased access or increased co-pays and out-of-pocket costs.

Joblessness, which Ohio is seeing record numbers of, lead to more pressures on government as the safety net of last resort in an employer paid system – hence the Cleveland Clinic’s dilemma.

And central to all of this is the fact that healthcare is 15.2% of America’s GDP and expected to rise to 19% by 2017. And Cleveland, one of the hardest hit of a devastated Ohio economy is heavily invested not only in manufacturing and auto products, but in medical products manufacturing and health industry sectors.

As Congress works on a comprehensive solution to America’s economic collapse that will certainly include healthcare reform, we asked one of Ohio’s foremost healthcare advocates, Cathy Levine of UHCAN Ohio, to help identify an agenda for Ohio’s legislature that is revenue neutral and could help Ohioans control the spiraling costs of healthcare service and quality.

“Even in a tight budget, there are things we can do that don’t need taxpayer money – and could actually save money,” Levine wrote this week.

So here are Eleven Things Ohio Can Do to Fix Healthcare:

Earlier this year in Shadows “All Damm-ed Up and Nowhere to Go” the link between the Dispatch Editorial Board and Reporters was revealed in a series of emails in which it was clear that Franklin County Board of Elections Deputy Director Matt Damschroder is the straw that stirs the drink both for his Party and Dispatch writers.

But now comes a new wrinkle.

How long would you keep your job if you got your company sued?

If you're Damschroder, the controversial Republican Deputy Director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, that's a very good question.

Thursday, the Steve Stivers campaign filed a lawsuit against the Franklin County Board of Elections and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. Their goal is to keep thousands of provisional ballots from being counted in that close race. It's a typical – and despicable – partisan lawsuit.

What isn't typical is who helped them with the lawsuit.

It was a cut-and-paste job based solely on information from Matt Damschroder, an employee of the Board being sued ironically enough by Stivers.

Damschroder provided emails, carefully edited directives, and insider information in an affidavit that provided every shred of information in the lawsuit.

And while the Board of Elections system is rightfully partisan – you have to wonder at what point Mr. Damschroder crosses the line between partisan activity and service to the overall Elections system and the taxpayers he serves.

So, here are a few very important questions for the Franklin County board.

How can an employee help a partisan campaign sue his own board over decisions they haven't even made and still keep his/her job?

Shouldn't the board bar Matt Damschroder from processing or counting provisional ballots?

Can Franklin County voters trust Matt Damschroder now that he has shown he doesn't want thousands of provisional ballots to count, even though he's be told to count them by the state's chief elections officer?

In politics, field work is much like the offensive line in football: you only tend to notice it when the quarterback ends up with a grass stain on his gluteous maximus .

Gradually from 2004, 2006 to 2008 Ohio Democrats seem to have developed a solid front line.

And yes, I did say 2004, where Democrats actually generated more new voters than the GOP but still fell short of a GOP “W” surge. For all the criticism of former ODP Chair Denny White’s 2004 showing, President Obama’s initial numbers (pre-paper ballots and provisional’s) were under 2004 numbers by around 108,000 votes. Race may have played a factor, as well as the lackluster performance by Sen. John McCain, but 2004 in the end will likely have a few more Democratic Presidential voters than 2008 – so give the much-maligned 2004 folks their due at the very least they performed even with President Obama’s impressive ground game.

The fact of the matter is that John McCain never excited Ohioans. He fell over 421,000 votes short of “Ws” 2004 record surge – and that has every bit to do with message and voter intensity thanks to Wall Street’s collapse.

Democrats have learned how to mobilize urban and suburban areas – and now have become familiar faces in rural spots such as Troy, Wapakoneta and Piketon. The shift came when Democrats stopped targeting by County borders and instead created pools of micro-targeted voters statewide. President Obama’s goal was matched to Kerry or Strickland historical behavior. Technology has changed political science and suddenly winning in Henry County is more about matching or exceeding the historical ceiling for Democrats – not about winning the county. Its pacman politics and it works.

Chris Redfern’s troika of Doug Kelly, Aaron Pickrell and John Hagner have put together a solid field foundation over on Fulton Street – with the only remaining test – continuity – something sorely lacking in ODP HQs of the past (admittedly, I contributed) .

But give the folks of ODP 2004 their due respect, as of now they still provided the numerical high ceilings of votes in 2004 – a base to build off of – like it or not. And that should take nothing away from President Obama’s historic campaign which turned a huge primary loss into a win – and wins get the glory as do coat-tails.

The real spotlight on the ODP troika’s vaunted field mobilization program lays not in the blue paint the cable channels colored the state on election night, but down-ticket: the ODP added two, possibly three, Congressional seats; shifted power in the Ohio House; and scored a number of local upsets. The national ticket certainly had coat-tails, but field work was the team tailor. The coat-tail effect is the difference between 2004 and 2008 that makes this campaign so special.

It also shows the importance of the Governor’s office in funding a party structure. Like it or not the corner office in the Statehouse makes things for a State Party Chairman much more comfy.

That said, it was Wall Street not High Street that created voter intensity on the Democratic side and more importantly lack of it on the GOP side. The mechanics of field are always important, but the motivating message is what gets people off the couch and voting. Wall Street woes changed America on Tuesday. Election Day was really a September morn when the ticker dive-bombed at a pace never before seen.

Proud to be an American Today

It was 6 a.m. in America when I left my home to vote in my new precinct.

At 6:20 I was somewhere between the 250th and 300th person in line.

My polling place was at the Islamic Center in the Northwest suburbs of Columbus. I found myself as a Jew standing in the Islamic center with neighbors of all races – the line was a patchwork of what America has become since my birth during the height of the Civil Rights struggles.

On our ballot were candidates of all races, genders and ages including the likelihood that this evening America will elect either the First African American President, or the first Female Vice President.

And you have to wonder – would my grandparents and great-grandparents recognize the America we have become.

It took about one hour and fifteen minutes to vote.

But you can’t help but marvel at the fact that it has taken generations for America to tear down walls and ceilings to get to this day.

In Ohio today it is Indian summer. The sun is shining and it is expected to be over 70 degrees – fitting weather for a fitting day. Because today in the Islamic Center it sure seemed like decades of hate had melted away.

We're usually pretty low-key in reporting about ourselves.

But we're proud of today's NPR story in which Peter Overby reported that local state-based organizing works: 

Listen Now

"Matzzie says some low-profile, state-level groups are this year's success stories".

"Before the campaigns themselves start spending money, it helps to have someone else out there stoking the fires to keep the issue debate in a good place," he says.

So months and months ago, Progress Now and its state affiliates started building grass-roots networks, laying the groundwork for a Democratic campaign.

Republicans don't have any counterpart to this — so far.

We know here at ProgressOhio that it works because of citizen participation by over 350,000 progressives like you who have participated in ProgressOhio activities.

Locally-based progressive communications hubs work. And as an ealry partner in this growing experiment (Colorado was the flagship and there are now affiliates in Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, New Mexico and California) we're proud of the work we do each and every day.

And we never forget – at ProgressOhio "we're powered by you!"

Back in 2004, recent Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman published an infamous column about Ohio's right-wing election administration headlined "Block the Vote."

Well, there he goes again. It's 2008 and Ken Blackwell's partisan games could have cost 200,000 people their right to vote absent today's Supreme Court Decision in favor of Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner.

Just so we're on the same page, let's consider some of the experts on voter registration fraud:

"There's no evidence that any of these invalid registrations lead to any invalid votes. The Justice Department really made prosecution of voter fraud of this sort a big priority in the first half of this decade, and they really didn't come up with anything."

- David Becker, former DOJ Voting Rights Section lawyer under President Bush.

"Indeed, we are aware of no recent substantiated case in which registration fraud has resulted in fraudulent votes being cast."

 - Brennan Center for Justice, 2007 study

However, you only need to turn on a TV to see that ACORN is the right-wing bogeyman of the moment.

During a recent interview a Fox News anchor asked if ACORN was using "guerilla, militant tactics." His guest had just written a column revealing "an unexpected twist": in addition to being behind the biggest vote fraud in history, ACORN and their "bare-knuckle tactics" are now supposedly responsible for the sub-prime U.S. financial meltdown!

What wasn't a twist, was the guest and columnist in question: Ken Blackwell.

Yes, the very same Ken Blackwell who:

• invited the Black Panthers to speak at his university
• credited same-day registration for his first electoral win
• sat on the boards of a bank now making headlines over losing hundreds of millions in the sub-prime meltdown

is now persecuting the "radical" ACORN for their "radical" involvement in same-day registration efforts and being involved in risky investments.

The national media has allowed Ken Blackwell to recast his own record. The man who tried to disenfranchise tens of thousands over "an archaic rule about paper quality" while he was in office, is now trying to disenfranchise 200,000 more Ohioans, now that he is out.

There is more than Halloween fright in the Ohio air these days. Race and gay-baiting is front and center and not where you expect it.

The battle for control of the Ohio House is every bit as intense as the Presidential election. And if the past week is any indication, the hard work on dividing Ohioans is being done in the down-ticket races with an obvious nod to its impact at the top of the ticket.

Yard signs are plentiful. Candidates and committees argue over alleged fouls. And our political better natures are increasingly lost in the wilderness of voting records and taxes (anyone notice no matter who is in charge taxes never go down.)

It is Ohio after all, and the standard Ohio Appalachian mail piece, featuring gun-toting, Elmer Fudd-dressed surrogates, are once more fresh in our minds (even a fake one of Gov. Palin in a bikini).

But if you want a gut check on human nature and all that troubles our society, come to Ohio every four years in the final three weeks of a campaign when political desperation takes all the warts and ugliness deep within humanities hearts– and shows the world the worst of our human failings.

This year is no different:

• When all else fails, pick on gays: The former Chief of Staff of the House who along with his Speaker proudly proclaimed in the Other Paper that they had stood up to intolerance over “banning gay adoption” now running the campaigns which are attacking candidates for standing up to intolerance over “banning gay adoption” with a curiously silent Speaker. Was it just a PR ploy?
• The return of Willie Horton ad -- Ohio Style: Ahh, in the new political lexicon of Main Street this hallow’s eve season, what lurks beneath the “oil can dome” of the quest for power. The question is – Is it power for power’s sake? Or is it power that can finally help Ohioans on Oak Street where all the family’s and our wallets live.
• Bull Connor Attitude Revival: There was a time when poor voters were scrutinized in the name of fraud – where access to the polls was a struggle – and where community organizers were identified as the problem. In the interest of political expedience one-man, one-vote gets twisted into prove you are “one-man” – a negative presumption meant to freeze rights in the name of supposed fraud. Back then it was race. Today – well just politics – hmm, come to think about it wasn’t politics the factor back then either.
• English Only As Cover for Racism: Yep, down in Cincinnati both political parties seem to think an attack using the cover of “English only” is veiled racism. Of course, it doesn’t stop the attack. Power is at stake.

Tom Noe conduit Maggie Thurber is now spewing pro-payday lending talking points.

When the anti-government group COAST, rolled into Toledo this morning, the former Lucas County Commissioner Thurber did the group's bidding by making the case for lenders' campaign to keep charging borrowers 391% interest.

The pro-consumer YES on Issue 5 campaign continues to vex the lenders.

The YES vote has support from high-profile  Democrats such as Gov. Strickland and high-profile conservatives such as Senate President Bill Harris and state rep. Bill Batchelder.

Add endorsements from anti-poverty groups such as those representing foodbanks and low-income citizens and traditional GOP-leaners such as the farm bureau and manufacturers' association, and where is a lender to turn?

Not much left out there -- but those Noe conduits need to find a way to be useful.

In case you forgot the details of Maggie's money madness, the May 31, 2006, Toledo Blade has the details:

Former GOP fund-raiser Tom Noe admitted today that he used politicians, former aides to Gov. Bob Taft, coworkers, and friends to illegally pour thousands of dollars into the effort to reelect President Bush….

The Noe probe identified several current and former politicians as "conduits," including Toledo City Councilman Betty Shultz, Lucas County Commissioner Maggie Thurber, former Toledo mayor Donna Owens, and former state representative Sally Perz.''

On hehalf of YES on 5, some questions for Maggie:

1. Was it wrong to help Noe launder money?
YES

2. Should the mess in Washington teach us the dangers of loosely regulated capital?
YES

3. Is greed one of the seven deadly sins?
YES

4. How should we vote on Issue 5?
YES

5. Are the payday lenders paying Maggie to blog in their favor?

Nothing would surprise me

WLWT – Cincinnati -- “Joshua Minshall is just 22 years old with 19 driving convictions….16 suspensions."

In August of 2004, Minshall was pulled over and blew .16, twice the legal limit. With a conviction, he would have faced an automatic 6-month license suspension.

But when he appeared in Sharonville mayor's court, the DUI charge was reduced. Minshall paid a $300 fine, his license was suspended for just 3 months, and he never served a day in jail.

He walked out of court without a DUI on his record.

Fred Stratmann, Ohio BMV Spokesman, "Why not give him an OVI conviction, suspend his license for six months and put that on his record."

Seven days later, Minshall was arrested again for drunken driving, this time in Tennessee.”

-WLWT Cincinnati, 11/15/06

If you thought the Ohio Legislature had tightened all the loopholes on sentencing drunk drivers, think again.

Mayor’s Courts are a relic, remaining on the books only in Ohio and Louisiana. Sharonville, immortalized in the Minshall case, is historically one of the most active in caseload and revenue – with a connected Mayor who helps keep the revenue flowing.

Despite efforts from Sharonville and others to preserve their cash cows, Ohio Chief Justice Tom Moyer took the unusual step of testifying in the Ohio House in favor of suburban Columbus GOP Rep. Larry Wolpert’s original version of H.B. 154 which in its first draft did away with the conflicts caused by Mayor’s Courts.

Sharonville is a sleepy bedroom community outside Cincinnati best known for Princeton High School, which, for better or worse, gave the world Carmen Electra, Tony Snow and a number of professional athletes. Increasingly, however the city is defined by long-time Mayor Virgil Lovitt’s use of the Mayor’s Court as a cash cow un-restrained by the General Assembly. To emphasize the Court’s importance nearly all minutes of Council meetings include a Mayor’s report largely on the revenue produced through his Court activity.

Lovitt is responsible for Mayor’s Court and previously presided in the Court. In fact, back in 1999 he apologized to a local-celebrity DUI defendant, stating “I’m sorry it was in this court” after handing out his lenient sentence. Nowadays, as is the case in many larger jurisdictions, he farms out the role of judge. Not much has changed, however, as the WLWT-TV 2006 Minshall story made clear, nearly a third of the court’s drunk driving charges were plead down. But, then again in one Enquirer story Sharonville Police Lt. Mark Preuss maintained “It's harder to prosecute a DUI than a murder case” and admits “We don’t catch the smart ones.”

When the good people of Sharonville want to focus on a problem – they do it with gusto. Take for instance their well-publicized crackdown on massage parlors over the past year that garnered headlines and news stories all over Cincinnati.

But when it comes to drunk driving, this Mayor’s Administration did not seem to make the issue a big priority. For example, Sharonville’s 2005 Comprehensive Audit and Financial Record (CAFR) reported that $41,883 was budgeted for DUI Education and Enforcement programs, but only $7,223 was spent. Even worse was 2006 when $6,000 was allocated and $0 spent on DUI education and enforcement, despite the receipt of an additional reported $50,000 grant from the federal government for that purpose.

Sharonville’s Mayor’s office is not immune from other controversies. At the urging of renowned former porn addict Phil Burress and his Citizen for Community Values bully pulpit crowd, Mayor Lovitt and the city council changed Sharonville laws to go after massage parlors which police say cater to prostitution.

Having passed the gay marriage ban and successfully locking up the Ohio legislature for most of 2007 in a highly publicized and sometimes jocular debate over the distance between patrons and pole dancers, Burress needed a new pet issue to moralize on.

Somehow these masseur dens of sin existed below the radar during Mayor Lovitt’s first 10 ½ years in office – but then again it could be that he also made the mistake of endorsing Democrat Todd Portune for County Commissioner and supporting a dreaded county tax – so massage parlors became a convenient way to hold the religious right at bay.

In any event, score one for Mr. Burress- from now on, the laying on of hands in Sharonville will be done only in church.

So just what kind of town is Sharonville, where driving drunk means leniency but massage parlors signal heresy?

Sharonville (motto: City of Progress), is the kind of place where the last contested Mayor’s race before 2007 was back in 1971, where Mayor’s speeches to the local Chamber are held in high esteem, and politics is more boardroom than war room. But every once in a while, a bizarre crisis makes headlines. Take for example these gems from the pages of the Cincinnati Enquirer:

• To Catch a Predator Sharonville Style: The Deputy Auditor met an underage boy for a tryst

Thomas Burske, the former deputy auditor who was dismissed after his arrest Thursday in Tuscarawas County on charges that he tried to meet with a 16-year-old boy he contacted over the Internet for sex. Burske faces a federal charge of using a computer to induce a juvenile into having sex.

• A Culture of Corruption: The Public Works Director stole city property

Mayor Virgil Lovitt said the city would proceed with caution in replacing two top administrators recently terminated for alleged wrongdoing.

John Saar, the city's former public works director, was fired two weeks ago for allegedly removing a lift gate from city property on the weekend and then ignoring normal policies so he could give a relative the equipment.

Conflicts of interest, disobeying policies and not exercising common sense were among reasons given for his termination in a memorandum written by Al Ledbetter, the city's safety-service director.

Saar was making $69,800 a year. He worked about 20 years for the cities of Mason and Forest Park before joining Sharonville in January 2002.

• A Half-a-Million Dollar Giveaway to Avoid a Firefighters Union: Sharonville overpaid firefighters by $500,000 then passed an ordinance asking for money back. Firefighters threaten to unionize and the city let them keep the money.

The city's $500,000 overpayment of firefighters continues to be debated, with some residents questioning officials' decision to forgive the mistake.

Now, some of the firefighters have told the city they want to unionize.

Union – in Cincinnati, whoa…And then….

…The city initially passed an ordinance to collect the overpayment but reconsidered after discussions with city lawyers and the state auditor's office.

The city investigated to make sure no one involved had been dishonest.

Finding that no one had, Lovitt said the city responded in the only way he and council members thought appropriate: to forgive the overpayments.

"We realized it was asking people too much (to repay it), and the only thing to do was to forgive it," he said Monday. "We don't like to eat it, but it's the right thing to do."

Sharonville does not differ economically from most aging Ohio towns and suburban cities, and is a case study of how the economy is in the tank. Where Sharonville once had debt service of slightly over $150,000 (1996), that amount has increased to almost $2 million a year in recent years.

Obviously, the denizens of Sharonville are not immune from the dreaded realities of right-wing fear – massage parlors, deviants, criminals on the public dole, municipal debt issues and heavens the threat of unionization – but curiously alcohol-fueled drivers are not on the radar screen.

The reason the Sharonville Mayor appointed a magistrate instead of presiding himself relates to a 1999 federal decision that Ohio’s Supreme Court reports there to be an unconstitutional conflict when a mayor can level a fine that is paid into a budget the mayor controls. Many cities and villages have attempted to address this conflict by hiring magistrates.

But that may not be enough. Chief Justice Moyer himself testified that none other than Ohioan William Howard Taft had questioned the Constitutionality of Mayor’s Courts:

“The mayor represents the village and cannot escape his representative capacity.

Oh the other hand, he is given the judicial duty, first, of determining whether the defendant is guilty at all, and second having found his guilt, to measure his punishment.

“With his interest as mayor, in the financial condition of the village and his responsibility therefore, might not a defendant with reason say that he feared he could not get a fair trial or a fair sentence from one who would have so strong a motive to help his village by conviction and heavy fine?”

The decision of Chief Justice Taft was reinforced more recently in a 1999 decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The head of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in the Sharonville area, Andrea Rehkamp seemed to agree that conflict’s like Sharonville’s still exist when she told the WLWT reporter back in 2006:

"Unfortunately, mayor's courts hear DUI's simply to generate revenue for the municipality. They often don't follow the law. Many times they reduce it to reckless operation and this needs to stop."

By 2005, Sharonville’s Mayor’s Court generated the highest revenue in the state according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. In 2006 the City earned more than $354,449 from its mayor's court. That excludes the money sent to the state.

But apart from the lure of revenue, according to the Ohio Supreme Court’s annual reporting documents, the efficiency of Mayor’s Courts is in question.

• The number of cases pending at year end beyond the recommended timeframe has increased three-fold since 2004
• The number of cases tried by mayors has decreased nearly 50 percent since 2004.

Any Ohio town can have a Mayor’s Court so long as there population exceeds 100 people. And for many in Ohio Mayor’s Court’s exist only in old westerns. But the fact is they are quite popular in Ohio:

• Ohio had 335 mayor’s courts in operation last year.
• In 2007, Ohio’s mayor’s courts had 4,514 pending cases beyond the recommended timeframe – six months – at the end of the year compared to 1,505 in 2004.
• While trials conducted by mayors have dropped from 2,075 in 2004 to 1,080 in 2007, magistrates have increasingly filled the void. In 2004, magistrates conducted 3,758 trials in mayor’s courts compared to 6,033 last year.

All of which is likely why Justice Moyer told the House Committee:

“It is not enough that a mayor appoints a lawyer to act as a magistrate in mayor's court. House Bill 154 separates the function. It simply provides that the administrative judge of the local municipal court where the mayor's courts are established would appoint the magistrate. The result is a community court, conducted at the same convenient location as a mayor's court. But the perception will no longer exist that the adjudicator may be influenced by the village's need for funds.”

Unfortunately, Moyer’s vision of a Court separated from Mayors like Lovitt was not to be. While early versions of Wolpert’s Bill created a “Community Court” with a magistrate to be appointed by the local Municipal Court which eliminated the Chief Justice’s perceived conflict– politics intervened late last spring and the most recent substitute bill indicates that mayors must now be consulted in the appointment of a magistrate.

For that, Lovitt can thank fellow area GOP politico Lou Blessing, chair of the committee hearing the bill, and one may surmise played a role in helping recruit Lovitt to run for the Ohio House this year. After all, without a House majority there is no Committee Chairmanship.

Mayor Lovitt is currently a candidate for State Representative in a hotly contested seat which could decide control of the House – a seat which opened up after Governor Strickland appointed a GOP incumbent Jim Raussen to a State job.

For small-town mayors like Virgil Lovitt that no doubt would mean reaching out to your Columbus connections to preserve the cash cow of Mayor’s Court revenue from a friend like Lou Blessing and others in Columbus – a club he wants to join.

As for the citizens of Sharonville, it seems to mean a few less CCV “massage parlors”, and a few more drunks driving the streets of their small town.

Such is the sad state of affairs of Ohio Municipal Government.

A Chief Justice and GOP legislator both want to end Mayor’s Courts and plea bargains like that which allowed Joshua Minshall more OVIs.

But as with all things “Buckeye” politics and money have gotten in the way.

Sharonville citizens, as well as the rest of Ohio, deserve better.

As conventions ebb and flow, Day 4 breeds familiarity.

Suits give way to sport coats, which give way to open colors and finally to shorts in today’s informal world (except Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory who I long ago concluded likely has pajamas with coat and tie.)

It was that atmosphere that  actually seemed appropriate for the Democratic delegations family goodbye to Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Remembering STJ requires smiles and laughter – that was in essence Stephanie.

The Ohio delegation laughed, cried and even sang when remembering the one Ohio politician that took over a room without saying a word. Lee Fisher’s son put together a moving tribute from past footage and STJs son Mervyn who had been in town earlier this week left a video message for the Ohio delegation. You could see even in two dimensional video how she lifted the energy level of the room.

Many delegates will return home on Friday and face the busy realities of Ohio politics right off the bat. The memorial at Cleveland Public Hall for Tubbs Jones will attract not only the Democratic ticket and most Ohio political luminaries, but many Congressional leaders of both parties as well.

Tonight in Dayton, John McCain arrives in economically hard hit Dayton to anoint his ticket at a large rally on Friday morning.

After the Tubbs Jones Memorial Ohio will see the Obama ticket in Columbus.

If there is any doubt that Ohio is once again the heart of electoral politics – it is wiped away by the furious pace of conventions and politicking back in the Buckeye state. The race is on and the pace is fast.

Republicans packing for Minneapolis next week are equally taxed preparing for their own dual spotlight of conventioneering and McCain appearances.

And for the rest of Ohio they are targets as much as bemused bystanders. The negative ads began in July and will only pick up a faster, nastier and more furious pace.

From targeted mail and phone calls, to marketing programs aimed at clear demographics – Ohioans in their living rooms await an onslaught earlier and more costly than even 2004.

John McCain has to win Ohio. And it may not be as numerically necessary but Barak Obama’s path is much clearer with Ohio than without Ohio.

Everywhere you go in Denver, when someone hears you are from Ohio they stop you and ask how things can be different in Ohio this time around.

And the irony of all of this is that the one Ohio Pol who most enjoyed a good spirited campaign, the one who always seemed tireless, will not be there to enjoy it.

So amidst the tears and laughter at the memorial to Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohioans are in search of that adrenalin rush, the cheerleader in Stephanie that somehow made volunteering or working in politics fun.

A cab driver here in Denver told me his theory of energy which extends beyond just machinery but within people – emotional energy, spiritual energy and physical energy.

Little did he know that he more than anyone defined what Stephanie Tubbs Jones meant to the Ohio delegation during the hyper-kinetic days of campaigns like 2004. Somehow that smile and optimism lifted the energy level around her.

If those in Denver are to achieve their goal, they are going to have to replace that spark from within. Then and only then will they find solace in Stephanie’s long goodbye.

It’s finally over. Or was it over in Iowa. For Barak Obama in reality had a cyber convention long before this week’s show in Denver.

Not since the 1968 dramatic primary of Lyndon Johnson’s surprise announcement, MLK and RFK slain in violence, Eugene McCarthy and finally Hubert Humphrey has the Democratic Party withstood a long tough primary.

But unlike 1968 the voice of change emerged – largely from new technology. A well-funded Hillary-Bill Clinton machine, steeped in traditional politics, planned for four years and set the table for four years, only to be done in by a social convention in bytes and bits online.

Where Humphrey had a party machine, Barak Obama used new media masterfully, re-wrote the primary script, the fundraising script and thus created a new ending.

And it ushers in a very new era in politics – a different historical moment than that talked about most often in Denver this week. The rule-book of organizing and politics is changed forever.

From the obvious that a Bush or a Clinton will not reside on Pennsylvania Avenue for the first time since 1988, to the two million online donors Obama has reportedly attracted on-line – the dynamics of national politics changed forever today, when Hillary Clinton graciously and exuberantly sealed her unanimous support of Obama’s legendary primary.

Two million on-line donors change forever the dynamics of influence in politics.

Where Obama surely pulls in special interest and corporate donations – they are not a reliant lobby – not when you have an online well of $2 million one dollar donations waiting in the well.

Using the same Blue State Digital technology that ProgressOhio uses and an arsenal of creative out-of-the-box thinking, Obama was able to change even the way in which people can organize their support.

Whether the MyObama social networking that triumphed in Iowa or the creative text-message announcement of his Vice Presidential nominee, Obama managed to do what few progressives have done – merge the grassroots door-to-door model of organizing with the online tools that drop in our lives every day.

The “old” Saul Illinsky style of door to door organizing which a young Obama learned on the streets of Chicago merged with the tools of organizing groups, blogging, email, texting and user generated participation. It’s no longer one style or the other. Barak Obama merged the two.

Where Clinton managed to use the tools of old organizing in large states like Ohio, Obama did the unthinkable and chipped away state by state in places that had not seen a primary Presidential candidate since 1968.

In Pac-man like fashion he blew up Iowa and super-Tuesday and rolled into unlikely places like Idaho with huge crowds and along the way created a community of believers instead of a patchwork campaign of coalitions.

And Wednesday evening, in an ode to the new politic, the old-fashioned roll call never even finished as Hillary Rodham Clinton nominated Obama by acclimation – a formality thanks to the organizing efforts online.

The McCain campaign with its parody of the Obama movement shouting Obama, Obama, Obama seems to be headed toward the same misunderstanding as the Clinton campaign when it comes to the Obama movement. This isn’t driven by Obama or handlers; it is driven by people not at rally’s but reading email, chatting online, at the office and at home. It involves Americans who have not participated in the process and may never do so outside their homes.

Indeed in Ohio, it even attracted Ohio’s acting Attorney General Nancy Hardin Rogers and her husband who left his law firm to help the Obama campaign – the significance – both had father’s who served in Republican Richard Nixon’s cabinet. It is a deep-rooted community that transcends the norm.

As I sit in Denver I file this story from the two story Big Tent filled with bloggers and legitimate journalists. Videos stream live onto the internet to be posted and emailed back home. Newspapers struggle in the electronic age while blogging alongside volunteer bloggers and folks like us at ProgressOhio. None of this existed in Boston four years ago after a brief glimpse of possibility in Howard Dean’s fledgling 2004 campaign that seems like Jurassic Park with today’s advances.

It remains to be seen how things will play out in two months. Will states like Ohio that still have machines and organizations trump the on-line effectiveness of Obama? Or will Obama’s appeal in the new west of Colorado, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico and the reformed south of formerly lost states like Virginia change the script that seems headed for the Buckeye state, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Will negative television keep the race tight? Will John McCain have a Howard Dean moment that many predict or fear? Will race rear an ugly head? And more to the point will race even matter?

As recently as last month a gutter-level anti-Semitic add in an ugly Memphis, Tennessee primary largely back-fired or more to the point was ignored in an 80% to 20% victory against such ugly tactics.

And with a community of over two million funders, who are also activists, Sen. McCain will face the same unwritten script as the Clinton campaign – how and whether he can adjust to the electronic unknown can and will make a difference in a tight state such as Ohio as the negative attacks counter each other and swing voters bask in confusion.

It is often said the netroots has yet to win the big-one much like Ohio State in the last two National Title games – but Barak Obama is the netroots and this time the big-one was won – not the biggest one, but close to it.

The fact of the matter is that if Barak Obama is able to pull off a victory in November, the sheer size of his organized community will help him govern in a fashion that will allow him to cut loose a funder or lobby on issues that cause gridlock.

The way in which he cobbled this victory together will impact the way in which he has the freedom to govern. It may perhaps be the one thing that can break our nation’s dreaded gridlock that prevents a national government from moving forward socially and economically.

But all of it matters only if the Obama community does not scare off a Middle America that may be increasingly exposed to new technology, but is also decidedly dowdy in style. That in essence is what John McCain’s supporters were conveying in their Paris Hilton celebrity ad.

The nation has embraced netroots through Obama mania, but in the end the price of victory for Barak Obama may just be convincing the netroots to embrace the nation in places like Ohio.

Of course, Barak Obama has faced this before in integrating old school organizing with new technology. The question is whether he can integrate old school Middle America moderate social politics with his new found community of vocal change. Polling is on Obama’s side.

The question is can he merge competing traditions old and new once again. And for that he needs his two million strong community to embrace a stodgy nation into his community rather than allow the McCain campaign to isolate and scare the cusp of victory away.

As the sun rose over the Rockies, weary revelers emerged state by state in host hotels bleary and at times teary over the emotional night at the Pepsi Center last evening.

Day 2 in Denver for Ohioans began with memories of Ted Kennedy's surprise speech; the old liberal lion had come perhaps to say "Thank You" to a mass of Democrats mostly born after his brother and even after his historic but conflicted 1980 run for the roses.

The video didn't come out as I'd hoped and wasn't posted, but Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan summed up emotionally what it really meant to Ohio. Hagan had recently visited the "old lion" at his home in Hyannis and spoke of the eternal optimism of Ted Kennedy. Dennis Kucinich in a video we posted spoke of the importance to the progressive movement of Sen. Kennedy.

Elsewhere as newspapers speculated about Stephanie Tubbs Jones replacement, delegates were whispering – uncertain how to proceed until Saturday's memorial service. Most including those being speculated about – are torn between the discomfort of the Congressional opening, and the uncertainty of how to proceed.

Joe Hewitt, STJs longtime communication advisor was passing out buttons in her memory – less than a week after having to conduct one of the most complicated press conferences in Cleveland history as the Congresswoman lay mortally wounded yet still fighting on during one of Cleveland's darkest days.

Elsewhere, Tuesday was the day that progressives and Democrat's began to discuss just what Obama mania change is and will be. In part, it has to do with message planning. But in reality the events at the Pepsi Center from both Michelle Obama and Ted Kennedy changed dynamics among delegates.

From Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison panel discussion of a "new" new deal at the U S Action appearance at the Big Tent to Leo Girard passionately quoting from Ronald Reagan's Chairman of his Economic Council Advisor's concern over trade policy and the lack of a U.S. manufacturing base – Tuesday was the day that brought glimpses of a reality check to tomorrows euphoria of a fresh new face of hope unseen since the 1992 election.

Progressives no longer speak of hope in future tense – they live and breathe ideas for a new Congress and a new White House from a weary nation besieged economically and over war. Maybe over-confidence, but conventions breed such hope. Only Howard Dean was there to remind Ohio delegates of the hard work ahead.

As a city, there is still little site of the vagaries of Denver life hidden from view by City leaders showing their best face. One observant attendee noted the "vanilla" look around the downtown area – not in a negative way, but rather a knowing glance. A former Clevelander now a Denverite pointed out that much like in the City by the lake there is more economic segregation than racial segregation of population – but segregation in any name is a battle not yet won – even with the historic Obama nomination.

It's not quite China, but there is a certain hypocrisy that some far left groups rightfully point out – nevertheless Denver officials have put on quite a show.

Over at the Big Tent celebrity sightings included a sighting of Katie Couric in the second floor interview room section of the ProgressNow, Sustainable Colorado facility. Out on a sidewalk talking with an Ohio politico, former Florida Senator and presidential candidate Bob Graham stopped to chat joking about a wager over turnout in Florida and Ohio. Ironically Sen. Graham lamented the Florida delegation was located way off-site – just eight years removed from being the center of the Democratic universe which is perhaps a pre-cursor to come from the Ohio heyday of the last two conventions given the potential loss of Congressional seats and electoral votes. Curses, of course, the power in my phone had drained. Graham is always a good video.

A beaming Lee Fisher seen on video, had obvious pride over his son's "SwingState" documentary filmed during the 2006 election. Rich Cordray seemingly everywhere interviewing others for his own online effort.

Jennifer Brunner fresh off a New York Times accolade addressed the delegates. Relaxed, a table full of State Representatives tells the tale of meeting Willie Nelson who gave out free CDs. The Big Tent guest list includes Ben Affleck. Delegates chatter about celebrity sightings throughout town. Rich Trumka Secretary Treasurer of the AFL is kind enough to stop for an interview – as does Leo Gerard.

Security is still tight. Last night and today military vehicles roam and security clad teams of men in black riot gear patrol down the streets, eerily reminding us all of the dangers of today's world. As they march it is an eerie police state feeling – but their cadence fades quickly among the chatter of sidewalk cafes throughout Denver.

Protesters seem sparser and spread farther out of the perimeter.  

Some roads are closed. Denver cab drivers notoriously slow to respond are moving at an even slower pace. After oversleeping and waiting for a cab, I hail instead the Motel 6 super who gives me a lift in his truck downtown to the delegate hotel.

 Governor Strickland spoke to the California delegate breakfast  and had his evening DNC speech moved twice until he was close to the coveted prime time spot – first from 4:30 to 7:45 and then to 9:45. He plans to discuss the need for infrastructure much as US Action speaks of ideas to finally tackle Health care, strengthening education, investing in clean energy and seeking independence from foreign oil.

The Curtis Hotel is filled with politicos, staffers, delegates, bloggers including Jeff Coryell, and Nick and Dave from Buckeye State blog.

There seemed to be a bigger sense of purpose Tuesday morning. After years of Bush administration misplaced priorities, there is a reality descending on Denver on the cost both in deficit and lives in our neighborhoods and abroad. Perhaps a certain sense of yet to be fulfilled destiny – where the stubborn priorities of a nation and a Congress in gridlock will finally end.

There is a glimpse of a movement brewing, a shift from the reactionary defensiveness of responding to the Bush agenda – to the realization that America will undoubtedly have a new agenda which brings a certain optimism.

Change is inevitable given the stubbornly out of touch White House. But defining what American's believe in – the rest of the Obama mantra – will ultimately determine where the Obama family resides next January 20.

Tuesday was a day of sustainable ideas – something long missing in the progressive discourse of an American future dominated by pox Bush status quo.

If the message masters succeed, delegates on Wednesday and Thursday will move on to the difficult task of convincing Americans that the ideas are real, the dreams are within reach, and the goods can and will be delivered.

Ironies abound in politics, and though the odds are that the "old Lion" might not make it to a promised land fulfilled, his brave optimism injected a sense of purpose to the wonkish side of the convention.

Sustaining it through November is not the "old lion's" challenge – that baton was passed by a brave progressive icon who fearlessly faced the future of ideas last night without regard to his own. 

The jewel of the New West is a mass of humanity focused on one unique energy force -- Obama.

What were once old warehouses made famous in Kerouac's dusty novels and Neal Cassidy's trysts are now the miracle of the new west with condos, sports arenas and trendy restaurants along the 16th Street mall (a pedestrian only road that spans the middle of the City from the Statehouse to LoDo filled with trendy shops and stores.)

But the genteel west, which has a certain slow lingering charm and even a cowboy hat or two is replaced with Democrats who have come to witness history, and more to the point to change it.

It seems somehow fitting that the West which always had a certain openness toward race stretching back to the Old West Cowboys – opens America's arms to the new generation of America. Barak Obama is more than just the history buzzing about the City – it is more than just about this election – it is a generational shift where acceptance and toleration in American politics has changed.

Denver to be sure has its Fellini moments this week. Preachers praying for Democrats, Obama's and Gays with a fervor of disapproval and disdain that somehow seems insincere to the Judeo-Christian traditions they espouse.

A few, though not many, zealous Hillary fanatics riding around in a gas-guzzling Hummer protesting Hillary's demise. The Phelpsists – famous for protesting Mathew Sheppard's funeral and American soldiers funerals with a hateful anti-gay zealousness out in full force.

Taking public transportation into the City Center Denver is a microcosm of the America Obama or McCain will face – the haves versus have nots – ever apparent in Denver with the exploding demographic changes, ex-urban  blight outside the gleaming center city – all far from the populous.

A hop out on my ride down Federal Boulevard to a food bank reveals the same poverty as Ohio's food banks, but with different ethnic faces. The City's Mayor even passed out Theatre tickets to the homeless in hopes of showing a different side of the City. But outside the Center City – Denver is as America is – a City struggling with common problems as Cleveland, Cincinnati or Columbus. There just seem to be more haves here on the money side.

This is the change the bus riders on Federal Boulevard wish for in Denver. There is a buzz – a certain pride not just in hosting the convention evident on the bus– but in the very real hope that the threshold Barak Obama breaks on Thursday night – is a threshold even for them. They speak about it with strangers. One mother told me, her child in the stroller next to her was the next Hispanic Obama as we both smile and chuckle in the euphoric atmosphere. What Obama means to them may mean nothing for their current lives– but rather for their sons and daughters – Hispanic, native American, African-American and even poor White's have a different pride in what Denver is doing this week.

Outside the eyes of the nation focus on Invesco Field Thursday, and you find that Conventions don't really matter. Lobbyists fly in this week for both the informal access a State Delegation home hotel brings and the parties and sponsorships they bare. Many will be in Minneapolis next week as well. Some are even former GOP Ohio operatives. Such is life in politics.

Perks are in the little things. Did you get a room at the Curtis (the official Ohio hotel) do you have the coveted delegate pass, if not an alternate pass, or even an honored guest pass for the hallway which is better than a distinguished guest pass elsewhere in the Pepsi Center. Aide's scramble. Some longtime loyalist Democrats grumble about far off accommodations while lobbyists get coveted delegate rooms at the Curtis – but that is the price paid for free drinks and food all over town. (PO as a c3,c4 did not try for either floor passes or the hotel, but as you can tell I thoroughly enjoyed my bus ride down Federal Boulevard from the Motel 6.)

Fundraising schedules are intense as politicos come and go – faces from Ohio's past and present. It is a family atmosphere of the familiar – the kind of place that the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones would have shined – and most delegates wear her image courtesy of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Chris Redfern one minute was in trademark pink sport shirt and then as I walk leisurely down the road, I see him ducking in a trendy restaurant in suit and tie (Superman couldn't have changed faster.) In politics this is a busy business week as Minneapolis will be next week.

The Big Tent is filled with the glitterati of the On-Line world and ProgressNow, Daily Kos, Google ET. Al. did a fine job.

But as I type this in a room full of bloggers, Nancy Pelosi is on a big screen before the assembly and her voice cannot be heard over the social chatter of the room.

It is all Obama this week and rightly so. The big gossip about number 2 is over and strangely for all the talk of Joe Biden before the announcement there is nary a word. Two young bloggers from Louisiana work diligently before me. Online names revealing themselves in real-time are a rarity.

The live video feeds PO will provide we hope will give you a sense of the atmosphere in Denver and a feel for the Ohioans who are there. And I think you can sense that the mood is upbeat by all.

It is a convention. It is fun. It is crowded and loud and food and alcohol flow. The King's of States and Congresses are paraded around in cars that gridlock like the rest of the City. Security is tight. Protestors are plentiful. People working to score the next big party or event or access level.

Beneath it all there is the tacit understanding that history seems on the cusp regardless of November's outcome – but getting in the red zone for Obama and Biden is not winning the game – that will not reveal itself until the party is over.

But when the party does finally end, and the big event in Invesco Field goes into overtime, the folks on Federal Boulevard will stand a bit taller knowing that any man or women in this country can rightly aspire not just in theory but in reality to the highest office in the land.

The question subdued in the haze of this week's history is one only time will tell. Will that aspiration finally lift the people of Federal Boulevard just a little bit higher?

History yes – but if anything wandering around Denver today, if finally hits you that history is not enough. Changing the lives of the people on Federal Boulevard --now, that would be change we can believe in. 

The U.S. Census Bureau will release its annual data about poverty, income, and health insurance in the U.S. on August 26.

On August 19, the Poverty Prep Webinar will help you:

• Find and understand national and state numbers when they're released on August 26
• See accurate trends over time; whether your state fares better or worse than the national average
• Compare the new data (from 2007) with what we know about the economic woes of 2008, and
• Talk about the new findings to help build the growing movement for a national commitment to dramatically reduce U.S. poverty.

Sign up for the Poverty Prep webinar:
Tuesday, August 19, 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Eastern time (11:00 a.m. Pacific): www.bostonconferencing.com/chn/1

Presenters:

Jared Bernstein, Director of the Living Standards program, Economic Policy Institute; author of Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries), and frequent national media commentator. Jared will tell us what to expect in the new Census data.

Douglas Hall, Acting Managing Director of Connecticut Voices for Children, author of Pulling Apart in Connecticut: Trends in Family Income, Late 1980s to Mid 2000s. Doug will describe CT Voices for Children's work with the state's Child Poverty and Prevention Council, and how CT Voices uses facts about family income to carry out an action antipoverty agenda.

Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs, will give practical tips for getting and using the data you need to make the case for reducing poverty.

Ellen Teller, Director of Government Affairs, Food Research and Action Center, moderator.

Sign up for the webinar: www.bostonconferencing.com/chn/1
When you register, you will receive information so you can participate in the webinar on August 19. You will view the presentation via your computer and listen either through your computer or by phone.

“In appearing before governmental bodies or consulting with government officials, judges must be mindful that they remain subject to other provisions of this code, such as Rule 1.3, prohibiting judges from using the prestige of office to advance their own or others’ interests, Rule 2.10, governing public comment on pending and impending matters, and Rule 3.1(C), prohibiting judges from engaging in extrajudicial activities that would appear to a reasonable person to undermine the judge’s independence, integrity, or impartiality.”

Draft Rule 3.2 Comments of the Ohio Supreme Courts proposed judicial rules

Sitting at the dais of the Summit County Lincoln Day Dinner last February 23, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor must have sensed the tension that most party loyalists felt.

Swankier than some of the smaller county fares, “King” Alex Arshinkoff faced a two-front battle – internally against a self-consumed, power-hungry State Senator Kevin Coughlin who wanted to dismantle his empire and a Secretary of State who, fed up with Summit County’s nationally known power-politics, had dared to kick the “King” out of his kangaroo parliament – Mr. Arshinkoff would no longer be on the Summit County Board of Elections.

And as O’Connor, a former Summit County Prosecutor and Lt. Governor to Bob Taft, schmoozed with her base, she had to know that the man she owed it all too had his back against the wall – and was using every cog in the machine that the late Ray Bliss put in place before Arshinkoff had turned it into the National GOP Bank of Akron.

There was money at stake. Power was at stake. Indeed, patronage jobs were at stake if this machine unraveled. And everyone in the audience at the Quaker Station knew that at the meeting just three days after their elegant dinner of Chicken Cordon Bleu, Oven Roasted Potatoes, Sugar Snap peas and pie – Arshinkoff would face off with Ohio’s Secretary of State over his handpicked successor. He, and many others in attendance, likely knew that this would wind up before another court that O’Connor sits on.

Why then, was Maureen O’Connor there? Why, months later, did she cast the deciding vote in favor of Arshinkoff without acknowledging her conflicts and recusing herself from the case? Ethics and Ohio politics rarely mix- even in Ohio’s highest Court.

In the 30-plus years of Alex Arshinkoff’s reign, his power has surpassed that achieved by his legendary predecessor Ray Bliss. Indeed the dinner even opened with a hearty video tribute and endorsement from former President George H.W. Bush that was included in a DVD that became part of the legal record of the Board of Elections dispute. But 2008 began with a confluence of pressures.

While Kevin Coughlin created a pesky, personal, but ultimately failed challenge to “King” Alex’s authority, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner had had enough of the legendary arm-twisting behavior at the Summit County Board of Elections. First she refused to re-appoint Arshinkoff citing examples of his heavy handed behavior. Then when Arshinkoff proposed a Hudson neighbor Brian K. Daley she rejected his appointment.

Brunner had heard, no doubt from Democrats and GOP enemies that Daley’s behavior in public office was not much different than Arshinkoff’s. In fact, a Plain Dealer article and editorial from 2007 emerged in which Daley, then a Hudson Councilman, appeared to have used his elected position to his advantage in a dispute with a neighbor over a shared waterline.

“The power of perception is at work here. If self pity did any good, I would be all for it. But a negative self image undercuts a community's morale, and it undercuts a community's prospects. It's a self fulfilling prophesy - why should investors go where people have given up on themselves?

You know the old line, "A lie will go round the world while the truth is pulling on its boots." Well it seems to me just about every bad thing folks feel about Ohio gets shouted through a bullhorn while every good thing is whispered. And this matters in everything we do.”

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, July 11, 2008

Watching Ted Strickland stand before the City Club last week, even on videotape, you felt the energy of a room looking for a messiah – answers and hope.

He was right both in his tone and in his lambast at a national press that has been unkind, unfair and biased about Ohio’s economy. He was right to talk about the significant investment his Administration has taken in using government to address innovation.

But if there is a challenge that emerges from the heavy investment of jobs dollars in the University system it was best emphasized in Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut’s own speech to the very same City Club on May 4, 2007 where he spoke of the challenge of University systems long neglected who had dug in self-sufficiently in order to survive:

“For too long, out of necessity, many have become used to operating this way, and have become resistant to change that could benefit us all. If we are honest with ourselves, however, we would admit that this path has resulted in schools that , in many cases, cost too much and deliver too little.”

Ohio Chancellor Eric Fingerhut, May 4. 2007

And survival has meant that University Administrations were forced to become politically savvy – whether lobbying the legislature, fundraising from some of the very same wealthy donors as politicians and political parties, and in securing streams of funding sources from federal and state sources.

In effect, University’s have by necessity linked with the very same confluence of influentials in Ohio as those who walk the halls of the Statehouse. Which leads to a few problems. Whether it is bureaucracy, politics, or just complex communications – all too often the simple goal is lost in the rhetoric, lobbying and jockeying for contracts to meet government’s and in this case a University’s goals. And while State government has evolved into tight ethics and disclosure practices to solve some of these problems, Ohio’s University system has not.

So at the risk of the wrath of Strickland loyalists (a hearty bunch who create 99-0 House budgets), accountability on job creation money working through the University system needs a systemic overhaul.

Why, you ask? Well, for starters let’s take a look at the Taft-inspired Third Frontier programs which pump hundreds of millions of dollars into Ohio’s university system to incubate jobs. Ohio awarded $698 million in grants, spent $291 million and directly created or retained 5,641 jobs in a six-month period ending in December of last year. ODOD reports that it cost $51,661 per job created or retained and we know that during the Bush years, it is estimated that Ohio lost 209,400 jobs through last December.

Is that efficient? Well, if you figure it costs $51,661 per job, it would cost the state $1,081,979,200 to replace those jobs. Putting it another way, if you forecast the same growth level every six months it would take 18 years and six months (that would be February 2026) just to regain those lost jobs.

Even if you include spin-off and indirect jobs, Ohio DOD’s reported numbers would need 7 years and two months to replace those 209,400 jobs. So Lt. Governor Lee Fisher has his hands full in trying to take the money he has and stretch it to its limits.

And before Matt Naugle and the Buckeye Institute cheer with joy, in the last six months of the Taft Administration only 166 jobs were created or retained by the vaunted Third Frontier program – pretty ridiculous when it is one of Taft’s legacy programs.

Taft kicked off the original Third Frontier campaign at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital promising to “create new jobs and help existing business become more competitive to keep Ohio working.” This first bond issue tanked at the ballot box in 2003, resurrecting itself in 2005 promising more accountability in job creation. I highly doubt 166 jobs over six months was what Ohio voters had in mind.

So in that respect, 5,641 jobs are more than respectable growth. The problem for Lee Fisher is that he needs more for each leveraged dollar.

And as always, the Achilles heel in Ohio has to do with who gets the money and how it is put to use especially with less accountability and ethical rules at the University level.

He would have been home in Vermont on Monday. After three tours of duty in Iraq – three - Sgt. 1st Class Jason Dene of Castleton, Vermont, died late last month of non-combat injuries. Left behind are a wife and three children – two daughters and a son.

Pending an investigation, Dene died of sleep apnea on May 28 in Baghdad.

Dene would have been out of the Army if not for a provision called Stop-Loss – a kind of back-door draft in which the Defense Department can compel longer service. His family said he wanted to retire after his second tour of duty because he felt rundown and stressed before being forced to return to Baghdad.

Dene’s uncle, Patrick Farrow, told WCAX-TV in Vermont, “It’s like a kick in the stomach. It’s like we were hoping Jason would get clear of this. Tisa, my sister, was thinking it was almost clear. He was out a month from now, you know, and suddenly they told her he’s dead. Dene’s aunt is actress Mia Farrow.

“The anger is what’s tough to live with, you know, it’s like I can live with tragedy but the anger is tough,” Patrick Farrow told the news crew.

Since 2002, more than 70,000 soldiers have been stop-lossed. Since the “surge” of troops in Iraq in early 2007, 12,235 troops have served under stop-loss and been forced into longer tours of duty. Currently, the Ohio National Guard has 373 members serving under the back-door draft.

Draft – what draft? Well … call it stop-loss if you will but compelling soldiers to extended military duty – well it sure looks, smells and feels like a draft.

And Ohio Representative Betty Sutton thinks that policy is wrong-headed. She has proposed legislation to at least compensate soldiers for what amounts to a back-door draft. “This is unjust and it undermines the voluntary nature of the military, said Sutton earlier this month.

It was pouring rain as a mother of three in an old Ford mini-van pulled up to the pump next to me. The alarm in her eyes was evident. “It’s ridiculous,” I said, thinking what everyone at a gas station silently thinks these days.

“It used to cost me $125 a month for gas,” she said. “Last month, it was $275. Now it’s going to get worse.” Just then the numbers on my pump came to an abrupt stop at $50.13 as I nodded sympathy to her.

That’s right $50.13 for 12.565 gallons of 87 octane gas at $3.99 cents a gallon on a four-door sedan that according to the digital reading on my car gets 26.7 miles to the gallon (and yes I’m one of those who waits until the gas warning light turns on to fill-up.)

High gas prices are panicking paycheck-to-paycheck families and causing job losses in Ohio. So, what goes into a $50.13 gas receipt – how much for crude oil, how much for Big Oil, how much in taxes? And even more important, what havoc is it really creating in Ohio?

According to Congress’ Democratic Policy Committee, an estimated 150,000 Americans lose their job every time the price of a barrel of oil rises 10%. A barrel of crude oil rose 73% between February 2007 and February 2008, costing over 1,095,000 jobs. More alarming is the fact that the price of oil was at $100.86 in February and rose to $124.31 a barrel on June 3 further increasing that percentage and corresponding job losses.

And make no mistake about it Ohio jobs are being lost:

1. Gas Guzzlers Cause Layoffs at GM: GM announced Tuesday that it is closing four of its assembly plants, including one in Moraine, Ohio, that makes trucks and SUVs. The reason: High gas prices make gas-guzzling vehicles no longer affordable for many Americans.
   
   According to the Cincinnati Business Courier, the Moraine plant will close by 2010 or sooner if market demand dictates that, a company official said. The move likely will cost 2,400 local jobs.
   
   Speaking at the automaker's annual shareholders' meeting in Delaware Tuesday morning, company officials cited a clear consumer shift away from trucks and SUVs because too few can afford to fill their tanks.
   
   The Moraine plant, in Montgomery County south of Dayton, produces Chevrolet Trailblazer and GMC Envoy and Envoy Denali sport utility vehicles, Saab 9-7X and Isuzu Ascender vehicles and employs 2,400 directly. The plant also supports 100 suppliers.


2. Diesel Costs Increase Retail Costs: According to Columbus Business First, the national average retail price for diesel reached a record $4.33 per gallon last month. Even before the record, the trucking industry had been desperately seeking more long-haul drivers amid projections that America would be short 114,000 workers by 2014, according to "The U.S. Truck Driver Shortage: Analysis and Forecasts,'' a study done by Global Insight for the American Trucking Association.
   
   The combination of high prices and limited truckers prompted the Ohio General Assembly last week to impose uniform weight limits for trucks that haul steel coils.
   
   Today, a single truck can carry a load consisting of one or two steel coils under a special permit, as long as the total weight is not greater than 120,000 pounds. The total weight limit for transporting three coils, however, is limited to just 92,000 pounds. When the new law takes effect, a three-coil load will fall under the same 120,000-pound limit allowed for one or two coils.
   
   Even with the change, the trucker shortage is expected to continue. An estimated 935 carriers – or about 2 percent of the nation's total trucking capacity – went bankrupt in the first quarter of this year, according to the American Trucking Association. Trucking company failures are the highest since the 2001 recession.


3. Airline Costs Soar and Competition Disappears: ABC News this week said rising fuel costs are causing airlines to scale back and could prompt a new round of bankruptcies. Continental Airlines, with a hub in Cleveland, announced 3,000 job cuts on Thursday.


4. Highway Patrol Funding Short Over Fuel Costs: According to Jim Nash at the Columbus Dispatch, fuel costs for the Ohio State Highway Patrol have increased by 26 percent over the past nine months.
   
   The bottom line: "The agency that patrols state highways, guards’ state buildings and aides in highly technical police investigations is facing a cash crunch."

We’re about to feel this crunch through school transportation costs, public safety costs, snow and trash removal and transportation of basic goods and services like the milk at our local grocery store.

Can there be any doubt, “It’s the gas tank, stupid,” is what this year is about? And understanding how that $50.13 gas bill for a four-door sedan is THE issue in 2008.

Even blood on our tax dollars can get lost in numbers.

Numbers are the feed trough of government. Numbers elect. Numbers budget. Numbers pass legislation and the financial power of numbers gives government the opportunity to do good as well as oft-publicized evil.

They are impersonal, non-descriptive, bureaucratic realities. That’s why DAS Contract #RS903107 means little to Ohioans, to legislators and even to DAS department leaders. But it’s a number written in blood literally when Ohio purchases goods from sweatshops.

In May 2006, in a world away in Chattagong, Bangladesh, 600 mostly teenage women worked to fulfill the contract by making undergarments for Ohio prison inmates. A fiery blast disrupted their routine and their lives.

A first floor boiler exploded in an inferno that fed on the flammable material in the textile mill. Hundreds of young women must have panicked, only to find exits locked by factory guards protecting against theft and monitoring the 600 workers. An eyewitness survivor later reported:

“When the fire erupted, I was working on the second floor. One of the two collapsible gates on the floor was padlocked. Finding it impossible to come out through the milling crowd at the other gate, I jumped out through a window on the roof of a nearby two-storey building,” she said. “Some local people standing on the rooftop of that building broke open the window and helped us out”.

The morning after the blaze, Ohioans woke up to other news: Funds for the state’s unemployed workers would go broke in 2007; a rattled and lame duck Governor Bob Taft wanted tougher high school standards; then-Congressman Bob Ney’s former aide, Neil Volz, plead guilty and agreed to testify against Ney in Washington; a Toledo councilman plead guilty to ethics violations; and Ken Blackwell, who had won the GOP gubernatorial primary the week before, watched his own party deep-six his Tax Expenditure Limitation proposal.

Ohio newspapers, Ohioans and Ohio government officials were unaware of reports that at least 54 workers --an estimate that later climbed to more than 200 -- had died as they scrambled to fulfill a contract paid from state tax dollars. The contract remains in effect today.

It seems like yesterday, that a young ONN assignment editor called me at home one night to ask if I thought taking the job of Communication Director of the Ohio Democratic Party under then Chair David Leland was a good move.

Mike Brown even then was one of those people in media that was solidly grounded. I told him it was a good move and that I hoped he’d pursue the job. He did, got the job and in 1999 moved on to the Coleman campaign for Mayor.

Now comes news that Brown will be stepping down on June 2 as Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman’s Communication Director to take on a role developing “new urbanism” in Columbus. Both the Mayor, beaming at yesterday’s OLBC luncheon like a proud father, and Mike filled us in yesterday.

Many people don’t realize that being at the hub of City communications is probably one of the most taxing positions in government. If all government is local, a city press office is a meat grinder with everything from police issues, to utility breaks, to personnel issues constantly filling your blackberry (or pager back when Mike started.)

To fill the post as Mike did for over 8 years is an uber accomplishment. As for his replacement, Dan Williamson of Other Paper fame will take the walk to the “dark” side as journalists often refer to it and fill Brown’s role.

For that, I thanked the Mayor yesterday profusely. Dan is and always has been one of the toughest interviews in Ohio and you were never quite sure what his articles would say until the paper hit the stands.

Congratulations to them both.

And as for Mike, he’ll finally be able to turn that blackberry on silent. That will be both the hardest adjustment and most relieving adjustment of all.