ProgressOhio

“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.

Ouch.

That’s how it must feel for capital flaks these days.

While Ohioans are faced with a messaging barrage based on the Attorney General’s solar plexus, gone is a focus on the greenbacks of Ohioans gluteus maximus.

All Marc Dann. All the time. ProgressOhio’s front page, with its live news and blog feeds, is no different.

Over 650 mentions of pajamas that never were, coupled with the police complaint that led to no charges, the car accident that happened months ago and a third-level rogue bureaucrat named Anthony Gutierrez who rightfully looks like a scoundrel.

Blackberries and emails will never quite be the same for anyone with an address ending at .gov, as day after day some tabloid tidbit pops from the fingertip-sized memory of a blackberry drive.

It’s as if the world has stopped, and drip by drip, line by line, ticker by ticker and paper by paper Dann, Dann, Dann explodes byte by byte.

Caught in the zipper of tawdry headlines is Ohio’s struggling economy. Both parties made major election year moves to address Ohio’s ailing economy in the hearts and minds of our wallets last month. Did anyone notice?

While the Democratic primary remains in play, two authors with close ProgressOhio ties have launched books on presumptive GOP nominee, Senator John McCain, that take probing looks at key aspects of McCain’s political psyche.

Ohio’s own Cliff Schecter has launched a book that has quickly climbed to the third most requested political book on Amazon.com which chronicles the vast inconsistencies of McCain’s policy positions. Schecter can often be found at ProgressOhio events and later this month will launch a regular ProgressOhio Editorial column alternating at times with Brian Rothenberg’s Shadows On High.

Also, David Brock and Paul Waldman from the media tracking organization Media Matters For America have launched a book reviewing the way the press has defined (and given a pass) to Sen. McCain. ProgressOhio is a partner of Media Matters and you can often see the work of Brock and his staff on the ProgressOhio site

• Free Ride: John McCain and the Media
  By David Brock and Paul Waldman (Anchorbooks $13.95)

Brock and Waldman put together a fascinating read of the complicated contradictions in McCain’s relationship with the press.

[Excerpt] “E. J. Montini (a columnist for the Arizona Republic) says that Arizona reporters were once like the national media, smitten by the dynamic new lawmaker in the 1980s. But as with most love affairs, the passion cooled. “Over the years, though, the contradictions surfaced,” he wrote. The campaign reformer cozied up to bigwigs he’s supposed to regulate. The iconoclast trashed Big Tobacco but not Big Alcohol, financing his wife’s family. As the Arizona Republic noted during his first presidential run, McCain “has romanced the national press while warring with Arizona reporters.”

Other gems in the book include how the Washingtonian published a story on McCain in 1997 titled “Senator Hothead” but instead of ridiculing his temper problems, it was used as proof of his passion. Passion and the press’ explaining away of McCain’s temper flares as a theme in the book as examples of a flare up with former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson, former Phoenix City GOP Councilwomen Kathy Dubs, former Arizona Attorney General and McCain staffer Grant Woods, former Maricopa County Schools Superintendent Sandra Dowling and even an admiring constituent who was lambasted after setting up a lectern too high for the short-statured McCain.

Media Matters has an excellent reputation for painstakingly reviewing “pack journalism” and dissecting media image from factual image in American politics. Regardless of McCain’s status as presumptive nominee, Free Ride is a fascinating look at media pandering versus factual contradiction. Well worth a read – especially for those of us who find themselves talking back to inanimate television talking heads in the evening.

You can find Free Ride on the ProgressOhio bookshelf at Powell's Books.

• The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn't
  By Cliff Schecter (Polipoint Press $10.17)

Central Ohio’s own Cliff Schecter, a nationally known blogger, and frequent friend and visitor at ProgressOhio’s offices, launched his book a week ago and it has quickly jumped to the third highest selling political book on Amazon.com’s listings.

Schecter takes a look at McCain from the angle of his political image versus his factual behavior and it is a fascinating glimpse at a politicians’ politician whose limelight over the past year will show many contradictions in his political demeanor.

Schecter’s book has already made national news this year as the mainstream media has reported on tidbits  from U.S. News & World Report to Fox, breaking stories on McCain's calling his wife a very naughty word to a fist fight he engaged in with a fellow member of Congress (U.S Rep. Rick Renzi).

[Excerpt] “Given all the talk about his moderate views, McCain has a long list of right-wing extremist friends. In the 2006 Republican primary for Ohio governor, McCain endorsed Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell over the more moderate Attorney General Jim Petro. Blackwell is a hard-core conservative; he campaigned (successfully) for a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, is a big-time pro-gun politician, and is against abortion unless the mother’s life is threatened.

There are also questions of voter suppression in Blackwell’s background, particularly in light of the sparse number of voting machines in liberal Ohio districts on election day in 2004. These questions were complicated by Blackwell’s investment in Diebold, the company that supplied the touch-screen machines on Blackwell’s orders. Blackwell is also closely tied to Reverend Rod Parsely of Columbus, Ohio; together they have worked with the Ohio Restoration Project, which calls for “tearing down the boundaries between church and state.”13 In the end, Blackwell lost the general election in a landslide. But it wasn’t for lack of support on McCain’s part.

Then there’s Falwell. When McCain decided to visit Falwell’s university, Jon Stewart asked McCain on the Daily Show if he was entering “crazy base land.” McCain sheepishly admitted he was doing just that.14 This is how the actual exchange went.

Stewart: I feel it’s a condoning of Falwell’s crazy making, to some extent, to have you go down there. It strikes me as something you wouldn’t normally do.

McCain: I’m going there to speak to the students at his invitation. I can assure you that the message will be the same as I give everywhere.

Stewart: You don’t think it helps reassert Falwell as the voice for a certain group of people — say evangelicals of the Christian Right. Isn’t it the kind of thing if you don’t go there it helps keep marginalizing guys like that? Or do I misunderstand politics? Why do I feel I’m about to get grounded?

McCain: Listen, I love coming on your show. Young people all over America watch it. I love to travel around the country and speak at colleges and universities. They’re all parts of the Republican Party. I respect them. I may disagree with them.

Stewart: Are you going into crazy base world?

McCain: I’m afraid so.

Stewart: When you see Falwell, do you feel vomit in the back of your throat? . . . What does it feel like?

McCain: I’ll give him your love.

That was slightly different than what McCain told Larry King less than a year earlier: “I admire the religious right for the dedication and zeal they put into the political process.” 16 McCain’s broad acceptance of the Christian Right as “having a legitimate role to play in the Republican Party” stands in stark opposition to his earlier claims that the Christian Right had a “corrupting influence” on the GOP.

For those who have read Cliff’s blog – he’s a hard-hitting fact-based pundit who pulls no punches dissecting the many contradictory faces of John McCain. For the GOP it’s a primer on what to expect next fall.  For Democrats it’s a detailed study of a master juggler politician who is a very nimble and shifty campaigner. It’s a must read for insiders of either party.

You can find The Real McCain at the ProgressOhio bookshelf at Amazon here.

Some of you may remember the Shadows On High Column from two weeks ago: Shadows On High: Ohio's Shame; Caring For Ohio's Veterans Shouldn't Be So Political.

The crux of the column had to do with Senate Bill 289 which creates an Ohio cabinet level veterans affairs department -- but provided little if any oversight to the often slow and cumbersome process veterans experience while filing and following their claims. 

Yesterday Ray Strischek sent the following good news. A Substitute Senate Bill has been introduced that addresses most of the oversight issues -- something some veterans advocates have been fighting for over two decades to achieve.

Ray wrote: Today, 040808, Ohio Senate Finance Committee, 3rd hearing, on Senate Bill 289, the bill to elevate the Governors Office of Veterans Affairs to the Ohio Department of Veterans Affairs.

Senate Bill 289 was set aside.  It was replaced by Sub SB 289, a compromise version worked out by Senator Spada (who introduced SB 289, GOVA Director Tim Espich, members of the Ohio State Association of Veterans Service Commissioners, and members of the Ohio State Association of Veterans Service Officers, to address problems brought forth during the previous 2 hearings by several veterans, including many specific issues brought forth by myself and Dave Jenkinson.

The first thing to happen was to drop the name change to the OHIO DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.   The new name change will be to OHIO DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS SERVICES.

Sub S.B. No. 289 (LSC 127 1844-2)

Replaces SB-289

Important changes:Sec. 121.02 (Administrative Departments)

(new language)
(T) The department of veterans services, which shall be administered by the director of veterans services.   (Page 3, lines 65 and 66)

Sec. 5901.02 (about Veterans Service Commissioners, the Judge SHALL remove)
(E) (added language)  
The appointing authority shall remove a member who fails to maintain certification or whose certification is revoked by the director of veterans services.  (Page 8, lines 219 - 221)

Section. 5901.07 (about CVSOs, the VSC SHALL remove)
(added language)
The commission shall remove a veterans service officer who fails to maintain accreditation or whose accreditation is revoked by the director of veterans services.  (Page 10, lines 271-273)

Section 5902.02 (Director of Ohio Department of Veterans Services duties and powers)

(language as it already exists)
[C] Adopting rules pursuant to Chapter 119 of the Revised Code pertaining to minimum qualifications for hiring, certifying, and accrediting county veterans service officers, pertaining to their required duties,,,,,,

(added language)
and pertaining to revocation of the accreditation of county veterans service officers. A county veterans service officer whose accreditation is revoked is entitled to an adjudication under Chapter 119 of the Revised Code.   (Page 16, lines 456-460)  

(language as it already exists)
(D) Adopting rules pursuant to Chapter 119 of the Revised Code for the education, training, certification, and duties of veterans service commissioners,,,,,,,,

(Added language)
and for the revocation of the certification of a veterans service commissioner. A veterans service commissioner whose certification is revoked is entitled to and adjudication under Chapter 119 of the Revised Code.   (Page 16, lines 463-466)

(new language)
(X) Requiring the several veterans organizations that receive funding from the state annually to report to the director of veterans services and prescribing the form and content of the report. (Page 20, lines 593-596)

(new language)
(Y) Investigating complaints against county veterans services commissioners and county veterans service officers if the director reasonably believes the investigation to be appropriate and necessary. (Page 20, lines 593-596)

(new section, new language)
Sec. 5902.09 The person in charge of a state agency or instrumentality, an agency or instrumentality of a political subdivision, or a private entity, such as a nursing home, that provides law enforcement, health, or welfare services to individuals, other than the Ohio veterans’ home and veterans service organizations, shall ask an individual with whom the agency, instrumentality, or entity interacts if the individual is a veteran or is or was athe dependent of a veteran.  If the individual claims to be such and individual, the person in charge shall report the individual’s name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address; the agency’s, instrumentality’s, or entity’s name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, the nature of the agency’s, instrumentality’s, or entity’s interaction with the individual; and the date on which the interaction occurred to the director of veterans services.  The director shall inform the veterans service commission having jurisdiction about the veterans or dependent and the interaction.  The commission shall inquire about, and offer benefits and services appropriate to the veteran or dependent.  (Page 23, lines 671-689)

 Kudo's to the Governor's Office, Senator Spada and the many stakeholders for recognizing the deficiencies in this legislation and addressing them.

Since that Shadows many veterans have contacted us at ProgressOhio. Let's hope the changes stick through the legislative process. 

In this year of the do-little legislature, lame-duck leaders gaveled open the post-Spring break session last week with most major issues floating like space matter in the Ohio House’s ever-increasing gamesmanship playing footsy with a Democratic Governor.

The big headliner last week – a scrappy fight over theft from scrap metal yards. With copper costs up the state wanted to step in and strengthen the law – but one crafty legislator turned the tables to prevent home-rule cities from making more stringent rules. Ohio’s jobs and economy suffer and what do we get – literally a “junk” bill.

For most Ohioans, the difference between a U.S. Senator and an Ohio Senator means little. In fact, legend has it that back in the 1990s when one State Senator-elect struck gold with an upset victory, she mistakenly told a reporter she was headed to Washington D.C.

The fact is no matter how hard they try, Ohio legislators work in the shadows of obscurity. A dwindling press corps, term limits and short-term leaders lend themselves to an atmosphere of anonymity. The “good” credit for what they do goes to the Governor. The “bad” credit also goes to the Governor – despite legions of increasingly aggressive aides working feverishly for their members.

Even prior to term-limits, legislators were shocked to see in legislative polls that their name recognition topped out at the 30% level—even after decades of service. So here in an age of eight year tenures (16 if you work the system right) negative mail and cable ads are effective at defining candidates for the state legislature.

Name recognition is really scarce when you consider cutbacks in the number of journalists covering state government. The Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association has seen its ranks cut back significantly since the 1990s, including the disappearance of reporters from the former Thomson Bureau (2 reporters), the defunct Cincinnati Post (1 reporter), now-closed Gannett News Service ( 2 reporters), the Cincinnati Enquirer (down from 2 reporters to 1 reporter), the Akron Beacon Journal (down from 4 reporters to 1 reporter), the Plain Dealer (down from 6 reporters to 3) and the Toledo Blade (down from 2 reporters to one reporter.) The Dispatch and Associated Press are the rare exceptions that have seen growth, while the Dayton Daily News, Dix/Vindicator Bureau and electronic media have remained static.

Even at the press corps’ zenith, as more reporters meant more ink, the legendary Vern Riffe was never quite able to move up to the big-house in Bexley (let us all pause and reflect for this little Earth-to-Jon Husted moment here as he plots his way to Ken Blackwell’s legacy with less than half the ink of the legendary man from Scioto County.) Name recognition was still elusive.

So here’s to the Shadows of rumor has it – on what was behind the great compromise over Governor Strickland’s bond issue, the Dispatch’s self-anointed “partisan” Jennifer Brunner bi-partisanly saving the benefits of her Franklin County GOP nemesis, John McCain’s paper filing mistake that could have cost him a spot on the Ohio primary ballot, young State Reps of both parties chafing at the Riffe-like atmosphere on Broad and High, Speaker battles in both parties, and consultant battles on November campaigns – it’s a rumor has it Shadows edition …. .

She settled into her seat on a flight from Chicago to Columbus, taking a clearly stressful call on her cell phone. She hung up to get ready for our flight – looked at me – and said, “How come my son could lay his life on the line for this country – but he has to wait six months for an appointment at the VA for even a Band-aid?”

As we spoke, her despair and anger came into focus. She was a native Ohioan from Oklahoma with a slight Okie twang, on her way to visit her parent in the central Ohio area, and her son had served two tours of duty in Iraq. He was home now with her daughter-in-law and her grandson – but he was waking up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – night sweats and combat delirium. And her son could not get in to the VA hospital for at least six months.

In Ohio, the nation’s 6th largest concentration of veterans, a legislative committee found out in December that the state ranks 43rd in use of available services and 50th in the amount of disability pay. Legislation growing out of the study will create a new cabinet level department, but with little if any accountability measures over a cumbersome structure that has failed to deliver needed efficiencies for needy Ohio veterans.

So how bad will things get when Iraq and Afghanistan veterans begin to increase the need for services. At the federal level, in a March 6 AP article by Bradley Brooks in Baghdad he reports that:

• About 15 soldiers are wounded for every fatality in Iraq compared with 2.6 wounded for every fatality in Vietnam and 2.8 wounded for every fatality in Korea.
• 29,320 servicemen were wounded in action as of early March, but an additional 31,325 others have been treated for non-combat injuries and illnesses.
• The VA predicts it will treat 330,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008 – a 14 percent increase over the 2008 estimate of $263,000 costing over $1.3 billion.
• The Bush budget requests $93.7 billion for the VA including $41.2 billion for medical care for veterans of all wars which is an increase of $2.3 billion.

In an article posted on opednews.com on March 5, writer Jason Leopold pointed out that VA officials estimate that 60,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are returning with PTSD similar to what I’d heard all too personally on that flight to Columbus.

Leopold chronicled the story of a Marine veteran named Jonathan Schulze who was awarded two Purple Hearts in 2005 after a lengthy tour of duty in Iraq. On January 11, 2007, he sought treatment for PTSD when his parents drove him to the VA hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He was not admitted and told to call back the following day. The VA told him he would need to wait at least two weeks to be admitted. On January 16, 2007, next to a photo of his one-year old daughter, he was found with an electrical cord around his neck in a friend’s basement at the age of 25.

Critics rightly point out that Veterans benefits at the national and state level are plagued with a systemic and political bureaucracy that puts care for veterans on the back-burner both at the national and Ohio levels.

Backlog at the VA

The VA has a backlog of over 400,000 pending medical claims and complaints – especially in mental health care.

In a rare Shadows kudos for U.S. Senator George Voinovich, he rightly points out in a letter to the Senate Budget Committee that the VA’s pending pension and compensation claims were up almost 6 percent from March of 2007 and that 27 percent of claims have been pending for more than 180 days, along with a 50 percent increase since 2003 in claims requiring a disability review which request increases in time and resources.

Voinovich said in his letter to Sen. Kent Conrad that the number of filed claims has increased 45 percent from 578,773 in 2000 to 838,141 in 2007.

At the time of Jonathan Schulze’s death, according to Veterans Today’s website, more than 200,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan had been treated at VA medical facilities according to a Government Accountability Office analysis, which is three times what the VA had originally projected. The GAO study said more than one-third of the cases involved mental health conditions including PTSD, acute depression and substance abuse.

According to Leopold’s article, VA attorneys argued in court papers filed this past February that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were not “entitled” to the five-years of free healthcare upon their return from combat, but instead their treatment was discretionary based on the level of funding available at the VA.

But earlier this month, the Undersecretary for Health at the VA admitted in court that veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were entitled to free healthcare and that “there is no co-pay,” according to Leopold.

All of this bureaucracy was supposed to have gone away on October 25, 1988, when Ronald Reagan made the Department of Veterans Affairs a cabinet-level agency. But symbolism seems to have made little progress in the bureaucracy that a wounded soldier must navigate. Here in Ohio – let’s hope we have different results.

Bureaucracy and the Ohio Veteran’s benefit system – Why Ohio files fewer claims

More than any other bureaucracy, when it comes to the structure of Ohio veterans, you have the intersection of patriotism, politics, media image and most of all competing veteran structures that have impacted the way in which state-level veteran’s services are delivered.

The state has long had a Governor’s Office of Veteran’s Services which provides support and training to the various County Veterans Services offices. County offices have varying levels of funding, primarily because they are funded much like schools through property tax at a level of five-tenths of a mill. Because of the disparity of property wealth in different counties, the dollars to those programs vary widely.

When a County office files claims, they then use an outsourced system. Ohio does not employ its own service officers who follow Ohio veteran’s claims – instead traditionally that has been a function of the powerful and politically impactful Ohio veterans’ organizations even though 90 percent of Ohio veterans do not belong to these groups (but probably should given their effective lobby and access to services.)

During the recent Veterans Study Council meetings, a representative of the VA advised the Council that Ohio was at the bottom of the barrel in terms of the number of VA claims filed, the quality or completeness of the claims filed and the amount of money generated by approved claims.

Ohio has the 6th largest number of veterans in the United States an Ohio sub-committee of the Veterans Study Council was told in December. Yet Ohio ranked 50th at the time in the amount of disability pay received by injured veterans and 43rd in veterans’ use of services. In most veteran service categories, Ohio ranked among the bottom seven although recent numbers showed some improvement.

Services for Ohio veterans go through 88-county offices and are process in the VA regional offices. But the services rely on National Service Officers (NSO) given free office space by the VA and paid for by Ohio taxpayers but staffed by the various Veterans service agencies. In 2006, Ohio spent over $1.5 million dollars spread among the:

• American Legion, $302,328
• Am vets, &287,919
• Veterans of Foreign Wars, $246,615
• Disabled American Veterans, $216,308
• Vietnam Veterans of America,$185,954
• Marine Corp League,$115,972
• Catholic War Veterans,$57,900
• Meritorious Order of the Purple Heart, $56,377
• Army Navy Union, $55,012
• Jewish War Veterans $29,715
• American Ex P.O.W., $25,030

In a nutshell, when a claim is received in the VA regional office from the county offices for veterans’ services, it is assigned to one of the National Service Officers (NSOs) who is there to act as the advocate for the veteran before the VA. That is why in essence, Ohio has outsourced the advocate role to these traditional groups.

But in reading the Subcommittee reports of the Veterans Study Council it becomes clear that a veteran is at the mercy of the resources of the County in which they live and the efficiency of the veterans organization they choose to track and advocate their claims. There appears to be little if no accountability on the process for follow through.

What is disturbing is that after working with the various county veterans’ offices and advocates, as well as the national groups on a comprehensive study that identified these concerns, State Sen. Bob Spada rushed to the table with S.B. 289 which made no recommendations to fix the VA claims processing system but did recommend that “the several veterans’ organizations” should get more support.

The issue that has gotten headlines is the recommendation for a cabinet-level Veterans’ Service Department – much as Ronald Reagan garnered headlines in 1988. But the symbolism of a department has not necessarily diminished the bureaucratic problems at the federal level. The question remains, will Ohio fall into the same PR trap?

While the Strickland Administration’s push for the cabinet-level department is not necessarily a bad sign – if anything it is needed, the legislation written by Sen. Spada appears to have very little impact on the processing of claims which appears to be the real problem for Ohio’s veterans. Instead it deals mostly with changing a Governor’s office into a Governor’s department. In fact, just this week representatives of Governor Strickland on the panel informed some concerned veterans that the legislation creating the new department would likely not include increased oversight of the county and NSO (veterans group) system.

As the bill stands now, after months of study and data about the problems of veterans services, a Legislative Service Commission analysis of the new departmental functions that Sen. Spada included in the bill are limited to:

• Developing telephone answering services and a website.
• Outreach efforts at conferences and fairs.
• Advertising services in print, radio and television.
• Broadly calling for the development and improved benefits and services for veterans.
• Searching for administrative policies to unify funding, delivery and accountability of policy with no formal recommendations.
• Maintaining a cordial relationship with both the VA and several veterans’ organizations.
• And adds the Ohio Veterans’ Home Agency and the Ohio War Orphans Scholarship Board to the Department.

You can’t help but think that if this were education funding or other pet peeves of Columbus conservatives, Ohio’s Broad & High crowd would be preaching on the legislative floor for more accountability on how Ohio taxpayer money is being spent in classrooms – on the outcomes-based budgeting that conservatives around Capitol Square preach like a Buddhist mantra.

But it is not.

This is about veterans, and veterans are about the flag and neither liberal nor conservative legislators will take on such a bureaucracy borne from the battlefields of returning vets who spawned the complicated relationships of such diverse organizations in the first place.

No one including Shadows is arguing about the role and need for these veterans organizations to exist and flourish. But in fact, these veterans’ organizations do need prodding and accountability for processing veteran claims as any outsourced service should.

Ohio grants for the NSO officers in VA regional offices should be monitored and judged based on information that looks at the per capita amount of veterans here and in other states and sets up a compliance report with oversight by the new Ohio Department of Veterans Affairs.

It seems logical and in-line with all other Ohio government expenditures that the department should exercise oversight and tracking of all VA claims. That is the surest path away from a bottom ranking in services to Ohio veterans.

If Ohio will not hire its own compliance officers at the VA regional office, which given the clout of veterans groups is politically dead on arrival, at the very least the various service organizations that provide NSO services should be monitored by the newly created department based on:

• Number of claims filed, starting at the county level, and continuing through the NSO level;
• Completeness and accuracy of claims;
• Average time to resolve claims;
• Average dollars paid out to Ohio veterans per capita;
• Communication and reporting with county offices from the NSO regarding claims status.

Certainly some who are active in veterans’ services groups who receive money from the State of Ohio may bristle at this opinion and couch these views as an unpatriotic attack on soldiers who have paid their dues to their nation.

But the fact of the matter is that this is not a debate over liquor licenses and bingo permits at the local lodge – these issues involve serious veterans’ needs and claims involving their everyday lives.

If the process is outsourced to these organizations – then so be it. But to not hold the same accountability standards on services for these veterans paid for by Ohio taxpayer dollars is benign legislative neglect of the stewardship of Ohio tax dollars.

S.B. 289 seems to be a rushed piece of legislation – the kind of thing legislators take and run with in an effort to wrap the flag around themselves in the next election cycle.

But the stark reality is that true patriotism would wrap that flag around a wounded veteran, a homeless veteran, a jobless veteran, a mentally troubled veteran – to expedite services, not worry about the politics of veterans group funding and future political support.

Save the politics for Novembers this year and in future years.

It’s time to set-aside politics and figure a way to get a Band-aid to our veterans – without all of the bureaucracy. Our national system is bad enough – there is no excuse for a state the size of Ohio to lag so far behind so many smaller states in providing services to veterans.

It’s time to streamline the process and make those within the system accountable here in Columbus and in Washington D.C. This shouldn’t be about politics, it should be about the lady sitting next to me’s very poignant question last month, “How come my son could lay his life on the line for this country – but he has to wait six months for an appointment at the VA for even a Band-aid?”

Being able to solve that question would be a cabinet department worthy of the seat at the Governor’s table.

[Note: I started this column on Tuesday while polls were opened. This is meant as an analysis piece and not in support of any candidate.]

It’s a dirty little secret. The thing most folks don’t understand about Midwesterners.

We whisper about those things that make us uncomfortable.

You saw no knock-down drag out discussion about race and gender politics in Ohio’s primary as you did in South Carolina. But it’s there. It may not be correct – but Midwesterners are no different in their inner psychology than southerners. We just don’t talk about it. We whisper our irrational fears and true prejudices. We talk behind closed doors – or worse – we hold the deepest darkest of unpopular thoughts under lock and key. We don’t show our fears, but we sure as hell vote them.

Fear – not change – is once again the root of Ohio’s 2008 zeitgeist. Without fear there is no hunger for change. Fear is the underlying neurosis of our inner dissatisfaction with our government, the energy which makes us crave change. Without fear, there is no neutron in the chemical reaction of political change.

Fear of terror. Fear of the cost of the War in Iraq. Fear of the bloodshed and uncertainty of radical Al Qaeda. Fear of the politicians without answers.

Like it or not, if there is a turning point in our national dialogue for change, it was in the Hillary Clinton “It’s 3 a.m. ad’’ released in Ohio on the eve of our primary election.

George Bush rode fear into the White House in 2004. John McCain knows that. If Americans fear terrorism – McCain wins. If Americans fear the economic costs of war or the uncertainty of the “hawkish” and bellicose behavior that led to War – Michelle Obama or Bill Clinton will be redecorating the West Hall. (I’ll let you all fight out Tuesday’s results.)

All you need to do is think back to another Arizona Senator running for President back in 1964 and the fear engendered by Lyndon Johnson’s use of a child with daisies to conjure up fear of a different warmongering Arizona cowboy as President.

Times may change and technology may change but the wiring of the human brain does not. If Lyndon Johnson’s infamous Daisy Girl commercial , Willie Horton in 1988 and the Swift Boat Strategy in 2004 taught America anything about itself, it is that the path to the White House goes straight through the opposition’s strength. Hillary’s “It’s 3 a.m. ad” will likely be that memorable regardless of how her candidacy ends.

Much like Johnny Cochran taught us in the ‘90’s most infamous murder case, you must go right to the juries reasonable doubt—“if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.” All of which makes Ohio’s primary meaningless to Ohio swing voters – who likely decide this race by focusing their fears and doubts on the losing candidate – fear of terror or fear of war and because of war our biggest fear -- being poor.

That will decide the Presidency in Ohio.

It’s the economy stupid!

It’s my wallet guys!

We need jobs, Jon!

Phones had to be buzzing last Thursday – not yours or mine – but those of Ohio’s all-powerful corporate leaders.

Ohio lost out on new jobs from a steel company Thursday. A $1 billion dollar investment that went elsewhere because of Ohio’s unpredictable cost of electricity prices. And you should be mad.

Not at the Governor. At the do-nothing Ohio House which has sat on electricity re-regulation for months. The company cited electricity instability as the major reason for their decision to pass on the Buckeye State.

Deep rumblings are echoing at the Statehouse these days. Never spoken, but you can see it in the eyes of lobbyists. The manufacturing titans – key to Ohio’s economy – and long entrenched in the GOP psyche – have got to be making boardroom calls about Jon Husted’s lack of leadership on an electricity hike that could further cripple Ohio’s economic engine. With a four seat majority – whispers in boardrooms like that, in and of itself, would cast a nervous shadowy fog across the Ohio Statehouse’s south wing (House chambers.)

Six months ago, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, fearful of the effects of unregulated electricity in states like New Jersey and Illinois, where prices soared, introduced legislation to re-regulate electricity. (Ohio has been in phased de-regulation for the past nine years)

In quick order, the Governor, true to his MO from his first year in office, compromised with Senate Republicans and came up with a bill known as S.B. 221 that called for regulation unless the free market would bring better rates.

After winning unanimous support from the Senate, the bill went to the Ohio House, and we waited, and waited, and waited. For the first time in my 20 years around the Statehouse, a House committee didn’t take testimony from interested parties – it heard from hand-picked panels whose members testified by invitation only. The parking garage beneath the Statehouse was filled with the hourly luxury chariots of lobbyists who seem to abound whenever utility issues are debated. (Funny how that works considering we’re all beholden to pay for things like – ohh – heat.)

And we waited.

Heck, since this started John McCain has rolled through two political lives (could be three after this week’s New York Times brouhaha) and Mitt Romney has spent enough of his own money in a failed campaign against taxes – to – well -- fund 16% of Ohio’s projected budget deficit. Six months is a lifetime in politics – unless you’re sleeping through your last term in the Ohio House.

In the midst of a national fervor for change coming from both political parties, and while the nation’s well-coifed national news reporters focus squarely on the frozen landscape that is Ohio’s families economic woes and fears (bracing themselves for $4.00 a gallon gas) last week our Ohio House met.

And I bet you didn’t know it. Why would you? House members hardly did anything for your wallet – or for that potential billion dollar steel company that had an interest in your state.

What we got, on Thursday, was a bill delivering the Governor’s renewable energy proposals – creating an outside agency to administer a new type of TIF – already rejected by the Ohio Senate. It’s friendly and it polls well – but it isn’t S.B. 221 or some variation – it’s gutless.

Ohio needs rate stability – Ohio needs jobs. Why else would the head of manufacturers in Ohio stand with the head of the Ohio AFL-CIO in a press conference to push S.B. 221? They know without something meaningful and comprehensive – we’re on another collision course with economic ignominy.

What this means, is that if you are a lobbyist these days – these are your salad days. And a good lobbyist knows that it’s easier to gum up a bill than get enough votes to pass one.

Since January, Speaker Husted, who is comfortably on his way to the gerrymandered and secure state Senate seat held by term-limited Jeff Jacobson, has made little secret in the shadows of Columbus’ watering holes about his desire to be Secretary of State.

But as the dynamic duo of Husted and Ohio Republican Party Prince Regent Kevin DeWine plot their way back to power – the combination of political Machiavellism and personal ambition may wind up burying both Ohio’s economy and the long alliance between struggling but still powerful (and personally wealthy) manufacturers.

The major issues of this General Assembly seem to be going nowhere as everywhere you go in the Statehouse the focus is on who will succeed Husted, and whether the GOP will maintain a four-seat majority given coat-tails from the 2006 GOP election debacle.

It is quite simply easier for good lobbyists to gum up bills than face the uncertain faces and ever eager hands of legislative ambition. A strong leader would appeal to both parties to keep some sort of order, focus and legislative progress given Ohio’s acute economic needs. Instead:

• PayDay loan proposals supported bi-partisanly languish.
• The Governor’s jobs bill last month is dead on arrival in the House and will likely go to the ballot.
• The Secretary of State’s efforts at election reforms are largely part of a partisan game.
• And electric re-regulation is at a stall leaving consumers, manufacturers and businesses at risk.

Speaker Husted did get compliments Thursday – after all, the renewables were the only part of the Governor’s plan rejected in the Ohio Senate.

But by moving a bill focused largely on renewables, Husted is ignoring the meat of the plan which both the Governor and Ohio Senators overwhelmingly recognized as necessary in a 32-0 vote.

What is more troubling is that Husted on the re-regulation issue has a long history of saying one thing, but doing another.

On Jan. 10th, Husted issued his “goals’’ for the bill. Top on the list: craft a plan that doesn’t result in “winners and losers.’’ A good goal for all stakeholders in the effort.

Just a few weeks later, however, one of the Speaker’s top lieutenants on the House Public Utilities Committee quietly shopped around an amendment that would – you guessed it – result in a system populated with winners and losers.

The winners: Large industrial customers who would have been allowed to share a $20 million pool of discounts.

The losers: Homeowners and other residential customers who would not.

The Cincinnati Enquirer http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802120329 exposed the proposal, and the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel explained why it was a bad idea:

"It is not a good thing for consumers," said Janine Migden-Ostrander, who represents the interests of residential utility customers.

Duke officials, however, say the discounts will help business development

"The goal is economic development," Duke spokesman Steve Brash told the newspaper.

If it’s so great for economic development, why did the very businesses that would have benefitted, turn down the deal? It’s not like the manufacturers and their armies of lobbyists aren’t pretty self-focused on their needs from this issue?

Yet what these industrial companies realized is that they want and need a permanent fix if they are to make long-term decisions on whether to expand or invest in Ohio. Ohio’s industrial titans need to know for certain what kind of electric bills to expect, just as its struggling residential consumers do.

There is growing evidence that they can expect sharp and sudden price hikes, not to mention a “market’’ that is easy to manipulate. The manipulation became so bad in Illinois that the attorney general became engaged and forced companies to pay a settlement in excess of $1 billion.

Ohio has a rare opportunity to learn from the mistakes of other states, where the gap in retail electricity prices between deregulated and regulated states continues to widen, more than doubling from 2.1 cents per kilowatt in 1999 to 4.4 cents in 2007, according to a Feb. 12 report from Power in the Public Interest.

"For the 12 months ending October 2007, consumers in the deregulated group paid $139 billion for their electricity. The same amount of electricity at the regulated states' average rate would have cost $89 billion — a difference (or comparative purchasing-power disadvantage to the deregulated states) of $50 billion for the 12-month period," the report's author, former state utilities regulator Marilyn Showalter, found in "Electricity Price Trends: Deregulated vs. Regulated States."

"This is not to say that deregulation is responsible for the whole gap, or that the gap can be closed," Showalter said. "The gap does, however, reveal the significant economic disadvantage suffered by customers in the deregulated states, and the imperative for them (as well as states about to face deregulated prices) to pursue the most effective form of economic regulation of electricity."

So, on Thursday, Jon Husted walked into his once powerful office in a vacuous state.

He could smile knowing that no-one, including ProgressOhio and its partners, would criticize a bill designed to promote renewable energy – a Machiavellian move to be sure. But he could also smile knowing that its fate is likely sealed across the Statehouse in the Senate where he will soon reside.

What he did not expect was that on the same date Steel Development, LLC announced that it’s not coming to Ohio because of uncertainty over electricity costs.

The company’s managing director told reporters the group “wasn’t able to get a handle on its electricity costs in Ohio because the state has yet to decide how rates will be regulated in the future.”

For Ohio manufacturer’s that’s a brown out – a power drain – right at the feet of the once-powerful Speaker. You can read in the tea leaves that phones were burning to those business titans in Dayton and southwest Ohio who weaned a young Husted into his lofty perch under the carved Ohio seal in Ohio’s gilded House chamber. Titanism is a pretty small exclusive club and it doesn’t take a genius to figure these calls would likely increase in number and intensity on Thursday.

After six months, Husted seemed more interested in a strategy of political poker than Ohio jobs. But you could be sure if you were a fly in the walls of corporate Ohio that it is likely that these bottom-line moguls are reminding Speaker Husted’s hometown hero’s that Jon Husted is gambling on their tab – and after six months the economic hangover is wearing thin.

You can be fairly certain the message to Jon Husted would likely be that he needs to lead, follow or get out of our way – corporate leaders aren’t known to play footsy with things like profit margins and company stability – and you don’t need a phone tap to hear these rather loud echoes.

A shadow like that leaves one final question; will Mr. Husted’s power outage drag his party with him in the House? You would think he and Prince Kevin would start to hear the wake-up calls.

Exclusive from ProgressOhio:

Hear Ohio Governor Ted Strickland speak directly to you about Electric Re-regulation.

Progressives are a diverse lot. It’s part of the DNA of free-form thinking – the Myers-Briggs that defines the ideology. Smart conservatives know that.

So when progressives began to splinter over different issues involving the Ohio Election study – EVEREST -- it was hardly surprising.

What was surprising was how a Republican election official from Franklin County – Matt Damschroder – became – to borrow Reggie Jackson’s famous phrase -- the straw that stirred the drink in sidetracking Ohio’s Secretary of State’s voting change efforts.

One of the few things the increasingly secretive legislators on Broad and High haven’t exempted from public records are emails of Boards of Elections officials. So ProgressOhio requested Matt Damschroder’s emails on the subject of EVEREST to give SHADOWS readers a glimpse of how operatives influence politics.

What we found was correspondence that showed Damschroder become the de-facto Secretary of State for the opposition. These emails showed Damschroder positioning himself as an expert with newspapers, serving as the public relations scheduler for the elections activist community– and generally – evolving into Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s worst unseen antagonist.

Where there was a newspaper leaning -- he pushed. Where there were progressives with narrow concerns – he fawned over them and inflamed.

The emails show Damschroder to have become an impassible Dam to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s reform efforts – a study in the use of access, geniality and chutzpa to further his partisan agenda.

Matt Damschroder is a likeable guy, a Republican who somehow remained as Director of the Franklin County Board of Elections even though the position usually changes over and mirrors the party of the Ohio Secretary of State, who is now a Democrat.

He has done so, in part, because Denny White, former Ohio Democratic Party Chair and Deputy Director, is phasing out his long, successful career and inching toward rumored retirement. But there are loud grumblings that White remaining in the junior deputy position signals that Democrats may be sleeping while Rome is burning. Our election system calls for balance to keep Ohio elections immune from party politics, and emails reveal that Democrats aren’t offering the needed counter-balance to Damschroder.

The emails of Mr. Damschroder demonstrate the ease and familiarity he has with people of both political parties and the media. And it is that genial behavior that masks what the emails reveal: An agenda to preserve Ohio’s now scientifically proven flawed election machinery.

There are some heavy partisan scars inflicted by Mr. Damschroder’s role in Franklin County, the most obvious being the well-documented voting machine shortages resulting in long lines for Franklin County’s minority precincts in 2004.

A former Executive Director of the Franklin County GOP who left in 2003, Damschroder was disciplined in July 2005 for steering a check from representatives of voting vendor Diebold for $10,000 to the County Republican Party.

The Dispatch reported: "I’m here to give you $10,000," the elections director recalls Gallina saying. "Who do I make it payable to?"

"Well, you’re certainly not going to make it out to me," Damschroder says he told Gallina. "But I’m sure the Franklin County Republican Party would appreciate a donation."

Damschroder’s pay was docked over the incident, even though he never recommended Diebold for the contract. The investigation of the matter by the Franklin County Prosecutor has never been formally closed.

Up where the sun always shines -- or the sun don’t shine, depending on the season, where nature rules and adventurers flourish – a scandal reverberating in Washington D.C. has emerged in the form of the formidable duo of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and his son, former Alaska State Sen. Ben Stevens. A Noe-like atmosphere now exists in our nation’s 49th state.

Here in Ohio, our senior United States Senator, George Victor Voinovich, has played a unique role in Sen. Stevens’ saga, even presiding back in January 2004 over the Ethics Committee that was first asked to look into Stevens’ troubles.

Curiously, there was no action taken by the Ethics Committee in the winter of 2004. In fact just months later, Sen. Voinovich’s own son, George F. Voinovich, became a member of a lobbying firm with much fanfare trumpeting the Voinovich name, that eventually became known as Compass Consulting.

Sons of famous fathers are permitted to lobby, but it’s worth noting that no-less than current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had asked the Voinovich-led Ethics Committee to look at the influence of family members of Senators. And most troubling of all, the website of the lobbying firm with ties to his own son seems to brag about the very issue Reid had put before the Ethics Committee.

As recently as last fall, the website trumpeted “Compass excels in work with the Ohio Congressional Delegation and across the U.S. Senate.” The current website does not list George F. Voinovich’s bio but a link to the firm Voinovich, Needles & Dalton, LLC still forwards the Voinovich firms website traffic directly to Compass Consulting stating the firm is now Compass.

Taking a closer look at some of Compass’ registered clients and the Senator’s role – it begs the question of ethics and families in Congress.

To be sure, Sen. Stevens and Sen. Voinovich are not the only members of Congress with family members who are part of lobbying firms (see the following roster). The wife of former Democratic Senate Leader Tom Daschle was a very influential Washington lobbyist so this is not a partisan problem.

The question becomes one of ground rules. At what point does the influence of a politician benefit a family member? And at what point do the rights of a family member get infringed by the public’s right to honest government? Should a close relative of a politician have more stringent ethics rules than non-family members?

And it all starts in Alaska, where Sen. Stevens and eventually his family became embroiled in controversy.

She’s smart, very smart.

She’s politically savvy – a keen strategic resource on many political campaigns. She fits in, with both Washington D.C. dignitaries and people in the hills far from our big cities. She’s also a solid Midwesterner to her core.

Hillary Clinton? Nope.

Frances Strickland – she of a doctorate in psychology; field coordinator for her husband in what was seen as unwinnable Appalachia; one-time field director of the Ohio Democratic Party and currently Ohio’s popular first lady.

Hillary and Frances have a lot in common. Hillary the Yale law graduate. Hillary the campaign wizard. Hillary who spent 12 years as Arkansas’ first lady and learned to fit in. Hillary who grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois.

Both are toughened – obviously Hillary’s been fired at more frequently – but don’t think for a moment those whisper campaigns and attacks on Ted Strickland during the ’06 campaign didn’t hurt.

So why then is Frances loved and Hillary a polarizing force in a presidential race that is hers to lose? Buck the consultants Hillary. Let us see a little inner-Frances and a little more about us and less about image. Hillary could use a dose of Frances right about now.

The fact of the matter is that Hillary was Frances, before Frances was Frances.

You can see it in the early Arkansas pictures. The countless pictures of her early work on children’s advocacy issues. You can sense that over time Hillary really connected in Arkansas. You can be smart, independent and fit in across the Ozarks. There is a strong connection between the strength of women who make households work in tough economic conditions, and the strong women involved in politics.

Yet, there are those who treat Hillary Clinton like she’s so battle-weary and street hardened that she needs a full-body scrub. It’s like DC political insiders try to give her a mammoth full-body pedicure – to scrub the wounds and calluses of a very mean-spirited political world rather than connect what those wounds represent to all of us.

You listen to some of the Iowa and New Hampshire commercials and the mechanics are right but the message is wrong. There is too much talk about Hillary and not enough about the voters. It is as if her handlers believe she can put on some magical hat like “Frosty The Snowwoman” and repackage a frosty image by starting over.

And why should she have to be reborn?

There are 34 videos on Hillary’s YouTube site in a series called “The Hillary I Know” and I watched many of them the other day. All heartfelt to be sure. But there is something missing about them.

Maybe it’s the slick commercial production. Maybe it’s the editing or vetting process. It occurred to me as I watched her on CSPAN the other day, speaking with her jacket unbuttoned, animated, connecting with some real people – not the stylized real people you see these days with hand-selected partisan people arrayed as if in Oprah’s studio with the candidate emerging from among the set (sorry Oprah I know it’s a Hill column and Barak’s your man.)

It’s ironic that some unscripted C-SPAN footage said more to me about Hillary Clinton than all the tens of millions of dollars worth of scripted moments in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Now keep in mind I’m an Ohioan, not a DC operative, so take this observation for what it’s worth (which given DC operatives contact with me this year isn’t much.) But Hillary reminded me of Frances Strickland in that brief CSPAN moment.

I’ve often told classes of students that political messaging is as much craft as it is science. No one taught me this, but in its essence, communication comes down to three distinct elements:

• THE ACTOR: The person or focus of the communication.
• THE ACTION: The verb of politics. The activity created or transmitted.
• THE RECEIVER: The receptor – the person between those two ears.

While communication is simple, the reality of it is hard. Primarily because we are not wired to hear the same things, to feel the same things, and to respond in the same way to the same things from that single messenger. Every childhood game of “telephone” demonstrates that simple reality.

And there lies the problem for Hillary Clinton’s handlers. Too much focus on the Actor in the age of new technology can lead to too many misfired interpretations by the Receiver.

As technology gets more sophisticated and political fundraising hits new heights, the 2008 branding of Hillary Clinton brings to mind marketers struggles during the ‘80s new Coke fiasco.

It’s not about the Actor; it’s about the Receiver/Audience. You cannot package the Candidate (the Actor) without making the issue about the taste’s of the voter (the Receiver.) And since we all receive things so differently – that means it can’t be a micro-researched talking point branding the candidate – it has to be a broader feeling than those tested – a degree of comfort that makes Hillary Clinton’s campaign not about her, but rather about us.

The funny thing about all of this is that the trend in political consulting is to make things more like modern Madison Avenue and conveniently ignores some of the very real problems with this style of marketing for something like the new Coke problem.

For all the marketing advances – focus groups, polls, micro-targeted marketing lists -- when they make marketing about the new Coke product itself, not about us, marketers face the wrath of Receivers convinced (rightly or wrongly) over broader experiential impressions like familiarity of taste, habit and cultural connections – all things about the consumer experience– not the product itself.

It’s as easy as remembering that if you go on a first date, or on a job interview, and the conversation is all about you – and not about your date or your interviewer – you leave with a sense of no connection. In that sense, the trend in politics is actually a flawed and outdated, product oriented model.

Iowa’s vote last night was more about a broad feeling about the change Huckabee and Obama represent and much less about anything Iowans actually know about either candidate personally.

Taken on their own, Hillary’s issues are right for many American progressives or moderate independents. Hillary’s roots are right. Hillary’s experience is right. But the focuses of her handling (as opposed to the handling mechanics itself) are wrong.

Many of those “The Hillary I Know” videos are people talking about Hillary (the actor) rather than about themselves (with some exceptions.) It’s almost a hyper-response to that infamous blogger’s “1984” commercial re-make.

The campaign’s mechanical improvements such as early conference calls into Southeast Ohio with both former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton – are much improved over the mechanically benign neglect of John Kerry’s 2004 connection in that Ohio region.

But if those conference calls become more about Hillary and less about Ohio’s Appalachians, the campaign will have employed austere, controlled phone-mericals with party intelligencia and overlooked the everyday voter living in the shadows of the Harmar Tavern (down in Marietta) or up in Sugar Creek where you can still smell the wood-burning and coal-fired heat of Amish farm homes.

Hillary’s problem is that her handlers have made this about Hillary’s image – not about her role in America’s image. It’s a text book campaign full of smart, experienced operatives using the best in technology, micro-targeted voter files, polling, politically correct protocol and the best political messenger in America – Bill Clinton – but it’s blindly sucked the inner-Frances out of Hillary.

I’ve seen Frances only twice since she became Ohio’s First Lady. Yet I got the sense both times she hasn’t changed.

The thing that doesn’t seem to change is that talking to Frances Strickland, the comforting smile is the same and even the briefest conversation is about – well you – not her.

When you think about it Ted Strickland’s popularity in polls has little to do with Ohio, and everything to do with the fact that what he represents so far is about Ohioans. He may have cut some Medicare program – but he’s forgiven because it’s about you and handling your tax money. He may have had an identity protection crisis – but he insured all those folks affected – making the resolution focused on those who were wronged and taking the sting out of the impact on not just them, but all of us and our own fears about identity theft.

The Culture of Corruption was so devastating in Ohio, because it was about us, and how Bob Taft, Bob Ney and other cronies, appeared to be concerned more about themselves and their cronies interests. Government became about them – not us – that was the crux of Noe. Coins were just a metaphorical vehicle.

Bill Clinton survived his White House scars, largely because what he did for America was about Americans, not about him or his personal foibles. When Potomac insiders make things about the Actor/Candidate, they risk losing the broader picture of what matters to all of us, the Receiver audience, which is in fact our most fascinating subject-- ourselves. Congressional Republicans found that out painfully in mid-term losses after the Lewinsky impeachment scandal.

George W. Bush can’t mistake the inevitable bad polling he gets, largely because, his decisions seem to be about him – about his ideology, about his cowboy way – about the Actor taking action, not the Receiver getting action. That’s why in 2004 he had to shift from Iraq to the co-opting of the inner psyche of our own Twin Towers fears of domestic terrorism. Terrorism is about us. Iraq is about Iraqis – rightly or wrongly in the American psyche.

The hyper-focus on the “real” Hillary fundamentally is trying to package her audience into a one-dimensional response that is so focused to the new Coke-politician it tends to alienate the very different ways many of us receive and react to their carefully researched messaging.

But when political messaging becomes about us and our collective wants and needs – as broad and expansive in interpreting things as we may be -- even impeachment or an unpopular Iraq War cannot cut through that strong personal connection or theme to the Actor/Candidate.

I’m sure in the case of both Hillary and Frances Strickland, handlers have their hands full. Two strong, educated women, who have more electoral experience than most of those around them – yet find themselves handled by the latest Political gizmo craze – the media grid – which is essentially a controlling method to ensure messaging is delivered with little deviation from focus groups or polling’s micro-message.

Message discipline they call it – conveniently forgetting that there is no discipline in how we humanly receive and react to micro-targeted information.

But you know the digital age is a very different unpolished age of new media. It breaks down the barriers of secret service agents, and even makes celebrities and internationally known politicians all too real in Digital High Definition to boot. And most importantly it makes the Deaver-like DC handlers and their grids cringe because it can’t be controlled – but that is what seals the modern missing connection between Potomacland and us. That’s what seems to be missing in Hillary’s callous makeover.

Hillary’s handlers have to realize that actors only play the roles; the audiences of voters determine hits – no matter the cost of the production. And memorable movies succeed by relating to the audiences connection, not the actors reflection.

Rather than hear broadcasters babble spin about the “real” Hillary, or stylized productions of people talking about Hillary – the lesson coming out of Iowa is America needs to see and feel universally how an unscripted Hillary fits in as one of us – the 1992 Hillary we saw ticking off Tammy Wynnette in her famous “stand-by your man” 60 Minutes moment.

Give Hillary back a little bit of her inner-Frances. Give her more of what was on CSPAN so briefly the other day. Make Ohio’s Presidential election about Ohioans unplugged instead of nebbishly controlling the candidates image into Hillary plugged up.

A little dose of that inner-Frances making Americans feel that Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is about us, not her – now that’s a Scioto Fever that will melt through icy waters.

Thursday morning, this column changed.

It was supposed to be just about Ohio Elections. About EVEREST – a mountain of a study that hopefully sets Ohioans on a roadmap toward election nirvana. The study was intended to help ensure that if you want to vote in Ohio – you can vote in Ohio – and your vote will count.

It amazes the senses that companies that were able to change the concept of American commerce with ATM machines and online banking can’t seem to create the same integrity with voting machines. Priorities in business, and priorities in politics, seem very different.

The simple act of voting looks more downtrodden than the Miami Dolphins’ 2007 offense.

We watched Benazir Bhutto die this week over elections.

We watched as Vladimir Putin set in motion the ability for him to remain in power as a Premier or Prime Minister, even thou