Former OCRF and CRNC Field Rep garners national media attention

Yesterday Truth Caucus linked to an ABC News story about Ohio University senior and former field representative for the Ohio College Republican Federation and College Republican National Committee Charlie Vansant's car being mistakenly stolen, and Vansant made the media rounds today. We spoke with him this morning as he prepared for an interview with ABC's Columbus affiliate, who aired a piece on the incident during tonight's 5 PM news broadcast. Charlie seemed to be in a rather jovial mood, considering that he was without his vehicle to travel to classes, forcing him to walk instead in the coldest week of Ohio's winter thus far. Vansant was interviewed by FOX News earlier in the morning, and told us that he had more lined up for the afternoon.

The incident occurred when a mother of a fellow Ohio University student mistook Vansant's 1987 Toyota for her daughter's similar vehicle, and drove it to her home. No charges are being pressed, but Charlie's car has been broken down since the "theft", ironically enough. The story of how he left the CRNC to work for the OCRF was one of the great untold stories, really, of the 2006 election season, especially given that his resignation from the CRNC came amidst several other high-profile situations with other CRNC field reps.

Following just one week in Ohio, David Lazo was removed and relocated to Indiana after the Ohio Republican Party asked Chairman Paul Gourley to pull Lazo from the state. A few weeks later, CRNC rep Angie Poole was removed and relocated to the New England area, due to circumstances that deserve to be told in its own story. Following that, the third of four CRNC field reps sent to Ohio was asked to leave as well, when OCRF Chairman Brian Siler requested to have Marc Baylen pulled. After all of this happened, Charlie Vansant resigned his post to take a similar job at the OCRF.

Anyhow, all of this is another story for another day, really. We hope that Charlie gets his car up and running soon, and if you wish to see for yourself the segment from this evening's news tune into FOX 28 WTTE at 10 PM for the re-airing.

Ohio AG Dann experiences need to compensate for shortcomings

Photo taken from today's edition of The Columbus Dispatch.

The Columbus Dispatch reports this morning that Ohio's new Attorney General Marc Dann (D-Warren) has purchased a new 2007 Chevrolet Surburban LT, valued at well over $40,000 for use as his personal transportation while in office. He bought the SUV from a campaign donor, to boot, and your tax dollars will foot the bill. It is five times more valuable than former AG Jim Petro's personal car, a 2003 Mercury Sable. The Dispatch also reports on the other statewide office holders' choices of vehicle, all of which besides Governor Strickland's are cheaper and get better gas mileage. Kudos to Treasurer Rich Cordray for using either his own vehicle, or a pool vehicle for his transport rather than springing for a new ride. But for Marc Dann, this is simply the latest in an embarassing line of decisions since being elected. No word yet on whether Dann will be speaking out against global warming from his new SUV ot not.

Gov. Strickland lays out priorities in Inaugural Address

Earlier today, in a cold and wet Columbus winter morning, Governor Ted Strickland gave his Inaugural Address to Ohioans, and an interesting speech it surely was. Strickland quoted Winston Churchill, George W. Bush, the Bible, and told critics of Ohio to, "get thee behind me." The speech itself offered no real revelations on what Strickland intends to do while Governor, but it did offer much insight into the priorities and beliefs that he will bring to the Governorship. In this excerpt, Strickland talks about why Ohio is being held back, and high taxes and regulation are not the causes at fault in his mind: (Bolds are mine)

"Though significant, the road to our renewal is not blocked by overregulation or lack of infrastructure, or even high taxes. No, we are only being held back to the extent that our state fails, either from lack of investment or lack of innovation, to provide the opportunity for quality learning for every citizen."

Governor Strickland also spoke of Ohio's common values, and how he shares these priorities. Please note that the first value/priority listed in the speech is universal health care, and that the last priority in the speech is using wisely Ohioan's tax dollars, after protecting the environment.

"We all want health care for those who need it. We all want a solid education for our children. We want a system of higher education that is affordable and gives our kids the opportunity to remain in Ohio to raise their families -- strong families, where moms and dads can have living wage jobs. We all want to honor the contributions of our parents and our grandparents so they can feel secure in their retirement years. We want safe and secure neighborhoods. We want to protect our natural environment and to ensure the health and safety of our children. We all want a government that provides services that are needed, but we also want the government to stay out of our lives when it has no right or reason to be there. We want the price we pay for a civilized society -- our tax dollars -- to be used wisely -- with proper respect for the hard work that has made them available.

I am willing to, and going to, give Governor Strickland every chance to turn around Ohio, because Ohio most certainly needs turning around. However, it is going to take some hard realization to see that lower taxes and less restrictive government regulation should be on even footing with a better education system. If we simply educate our children without creating a good business environment, they will continue to move elsewhere to find work. Best of luck, Governor! The people of Ohio are counting on you.

Minimum Wage Hike Hitting Consumers in the Pocketbook

As we covered earlier in the week, the Ohio minimum wage hike, and pending federal minimum wage hike, are having unwelcome consequences to consumers. The restaurant owner that I spoke of in the previous post is definitely not alone, as the Columbus Dispatch has a story today about rising prices due directly to the increased minimum wage that took effect on January 1, 2007. I also talked briefly about the fact that employers will not be able to hire as many workers or give current workers as many hours as usual in order to offset the costs, and this quote from the article about Columbus-based Max & Erma's perfectly illustrates that.

"The company also plans to improve its scheduling to make up the remainder of the pay boost’s total impact, which is estimated at more than $1 million a year at the chain’s 33 Ohio units."

By the way, "improve scheduling" is corporate-speak for cut hours and staff, for anyone who did not catch that. Another portion of the article talks about another Columbus-based restaurant chain, Bob Evans, and the negative impact that the higher minimum wage is having already on their stores.

"Bob Evans, which employs tipped servers and hourly workers, operates on slim margins, so any significant cost increase has an impact on the bottom line, said Tammy Roberts Myers, spokeswoman for the Columbus-based restaurant chain."

Beyond not actually helping workers, and being bad for business and the customers of those businesses in general, this hike is hurting Ohio-based businesses as well. Nothing says, "Ohio is open for business," quite like killing your homegrown companies.

Columbus well prepared for emergency communications and planning; Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo lag behind

In a new report released by the Dept. of Homeland Security, Columbus was one of only six U.S. cities given an advanced rating in all three categories, making it, on paper, one of the most well-prepared cities for emergency planning and communications. The report also ranked Cleveland as one of the worst cities in emergency management, citing the still informal and unorganized status of the area planning groups. Cincinnati and Toledo were graded only slightly higher due to an improving performance in organizing those same area planning groups.

The report graded the cities in three major areas of communications preparedness: Usage, Governance, and Standardized Operating Procedures. The Usage category was evaluated on how effectively first responders actually were in cooperating and communicating during drills and emergencies requiring interorganizational cooperation, essentially how well the plans are currently implemented. Columbus was rated as having advanced usage, while the three other Ohio cities rated were given only an intermediate ranking on usage and implementation. Governance ranked the organization of emergency planning groups, the existence of definite protocol, and the active funding and constant updating of this planning. Cleveland was cited for not having a definite strategic plan or formal planning group in place, while Columbus was again rated advanced in the area. Toledo and Cincinnati were given intermediate rankings in this category as well, given the improving nature of their plans and the formality of the planning groups. Standardized Operating Procedures encompassed the actual effectiveness and implementation of the plans themselves in exercises and actual emergencies, with Columbus again being advanced to the other three Ohio cities intermediate ratings.