Dear Friends,
If you have not yet heard, on July 25th, the Ohio Secretary of State certified that Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom had submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures from a sufficient number of counties to go on the November 7th ballot.
This is disappointing, but not surprising news. They paid big bucks to fly in out-of-state professional signature gatherers and they have been misleading Ohio voters again and again about their proposal. Our coalition will continue to review their signatures (a large number of which were tossed out by the local boards of election) for discrepancies with the potential to exercise aggressive legal action. There are also other pending legal challenges. That said, we have been operating with the understanding that they would make it to the November ballot.
I have plenty to say about the NOvember election, but before that, I want to talk about the upcoming August special election. If you have not yet voted, I hope you will join us in voting yes. If you are voting early at your local county board of elections location: awesome. If you plan to vote in person on Tuesday, August 8th, check your polling place—some polling locations have moved. Either way, get out and vote YES, and ask your friends and neighbors to join you.
While there is a movement to paint the August election as being only about abortion (and certainly we need pro-family and pro-life voices to show up in record numbers), it is actually about much, much more than that.
I know, because I have been working to elevate what it takes to amend Ohio’s Constitution for nearly two decades. A constitution should be a foundational document that directs the basic function of government and secures the fundamental rights of its citizens. It should not be an instrument by which organizations and entities exempt themselves from the revision, public hearings, and legal and fiscal scrutiny that are part of the legislative process.
It is important to note that Ohioans have three ways of exercising legislative powers: by electing members of the General Assembly, by the initiative power to amend our Revised Code, and by referendum to repeal (most) laws enacted by the General Assembly. These are all mechanisms that have been used in recent years in Ohio (for example, the indoor smoking ban and the repeal of SB5—the public employee bargaining law). Nothing in Issue 1 would impact those checks on Ohio’s General Assembly, Governor, or other statewide elected officials. If you have questions, I’ve put together a backgrounder that you might find useful.
The August election will require a 60% majority before amending our founding document, rather than a 50%+1; it will require that signatures be gathered from every county instead of just half of them; and it will make ballot initiative campaigns meet the same standards as candidates for political office in order to qualify – no do-overs that benefit campaigns that rely on paid signature-gathering.
At the end of the day, it is simple. There are only 18 states in the entire country that permit their constitution to be amended via an initiative process, and of those—Ohio is the second easiest, behind only California.
With the advent of modern campaigns—technology, funding, and media, Ohio and Ohio politics are not the same in 2023 as they were in 1912, and Ohio voters should acknowledge that and take steps to protect our Constitution. Even most of the major opposing groups, like the Ohio Democratic party and the ACLU require a 60% or more vote to amend their own constitutions and bylaws.
More critically, in recent years, Ohioans have seen increasing numbers of out-of-touch and out-of-state extremists trying to enshrine their woke policies and their profits into our Constitution. Efforts to further increase energy prices; make meat, milk, and eggs more expensive for Ohio families; decriminalize use and possession of dangerous drugs like the date rape drug; set an anti-business climate; target law enforcement and firefighters; repeal second amendment rights, and destroy families and life are all current or recent proposed Ohio Constitutional Amendments.
Ohioans should have robust policy discussions —including on matters like animal welfare standards, criminal sentencing reform, minimum wage, qualified immunity, self-defense, and parental rights. But language set in stone with no possibility for amendment (outside another amendment to the Constitution), debated via misleading political ads is not the way to hold those conversations, and enshrinement in Ohio’s Constitution is not the appropriate place for complex and nuanced policy.
I live about a mile from the Ohio Statehouse, and my community has been decimated by the woke policies and ideologies that Columbus City Council has imported from California. The results have been devastating for the poor, working, and middle class of Columbus. Whether it is driving past the now permanent homeless camps along Parsons Avenue, picking up used needles and prophylactics during neighborhood cleanups, seeing small businesses and storefronts closing in the wake of crime waves, and stepping over human feces left on the public sidewalk as I walk into my church, Columbus’ woke agenda is on its way to making my city as unlivable as San Francisco. These people and their cronies want to force the same failed policies into our Constitution.
We have an opportunity on August 8th to protect our Constitution, protect our state, and protect our children by voting yes on Issue 1.
If you have not yet heard, on July 25th, the Ohio Secretary of State certified that Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom had submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures from a sufficient number of counties to go on the November 7th ballot.
This is disappointing, but not surprising news. They paid big bucks to fly in out-of-state professional signature gatherers and they have been misleading Ohio voters again and again about their proposal. Our coalition will continue to review their signatures (a large number of which were tossed out by the local boards of election) for discrepancies with the potential to exercise aggressive legal action. There are also other pending legal challenges. That said, we have been operating with the understanding that they would make it to the November ballot.
I have plenty to say about the NOvember election, but before that, I want to talk about the upcoming August special election. If you have not yet voted, I hope you will join us in voting yes. If you are voting early at your local county board of elections location: awesome. If you plan to vote in person on Tuesday, August 8th, check your polling place—some polling locations have moved. Either way, get out and vote YES, and ask your friends and neighbors to join you.
While there is a movement to paint the August election as being only about abortion (and certainly we need pro-family and pro-life voices to show up in record numbers), it is actually about much, much more than that.
I know, because I have been working to elevate what it takes to amend Ohio’s Constitution for nearly two decades. A constitution should be a foundational document that directs the basic function of government and secures the fundamental rights of its citizens. It should not be an instrument by which organizations and entities exempt themselves from the revision, public hearings, and legal and fiscal scrutiny that are part of the legislative process.
It is important to note that Ohioans have three ways of exercising legislative powers: by electing members of the General Assembly, by the initiative power to amend our Revised Code, and by referendum to repeal (most) laws enacted by the General Assembly. These are all mechanisms that have been used in recent years in Ohio (for example, the indoor smoking ban and the repeal of SB5—the public employee bargaining law). Nothing in Issue 1 would impact those checks on Ohio’s General Assembly, Governor, or other statewide elected officials. If you have questions, I’ve put together a backgrounder that you might find useful.
The August election will require a 60% majority before amending our founding document, rather than a 50%+1; it will require that signatures be gathered from every county instead of just half of them; and it will make ballot initiative campaigns meet the same standards as candidates for political office in order to qualify – no do-overs that benefit campaigns that rely on paid signature-gathering.
At the end of the day, it is simple. There are only 18 states in the entire country that permit their constitution to be amended via an initiative process, and of those—Ohio is the second easiest, behind only California.
With the advent of modern campaigns—technology, funding, and media, Ohio and Ohio politics are not the same in 2023 as they were in 1912, and Ohio voters should acknowledge that and take steps to protect our Constitution. Even most of the major opposing groups, like the Ohio Democratic party and the ACLU require a 60% or more vote to amend their own constitutions and bylaws.
More critically, in recent years, Ohioans have seen increasing numbers of out-of-touch and out-of-state extremists trying to enshrine their woke policies and their profits into our Constitution. Efforts to further increase energy prices; make meat, milk, and eggs more expensive for Ohio families; decriminalize use and possession of dangerous drugs like the date rape drug; set an anti-business climate; target law enforcement and firefighters; repeal second amendment rights, and destroy families and life are all current or recent proposed Ohio Constitutional Amendments.
Ohioans should have robust policy discussions —including on matters like animal welfare standards, criminal sentencing reform, minimum wage, qualified immunity, self-defense, and parental rights. But language set in stone with no possibility for amendment (outside another amendment to the Constitution), debated via misleading political ads is not the way to hold those conversations, and enshrinement in Ohio’s Constitution is not the appropriate place for complex and nuanced policy.
I live about a mile from the Ohio Statehouse, and my community has been decimated by the woke policies and ideologies that Columbus City Council has imported from California. The results have been devastating for the poor, working, and middle class of Columbus. Whether it is driving past the now permanent homeless camps along Parsons Avenue, picking up used needles and prophylactics during neighborhood cleanups, seeing small businesses and storefronts closing in the wake of crime waves, and stepping over human feces left on the public sidewalk as I walk into my church, Columbus’ woke agenda is on its way to making my city as unlivable as San Francisco. These people and their cronies want to force the same failed policies into our Constitution.
We have an opportunity on August 8th to protect our Constitution, protect our state, and protect our children by voting yes on Issue 1.
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Note: scenes like these have become the norm in downtown Columbus. These were taken at 5:00 pm on a Sunday evening. ALL people in Columbus deserve better.
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