Don’t Doubt, Vote Right: The SWNID Voter’s Guide

For the comforting of our friends and the confounding of our enemies, we here offer our SWNIDish advice on ballot casting for Tuesday. Gentle readers registered to vote in Ohio should click the permalink for this post, print it, and carry it proudly to the polls.

And of course, we offer not just our recommendations but our Seldom Wrong rationale for each.

By the way, we are noting only those candidates on the ballot in our precinct. If you’re in another part of the world, we’d like to tell you who the SWNID candidates are down the ballot, but we just can’t manage all that. But you can generate a sample ballot and some information on the candidates here, thanks to the venerable League of Women Voters.

Governor of Ohio: Ken Blackwell
Blackwell has run the most miserable campaign in history, perhaps justifying at least some of the rotten things said about him in Strickland’s ads. But the fact remains that Ohio’s economic situation will not be improved by the kind of high-tax, pro-public-employee environment that Strickland will perpetuate. Nor will its education system be improved by more toadying to the AFT and NEA. Blackwell’s principles are strong, even if his political ability has faltered.

Attorney General of Ohio: Betty Montgomery
Montgomery has been tarred unfairly with the coingate scandal. An effective legal officer, she will serve well in the AG’s office. Marc Dann, her opponent, lacks her experience in statewide office.

Auditor of State: Mary Taylor
Taylor is an accomplished state legislator and a CPA. Her opponent, Barbara Sykes, is part of the pro-union cabal of northeast Ohio Democrats, the folks who have brought us the kind of state economy that is dragging. And she has no accounting experience.

Secretary of State, State of Ohio: Greg Hartmann
Hartmann has served with remarkable effectiveness in Hamilton County government, streamlining the Clerk of Courts office and vastly improving customer service. He has also pledged not to chair anyone’s campaign while he is in office regulating elections, a welcome, voluntary move. We have met him and find him impressively energetic and more than a little amusing.

Treasurer of State, State of Ohio: Richard Cordray
We’ve decided that it’s time that Ohio had someone in statewide office who is not a Republican. Cordray is pick of the Democrat litter, and a worthwhile candidate even in a year that doesn't require a bit of housecleaning. Holding the MA in economics from Oxford University (the real Oxford, not that fake Oxford in Ohio with a newer university in it) and a JD from the University of Chicago, he’s easily the best educated person on anyone’s ballot this year. He’s done a creditable job in Franklin County as treasurer. And since the real Republican scandal has been with the treasurer’s office, this is the place to make the move.

US Representative, District 1: Steve Chabot
We think that John Cranley is a decent guy, pretty smart, and moderate for a Democrat. We’ve voted for him for city council. But Chabot is too good to throw out just because we’re tired of Republicans. He’s honest, plainspoken, and thoroughly conservative, just like SWNID. He's done good work as a Congressman, and he needs to stay for awhile.

United States Senate: Mike DeWine
DeWine proved himself right in joining the gang of fourteen that negotiated an end of the judicial wars, and we’ll admit that our misgivings about that deal were just maybe a little bit wrong. More than that, he’s a voice of decency and wisdom in the Senate, and a strong voice for human life. Meanwhile, Sherrod Brown is a recast William Jennings Bryan, whose so-called populism is really protectionism and support for closed shop arrangements that would shackle American economic growth. We urge gentle readers to prove the polls wrong on this race.

State Representative, District 32: Kimberly Hale
This is a tough one. On one side is Dale Mallory, member of the Mallory clan, and supporter of the development of a new social service center in the West End. We like Dale and we like his family, who have served Cincinnati with distinction for two generations. But he completely mishandled the whole West End social service center deal, misadvising the center’s sponsors in a way that is proving fatal to the project and probably fatal to his own political career, as he is also under criminal investigation for mishandling community council funds. On the other side is Kimberly Hale, who has run a vigorous campaign for a Republican in the city. She doesn’t have any big and bright ideas, but of late Mallory has looked pretty ham-handed as a politician, to put it mildly. So we’ll say yes to Kim Hale and wish her the best.

State Senator, District 9: Eric Kearney
Kearney is a thoughtful, decent, honest, experienced and well-connected individual, committed to civil rights and economic development. His opponent is a political neophyte. We go with Kearney for the personal qualities. If you're keeping a tally, that's two Democrats we're endorsing.

Judge, Ohio Supreme Court: Terrence O’Donnell
O’Donnell, an incumbent member of the court’s slight majority of conservatives, has stated flatly that he doesn’t believe that the Supreme Court of Ohio can order the legislature, an equal branch of state government, to do something. His opponent, William O’Neill, states that the legislature can be found in contempt of court if it doesn’t obey the orders of the Supreme Court of Ohio. We know whose judicial philosophy is most in tune with the history of our Republic.

Judge, Ohio Supreme Court: Robert R. Cupp
Neither candidate in this Supreme Court race is an incumbent. But again, you can tell what’s up by what each says about the court’s power over the legislature. For Cupp, the Supreme Court interprets Ohio law, but it is a co-equal member of government. For his opponent, Ben Espy, the court can enforce its rulings by holding individual members of the legislature in contempt.

Judge, Ohio State Court of Appeals, District 1: Patrick Dinkelacker
Dinkelacker, the incumbent, is a former prosecutor. His opponent is a law professor. The problem in Ohio doesn’t seem to be a lack of understanding of the law but a lack of will to jail the bad guys. We go with the prosecutor.

Other Judicial Races
In all other judicial races, the candidates are unopposed. N.B. that William Mallory and Dennis Helmick are both listed for the Court of Common Pleas, but two judges are to be elected in that category.

Member, State Board of Education, District 4: John Hritz
Don’t miss this one. G. R. Schloemer is the incumbent and is campaigning on a platform to keep discussion of alternatives to evolution out of the classroom Hritz sees it otherwise. We have declared our undying support for the interdisciplinary public school classroom, the same in science as in English and history. It’s an offense against nature that there even is a state school board, but since we’ve got it, we need thoughtful people on it, not reactionaries.

County Commissioner: Phil Heimlich
Phil is a divider, not a uniter. But he manages to save money and get stuff done. Most recently, he got the jail on the ballot. David Pepper’s list of accomplishments on Cincinnati City Council is short. He styles himself a moderate, but who can tell with his lack of any real activity? This is his last chance politically, and we wish him well in the private sector.

County Auditor: Dusty Rhodes
Dusty is unopposed again, proving that Democrats can get elected in Hamilton County if they do a good job. He’s been a responsive and responsible auditor, and I will forgive him for taking conservative talk off of AM 1160 in favor of oldies.

State Issue 1: No Vote
This has been removed by the courts, though it appears on the ballot. Vote yes, no, or leave it blank, but it won't become law.

State Issue 2: Constitutional Amendment to Raise the Minimum Wage: AGAINST
This is a bad idea, as raising the minimum wage will help few of the people it’s aimed at helping while hurting the businesses that give them jobs. It’s also a bad way to do it, as the state constitution is hardly the place to set the minimum wage. Really, this is a ruse to get liberals to the polls. Tell them that you’re no fool.

State Issue 3: Gambling and College Scholarships: AGAINST

Promoted in probably the most deceptive campaign waged since the Marlboro Man, this constitutional amendment will open Ohio to slot parlors. A sliver of the money gambled will go for scholarships for students in the top 5% of their high school graduating classes, hardly denting Ohio’s high public university tuition. Other money will go back to local governments to spend with their usual frugality and common sense. One percent will be devoted to developing recovery programs for gambling addicts. We insist that it is fundamentally immoral to appeal to people’s greed as a means of raising public revenue, period.

State Issue 4: Constitutional Amendment to Reduce Smoking: AGAINST
This is the pro-smoking move made by Big Tobacco, masked as an anti-smoking measure. It would actually eliminate the ability of local governments to restrict smoking to the degree that many already have.

State Issue 5: Proposed Law to Limit Smoking: FOR
This is the bill that passed the legislature and is now up for review by the voters. It will eliminate smoking in all public places, thereby ending the victimization of people forced to work around secondhand smoke. Remember, SWNID is a moral conservative, not a libertarian. We believe in limited government, but we believe that government can encourage virtue. Cigarettes and slot machines aren’t virtuous.

Issue 12: Proposed Sales and Use Tax—Hamilton County: FOR
This is the additional quarter percent sales tax for ten years to finance law enforcement. The county commissioners have pledged this to build a jail. We’re in favor of putting people who commit crimes in places where they can’t commit more crimes.

Issue 13: Proposed Tax Levy (Renewal)—Hamilton County: FOR
This goes for children’s services, and it’s not an increase. We’re for children!

Issue 14: Proposed Tax Levy (Renewal and Decrease)—Hamilton County: FOR
This is for health and hospitalization. By most standards, our local indigent care is pretty good. We’re for maintaining the local public health clinics and the public hospital services at University Hospital.