Judge Blocks Ohio’s Social Media Parental Notification Act from Being Enforced

Kids on Phone

Chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Algenon L. Marbley granted NetChoice’s request for a preliminary injunction that stops the state’s Social Media Parental Notification Act from being enforced on Monday.

Last month, NetChoice sued Ohio to block the Social Media Parental Notification Act from taking effect.

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Former Ohio Congressman Jim Renacci Advocates for Securing Primary Election System

A former Republican lawmaker is advocating for the state of Ohio to secure the primary election system and stop party raiding.

Currently, Ohio voters do not need to specify a party when registering. By requesting the ballot of the party primary they want at the time of voting, they can cast a ballot in either the Republican or Democratic primaries. Additionally, voters have the option of switching between parties during various elections throughout the year.

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Cygnal Ohio Poll Shows Vance and DeWine Getting Bigger Leads

A poll released this weekend by the data company Cygnal shows Ohio Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate widening their leads against their Democratic opponents. 

The survey of 1,776 likely voters shows J.D. Vance, the author, attorney and venture capitalist running to succeed retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman, with a 4.6-percent lead over Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH-13). Among those polled, 9.2 percent said they were undecided. 

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Republicans Poised to Run the Table in Ohio as Vance, DeWine, Yost, and LaRose All Lead in New Poll

by Debra Heine   Republican author and lawyer J.D. Vance leads Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan 46 percent to 44 percent in the U.S. Senate race in Ohio, according to GOP polling firm Cygnal. The survey of likely general election voters in Ohio also gave Republican Governor Mike DeWine a strong lead in the gubernatorial race, and Ohio Republicans leading in the races for Secretary of State, and Attorney General. Additionally, the poll showed that a near majority of Ohio voters (49.2) have a very unfavorably opinion of the job Joe Biden is doing. Overall, 57.2 percent of Ohioans disapproved of Biden’s job performance, the survey found. Vance did best among male voters, while Ryan performed best among female voters. Republican Governor Mike DeWine has a powerful +22 lead over Lt. Governor Jon Husted on the Gubernatorial ballot (56.9 percent to 34.6 percent) in the Cygnal poll. The survey also found that Republicans have a +6 advantage over Democrats (49.9 percent to 43.8 percent) on the generic congressional ballot in the state. Another 6.3 percent of likely voters were unsure of which party they preferred. Significantly, the poll found that most Ohioans are pessimistic about the direction of the country, with 63.8 percent…

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Candidate for Cuyahoga County Executive Backs Noncitizen Voting

Chris Ronayne, the Democratic candidate for Cuyahoga County executive, said in a public forum this week that he would support Ohio’s municipalities allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections.

The former Cleveland city administrator and former president of University Circle, Inc., a community-development corporation, explained to attendees at the Global Cleveland panel discussion at Jukebox that he believed cities can use their home-rule powers to adopt that election policy.

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Buckeye Institute Cautiously Lauds Ohio’s Credit Rating Rise, Warns Ongoing Discipline Will Be Crucial

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s announcement last week that Fitch Ratings upgraded the state’s credit rating from AA+ to AAA elicited both praise and caution from the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute.

Greg Lawson, research fellow at the center-right think tank, called the budgetary management to which state officials ascribed Fitch’s decision on Ohio’s long-term issuer default rating (IDR) “a mixed bag.” (The state has also seen its general-obligation bond rating rise from AA+ to AAA, its appropriation-backed bonds move to AA+ from AA, the Ohio School District Credit Enhancement Program Rating go to AA+ from AA and the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Portsmouth Bypass project obligations rating move to A+ from AA-.) 

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Ohio Democrats Want to Stop State Officeholders from Holding Paid Positions

Ohio Democrats plan to announce legislation Thursday that would ban any statewide office holder from holding private employment, performing private work or serving in any private position that they get paid to do.

State Reps. Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, and Mary Lightbody, D-Westerville, have called a press conference for 11:45 a.m. on Thursday to announce what they are calling the State Official Integrity Act.

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Ohio Restaurant Association to Laud Husted for COVID Work at Virtual Awards Ceremony

Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted

The trade association representing Ohio’s restaurant industry will recognize Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted as its Outstanding Public Official in fashioning COVID-19 policy at the onslaught of the pandemic 16 months ago.

Ohio Restaurant Association President and CEO John Barker credited Husted for working with an industry group formed to create an effective response to the  crisis with state  health advisers and others that maximized the flow of food to the public in the initial weeks and formulating a policy allowing further opening two months later.

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Governor DeWine’s Tuesday Press Briefing Addresses Labor Day Weekend Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic, High-Speed Internet Grants for Students

Governor Mike DeWine’s recent press conference touched on a number of issues facing Ohio and possible fixes. 

In the Tuesday briefing, DeWine reminded citizens to take the proper safety precautions for Labor Day weekend. DeWine reported that Ohio had the “highest number of new cases since the end of July,” which he called a “stark reminder that this virus has not gone away and it continues to spread in our communities.”

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Dozen Members of DeWine, Husted’s Ohio Economic Advisory Board Are Campaign Donors

Up until now, you mostly had to be connected to big business — and to Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov Jon Husted — to have a say in how businesses of all sizes are considered in Ohio’s snails-pace reopening.

On Friday, DeWine said the state would begin a phased reopening from the Chinese coronavirus shutdown, The Ohio Star reported. The governor said he is forming a pair of advisory groups tasked with developing best practices for reopening dine-in restaurants, barbershops and salons.

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DeWine Thanks President Trump for Approving Plan for Battelle to Sterilize Hundreds of Thousands of Protective Masks

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Lt. Governor Jon Husted on Sunday thanked President Trump and Dr. Stephen Hahn of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving a plan to sterilize N95 masks to fight the coronavirus.

Earlier Sunday, DeWine called an emergency press conference to express his “deep disappointment” with the FDA for limiting the use of the new technology, The Ohio Star reported.

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Ohio Lt. Gov. Husted Urges Congress to Act on Trade Agreement

by Todd DeFeo   The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will benefit Ohio’s economy, and Congress should proceed with ratifying the deal, the state’s lieutenant governor said in a letter to federal officials urging them to act. Lt. Gov. Jon Husted sent a letter to members of Ohio’s congressional delegation expressing his support for the trade deal and urging them to ratify the agreement this year. He also sent the letter to President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California. Canada and Mexico are Ohio’s two biggest export markets, accounting for more than 51 percent of the state’s total exports, Husted said in his letter. In 2018, Ohio sent $21 billion in goods to Canada and nearly $7 billion to Mexico. “It is necessary that the United States implement an updated trade agreement with Mexico and Canada to reflect the dramatic technological changes that have occurred since ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),” Husted wrote. “The new agreement will better serve the interests of American innovators, workers, farmers and job creators. Mutually beneficial trade leads to freer markets, fairer trade, and greater economic growth in the United States and across North…

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Ohio Republican Elite Lean Left and Act Vindictively, Tea Party Members Say

  Ohio Tea Party members say an elite political class of Republicans-In-Name-Only controls the state’s GOP. Any conservatives not among the establishment class Republicans are kept at a distance. Once in office, these powerful RINOs use their power and influence to penalize people who speak up against them — and this includes even the relatives of the people who don’t conform, Tea Party members said. John McAvoy, a Tea Party official in northwest Ohio, told The Ohio Star this week that this was especially true when former Republican Gov. John Kasich held office. Kasich, of course, does not hold U.S. President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, in high esteem. “If you were going to benefit from Kasich then you had to be a Never Trumper. I have had phone conversations with people when we were running state central committee candidates who told me ‘If you ever say I said this I will deny it, but I must support Kasich. The reason I must support him is because I have a brother-in-law who works for the Turnpike Commission and if I don’t support Kasich then my brother-in-law loses his job,” McAvoy said. “There were things like that. That is how the…

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Tea Party and GOP Members Believe Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted Cut a Secret Deal in 2018 Election

  There’s no hard evidence to back it up, but sources believe Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, both Republicans, allegedly made a secret pact during the 2018 election season to assist one another’s political fortunes. Initially, Husted ran for governor, but he later dropped out of that race to seek the lieutenant governor’s job, as DeWine’s running mate, sources told The Ohio Star. Ohio voters elected DeWine governor in 2018. “This stuff about a deal the two men made is not news,” said John McAvoy, a Tea Party official in northwest Ohio who said, at one time, he supported Husted. “People around Ohio know this. It’s common knowledge here.” This matters because some people in Ohio believe members of the state’s GOP leadership can and will exclude conservative candidates not among the state’s political elite. McAvoy, however, said he could not prove his accusations. In another part of Ohio, Ray Warrick, who chaired the Warren County Republican Party for two years, also said he and other conservatives throughout the state believe or speculate DeWine and Husted made a secret deal. “These two men actually spent the first two months of the campaign beating each other up,”…

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Ohio’s Lt. Gov. Husted Named as Director of Another Top State Office

Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was named director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation, a role he will take on in addition to his capacity as director of InnovateOhio. Gov. Mike DeWine announced the appointment during a Thursday Cabinet meeting, saying he was “pleased” to have Husted “serve as the point person for Ohio’s workforce development efforts.” “It is so important that we continue to invest in our state’s most valuable asset—our workforce, and Lt. Gov. Husted will ensure that our efforts in this area are focused and deliver results,” DeWine said, according to a press release. In his new role, Husted will oversee 75 different workforce development programs across 12 state agencies, and will report directly to the governor. The position was previously occupied by Ryan Burgess, but he stepped down after being appointed director of cabinet affairs for DeWine. “Ohio’s economy has a lot of things working in its favor right now, but if we are going to reach our full potential and make our state more attractive to new businesses, we have to close our skills gap,” said Husted, who worked as vice president of the Dayton-area Chamber of Commerce before entering public office. “If we…

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A DeWine Campaign Promise Turned Into $176K Salary for Lt. Gov. Husted

“InnovateOhio” was a central campaign promise of the Mike DeWine/Jon Husted gubernatorial ticket that ended up securing Husted a $176,426 salary. DeWine and Husted, now governor and lieutenant governor, announced the initiative in September 2018 and said it would “bring the best and brightest technology minds” to Ohio to help “improve state and local government.” “The private sector uses innovative ideas and technology to improve their customer service and save money, and there is no reason we can’t bring that approach to the way our government operates,” Husted said at the time. According to a press release from the campaign, InnovateOhio is “about how we make state government a more effective and efficient leader in using technology to improve customer service and save tax dollars.” “In doing so, we make Ohio a state that attracts talent, business, and new investment,” the press release added. Specific proposals under the InnovateOhio initiative included the funding of “at least 10,000 in-demand industry certificates,” which was included in DeWine’s first budget proposal, and the establishment of “opportunity zones for economically-distressed communities.” Republicans, who said they wanted to create a good relationship with the incoming administration, then addressed InnovateOhio in a December 2018 bill. Senate…

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