Blueprint or coincidence?

GOP trying to annihilate opposition, Dems say

Sunday, April 10, 2011  03:18 AM

By Joe Hallett

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

DispatchPolitics

Democrats and their union allies in Ohio fear that the state party is facing one of the grimmest periods in its history. They cite a perfect storm of legislation and political events that threaten its viability.

With control of every statewide executive office and big majorities in both houses of the General Assembly, the GOP is positioned to deliver a crippling blow to the Ohio Democratic Party, threatening its ability to raise money and get votes for years to come.

Local union leaders and Democratic officials almost uniformly voice a suspicion that the GOP is moving quickly and purposefully to kill the opposition, effectively rendering Ohio a one-party state.

“Anybody who believes in pluralism, anybody who believes in the two-party system should be very concerned about what is happening,” said House Minority Leader Armond Budish of Beachwood.

By pursuing new laws to rein in the power of public-employee unions, GOP governors and legislators in Ohio and other states are “part of a nationally driven agenda to neutralize one critical base of the Democratic Party,” said Joe Rugola, director of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, which represents 38,000 non-teaching workers.

“Our folks instinctively understand that once the Republicans succeed, if they do, in weakening our movement, then the prospects for political balance in this state will be pretty bleak for at least a political generation, for at least a decade or so,” Rugola said.

Rob Nichols, spokesman for Gov. John Kasich, rebuffed such assertions as unfounded conspiracy theories.

“Their premise is absurd,” Nichols said, arguing that the administration and legislative Republicans simply are enacting overdue reforms necessary to restore financial stability to state and local governments.

“This isn’t targeting anyone. This is a recognition that the state has fewer resources and we’re trying to give communities the tools to deal with shrinking revenues.”

Ohio GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine said that during difficult economic times, Democrats are “more worried about the power of their party. … The truth is that the collective-bargaining reform effort in Ohio was born out of necessity, not out of political expediency.”

Democrats connect a series of events to underpin their belief that, by year’s end, Republicans could severely damage the foundation of the Democratic Party’s fundraising and vote-getting operations. Here’s how they see it:

• Senate Bill 5, a new law to restrict collective bargaining, will weaken public-employee unions and reduce their political funding base. If the expected union-led effort to repeal the new law fails in November, the Democratic Party and its candidates will get less money from an important benefactor.

• Rugola and others also note that Kasich’s proposal to cut about $1 billion in aid to schools and more than $600 million to local governments will cause the furloughs of thousands of unionized schoolteachers and other public employees.

• Democrats view House Bill 159, which would require voters at polls to produce photo identification, as an attempt to suppress their voter base, saying that the estimated 11 percent of Ohio voters who do not have a photo ID disproportionately includes minorities, the poor and elderly. The House approved the bill, and it is pending in the Senate.

• In November, voters gave Republicans the power to draw new General Assembly and congressional districts for the 2012 election. If history is a guide, the party will gerrymander districts to give it the highest possibility of retaining their legislative majorities for the rest of this decade.

The Dispatch has learned that Democrats, backed by an unidentified $3 million commitment of support, had planned to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November aimed at depoliticizing the line-drawing process. But that plan has been shelved because of concern that a redistricting amendment “would dilute the effort to overturn Senate Bill 5,” according to a Democratic source who asked not to be named.

In addition to the potential impact of Senate Bill 5, House Bill 159 and redistricting, Democrats say they will get swamped by the unlimited corporate contributions Republicans can expect as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision last year. While that ruling also permits unions to make unlimited contributions, Democrats say the unions cannot match corporations.

State Rep. Ted Celeste, D-Grandview Heights, said Republicans have embarked upon a “starve the beast” strategy, contending: “The intent is to hurt the future financial support of the Democratic Party with Senate Bill 5, and the voter-ID bill will make it harder for the traditional base to collect votes. You add on redistricting, and you’re going to change the dynamics. … They view it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

State Rep. Ron Amstutz, a Wooster Republican and chairman of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee, said it is disingenuous for Democrats to parlay unrelated bills and events into a grand conspiracy.

The bills, he said, should be judged individually on their merits.

The voter-ID bill, Amstutz said, is “an effort to try to assure the integrity of the election process. That’s all that is going on there. Senate Bill 5 is controversial, but the core of it isn’t directed at any party or any group. It is directed at trying to make a labor-management environment that’s more workable than what we have now.”

An analysis of campaign finance reports by Ohio Citizen Action, independently verified by The Dispatch, shows that Democrats rely on Ohio’s public-employee unions for funding. Over the past two years, the unions combined to contribute more than $6.4 million to political party committees – $6 million to the Ohio Democratic Party and the rest to Democratic legislative caucuses. No money went to GOP committees.

The public-employee unions donated more than $4.8 million to candidates – only $94,820 to Republicans and the rest to Democrats.