So as you may or may not know, the GOP has settled on where to hold their big Republican National Convention in 2016:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
The Republican National Committee has decided to hold its 2016 convention in Cleveland, Ohio, chairman Reince Priebus announced Tuesday.
Speaking on Fox News, Priebus said the convention would begin on either June 28 or July 18 in 2016.
A RNC panel had narrowed down possible host cities to Cleveland and Dallas, Texas. The decision is pending a ratification vote by the full committee in August.
Paying for the convention was the top criterion for the 12-member site selection committee. The previous two GOP conventions have sapped party dollars during election years, and Priebus insisted the host city not leave the central party picking up the tab, which is expected to be around $60 million.
In proposals and presentations to the party, Cleveland pledged to raise the tens of millions of dollars required to pay for the weeklong rally for the party faithful. A successful convention is a boon not just to the political party, but also to the local economy. - Huffington Post, 7/8/14
And of course this guy was happy about the news:
http://www.cleveland.com/...
Gov. John Kasich was upstaged Tuesday morning as he prepared to kick off the first major road trip of his re-election campaign.
Moments before taking the microphone at a caster and wheel factory here, the GOP incumbent was notified that Cleveland had bested Dallas in its bid to host the Republican National Convention in 2016. He shared the news with the crowd.
"It's going to put Ohio at the top of the stack of states now," Kasich told reporters afterward. "We're going to be able to tell the country something we've been so hungry to do -- tell the rest of the country about Ohio, about what we've done, what we've accomplished. That we have the right formula for helping the country. We've used it in Ohio, it works, now we can tell the country that what we do here works."
Kasich also offered congratulations to Cleveland's convention backers, a bipartisan group that includes the Democratic administrations of Mayor Frank Jackson and Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, Kasich's opponent in the fall.
"The people of Cleveland, they worked day and night," the governor said. "They left no stone unturned."
Kasich addressed more than 200 supporters and employees of Hamilton Caster, the first stop Tuesday on a three-city swing through southwestern Ohio. He also collected an endorsement from the National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB, a Republican-friendly organization that advocates for small businesses.
"Four years ago small businesses recognized the need for a change in leadership in Ohio. The economic climate was stymieing their ability to grow and create jobs. The entrepreneurs of Ohio believed in the vision offered by the Kasich-Taylor team," said NFIB Ohio's Roger Geiger, also noting Kasich's running mate, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor. "Their faith has been rewarded through sound tax, regulatory and fiscal policies.
"By eliminating Ohio's death tax, creating the Common Sense Initiative, placing an emphasis on workforce development and returning hard-earned dollars back to the job creators, this administration clearly recognizes the importance of small business in Ohio's overall economy. We are proud to once again endorse the Kasich-Taylor team to continue to lead Ohio forward." - Northeast Ohio Media Group, 7/8/14
But wait a minute, does Kasich really deserve a lot of credit for having the RNC pick Cleveland for it's convention? Actually most of the credit goes to this guy:
http://www.cleveland.com/...
Months before anyone of note was even talking about bringing either the Republican or Democratic conventions here in 2016, County Executive Ed FitzGerald was doing something about it.
And Republicans may not like it, but FitzGerald, a Democrat, deserves far more credit than any other elected official for the city landing the GOP’s 2016 presidential nominating convention.
Anyone who tries to suggest a public official other than FitzGerald is the father of this process is simply not telling the truth.
At FitzGerald’s request, he and Positively Cleveland CEO Dave Gilbert spent a day together at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. The purpose of the visit wasn’t to lobby Democrats to come here in 2016, but to observe firsthand some of the things Charlotte had done as the convention’s host city.
“His early support was a reason this got off the ground,” Gilbert said of FitzGerald’s role. “Ed was very early to the party on this, and very strong in his support from day one.”
FitzGerald didn’t announce the trip he and Gilbert took to Charlotte. Several months later, I wrote a column about it, and also spoke to Mayor Frank Jackson, who said he was aware FitzGerald was advocating an aggressive convention campaign. The mayor has since become deeply involved in the effort.
After Cleveland was named a finalist for the Republican conclave, FitzGerald wisely retreated from the spotlight.
"The reason I'm so proud of this is because it's been nearly 80 years since Cleveland has been able to have this kind of a national platform," said FitzGerald. "All of us have had this experience where people who don't know Cleveland come here and are impressed by it. This is an opportunity to bring Cleveland into the living rooms of everyone in the country, and I think it's going to have a great ripple effect."
FitzGerald correctly added that the city’s convention bids would have gone nowhere had the county not moved to ensure that the 600-room convention center hotel will be completed no later than the spring of 2016. - Northeast Ohio Media Group, 7/8/14
So FitzGerald turned out to be the one to really get shit done instead of the current Governor. What did Kasich have to say in response?
http://www.cleveland.com/...
But what does Republican Gov. John Kasich think? The man FitzGerald hopes to unseat has been touting Cleveland's victory all day at re-election campaign stops in western and southwestern Ohio. Yet Kasich also has made it a point to not utter FitzGerald's name, choosing instead to talk about his own policies.
A reporter -- Joe Vardon of the Columbus Dispatch -- made it a point to ask Kasich here, following his event at a high-tech label company, about FitzGerald's role.
"That's a question -- I'm not in the middle of that kind of question," Kasich said.
"I have no answer to that right now."
He then mentioned by name three other people involved in Cleveland's bid: Mayor Frank Jackson, Host Committee Chairman Terry Egger and Beth Mooney of KeyBank. - Northeast Ohio Media Group, 7/8/14
Yeah, that's what I thought. As always, it took a Democrat to help a city like Cleveland to score a big opportunity:
http://www.theatlantic.com/...
The burning river. The LeBron James saga, apparently heating up again, surely only to crush Cavs fans' hopes. Ten-cent beer night. 30 Rock's mockery. It isn't often that Cleveland gets good news, but Tuesday is an exception: The Republican Party is set to name the city as the host to the 2016 Republican National Convention.
By the time of the announcement, the Mistake on the Lake already looked like a shoo-in. It had already bested cities like Las Vegas (is it really a good idea to have a political convention in a place famous for vice?) and cross-state rival Cincinnati. The other finalist was Dallas, which pundits argued was too closely associated with unpopular former President George W. Bush, and which forecasters pointed out was hellishly hot in the middle of the summer.
Rest assured, Northeast Ohioans hear the groans of operatives and reporters who aren't pleased about their travel plans in summer 2016—and rest assured, we don't care. (I grew up in Akron, about 45 minutes south of Cleveland.) No one makes fun of Cleveland like Cleveland does, as in this classic 1970s t-shirt, and anyway, there's a good restaurant scene, a great art museum, and a world-class orchestra.
But Cleveland is an interesting and counterintuitive pick for a variety of non-snarky political reasons. Most importantly, it's the anchor of the state's liberal, union-friendly, northeastern corner, as you can see in the county-by-county map of the 2004 presidential election below at left. George W. Bush won the state, but Cuyahoga County, Cleveland's home, and surrounding cities went strongly for John Kerry. (Cleveland is marked with a black dot.) Since 10 percent of the state's population is in Cuyahoga County, Bush only won the state by about 2 percent, despite carrying so many counties.
- The Atlantic, 7/8/14
While it's crazy that the GOP will be having their convention in Cleveland, FtizGerald's hard work will pay off for the state. Of course FitzGerald is still making this a top issue in his campaign for Governor:
http://www.allvoices.com/...
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who won his first term in 2010 by a narrow margin with the help of Buckeye tea party activists who have since turned on him over a variety of issues, has enjoyed an unchallenged Rose Garden strategy on his way to a second and final term, should voters rehire him again in November.
Kasich, a former nine-term US representative who briefly mounted an unsuccessful run for the presidency in 2000, has everything a professional performance politician could ever ask for: a big campaign war chest, an accommodating GOP-dominated legislature, major newspapers who have had his back since his first day in office in 2011, and, in Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald, a candidate who is not well known outside his home turf of Cuyahoga County in northeast Ohio. FitzGerald trails in one poll by as much as 15 points.
But energy legislation approved by Republicans in the Statehouse and signed by Kasich represents a political beachhead for FitzGerald, the first elected Executive for Cuyahoga County's Council. The legislation reduces energy efficiency requirements and use of clean energy, and it also restricts development of wind energy. FitzGerald's daunting task this year is to unseat a candidate who has spent his entire political career in the public sector and who has never lost an election in which his name was on the ballot.
Kasich recently signed a bill that freezes Ohio's energy standards for two years. It passed with the help of a Democratic governor and compliant Republican legislature in 2009. At the time, headlines shouted that Ohio had gone back to the dark ages.
At his press conference Wednesday in Columbus, FitzGerald -- a former FBI special agent, assistant county prosecutor and small town mayor -- took aim at Kasich. "Being progressive about energy efficiency and advanced energy and new energy in the energy economy isn't just the right thing to do environmentally, it's also good for the economy," FitzGerald said. "It's good for small businesses and its good for the manufacturing businesses." - All Voices, 7/7/14
FitzGerald's plan calls for the following:
Assure firms developing new energy technologies that Ohio is interested. Getting those companies to locate in Ohio would create jobs and position the state to be a leader in a developing industry, instead of putting a “Closed for Business” sign on Ohio’s front door, according to FitzGerald communicators.
Encourage research by universities and others to advance alternative energy sources.
Propose legislation that would repeal recently enacted restrictions on where turbines can be placed. Those new rules greatly reduce the ability to develop wind farms.
Work with all types of energy producers to ensure protections for the environment, jobs and clean energy.
Target new energy development in areas that rely on traditional energy sources, such as coal, and are losing jobs.
Take advantage of Ohio law that allows creation of energy improvement districts that pool buying power to install green energy projects.
FitzGerald wants to make Ohio a greener and more energy efficient state. Meanwhile, Kasich is in a little bit of a dispute with Ohio's Veterans:
http://www.dispatch.com/...
A coalition of veterans and fraternal groups upset over the state’s handling of their electronic raffle machines are attempting to use it as a political issue against Republican Gov. John Kasich in his bid for re-election.
Last year, Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine declared the devices operating in hundreds of veterans posts and fraternal lodges in Ohio illegal gambling devices, although a local court granted a temporary injunction for posts and lodges to keep their machines. The Ohio Veterans and Fraternal Charitable Coalition is angry with DeWine, too, but it seems to have set its sights especially on Kasich for the governor’s actions since DeWine’s ruling.
For the first time since it came into existence in 2003, the coalition will invite candidates for the governor’s race to interview for an endorsement because it blames Kasich for holding up legislation that would write into law the legality of its machines.
Coalition leaders told The Dispatch that they also reject Kasich’s solution to DeWine’s ruling — allowing the Ohio Lottery Commission to install legal next-generation electronic slot machines.
The coalition is collecting “thousands” of signatures from members to get language approved for a statewide ballot initiative to make the machines legal. Officials said “when our members see this, they know it’s because of the governor.” Leaders of the coalition said individual lodges and posts could even protest at Kasich campaign events.
On the matter of who is responsible for the legislature’s failure to vote on House Bill 325, which would make the raffle machines legal, there seems to be little disagreement.
Democrat Ed FitzGerald, who is running against Kasich, has said he is evaluating the concerns and is expected to roll out policies toward veterans later in the summer. - Columbus Dispatch, 7/7/14
This could be a perfect opportunity for FitzGerald and I hope he takes advantage of it. In the mean time, if you want to contribute and get involved with FitzGerald's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.edfitzgeraldforohio.com/