Saturday, Ed FitzGerald — the Democratic candidate seeking to replace Republican John Kasich as Governor of Ohio — spoke in Dayton and introduced his running make, Green County resident, Sharen Neuhardt. Over 200 people were in attendance and gave Fitzgerald and Neuhardt enthusiastic encouragement.
FitzGerald said that Kasich has created an inside group that has gained a lot of money and advantages from his policies — and that the poor and middle class Ohioans have been left with the bill. He said that Kasich represents a very small group of people — “And that is not what a democratic form of government should be doing.”
Excerpts From Ed FitzGerald’s Speech
I’ve visited all 88 counties in last year. Ive learned a lot. I’ve heard the same concerns in every county. There’s a lot of people, in a state of more than 11 million people, there’s a lot of people that are really struggling to make it and this is what Sharen and I both understand. We have a governor that does not represent them. He represents a very small group of people.
If you look at all the big issues, what they all have in common, and if you try to diagnose why the governor takes positions on issues that he does, it becomes apparent: the governor is representing a very small group of people. And that is not what a democratic form of government should be doing.
State government has been hijacked for a narrow agenda on all kinds of issues. There is an inside group and an outside group looking in. If you don’t know what group you are in, you’re in the outside group. The people on the inside know it. They love it. You can go through all of the major issues:
- Jobs Ohio — some people benefit, but if you are a small business, an average person, you’re not going to get any help from Jobs Ohio.
- If you are a looking at your tax bill, if you are a wealthy person, congratulations, you got a tax cut. But if you are a working person, or one of the poor, your taxes probably went up. For a small group of persons tax cuts were a great deal but all the other people in this state got stuck with the bill.
- If you care about local government services — police, fire, garbage pick-up or social services —your services got cut. They took those proceeds and used them to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the state.
- If you believe in public education you saw the number of teachers cut dramatically and once again local schools were stuck with the bill.
Over and over in all these issues, you see state government on the side of a very small group of people. And yes it also applies to women’s rights. Republicans get tired of our talking about women’s rights but here is my deal with Kasich: I will stop talking about women’s rights when he stops limiting women’s rights.…
Let’s talk about something real practical. (Republicans) have a big advantage. When you take government and you put it on the side of a very small group of people and when you do some very big favors for a small group of powerful people, they re-pay those favors. They have an enormous about of money. But we have advantages also. We are right on all the issues. We have the people behind us. …
Kasich is representing someone — it’s just not you. It’s not the people that are working and struggling in this state.
The most powerful thing in politics is a conversation between two people about what is really going on. We need millions of conversation. We only lost the last election by 77,000 votes. We have the issues on our side. For all of those people who have not been represented in the last three years, we need to have conversations. Can you help us to that?
