If Ohio law has any meaning, the Ohio Election Commission (OEC) should immediately remove the current TV attack ad that slimes Democrat Roland Winburn — representative for District 43 in the Ohio House. It claims that Winburn, “Ripped us off.” This ad is nonsense — laughable in its extreme efforts to confuse and misinform listeners — it degrades the whole political process and provokes new levels of cynicism.

Winburn’s opponent is Republican attorney Jeff Rezabek. His website says, “Jeff shares our principles.” Does Rezabek approve of this trash produced by the OHROC that slimes Winburn and completely misrepresents the facts? You’d think Rezabek would be embarrassed by the blatant dishonesty used by the ad. Winburn should build on Rezabek’s claim of “principles” and should call on Rezabek to disavow this ad.

Any adolescent running for a middle school office would be disqualified if they dared to campaign using such a low stunt as used in this TV ad. Does the public have no protection in how our public airways are used? Ohio law says that it is illegal to broadcast campaign messages that are untrue. Where is the OEC?

The ad says that Winburn, “failed to pay his own taxes on time while voting to raise our taxes by 800 million dollars.” It is laughable that in the OHROC’s effort to slime Winburn that this is the best they can do. The website referenced in the ad, rippoffroland.com, quotes from two Dayton Daily News articles.

• About the failure to pay taxes, the DDN says, “Winburn missed by four days his July 2012 payment on a local property he owns. Winburn paid $463.18 in past due property taxes and penalties and said he is not sure why he forgot to make the payment on time.”
• About voting to raise taxes by 800 million dollars, the DDN says, “(In 2009) Gov. Ted Strickland proposed and the Democratic-controlled House passed House Bill 318, which would delay this year’s 4.2 percent income tax cut in order to raise the money necessary to fill an $851 million hole in the state budget. A number of business groups support the plan as the best of a host of bad options for balancing the budget. Senate Republicans say the plan amounts to a harmful income tax hike.”

The ad makes four accusations all together — all purporting to prove that Winburn, “ripped us off.” In addition to the two above, it accuses Winburn of taking “an illegal tax credit,” and that he cut funding to local schools. The “illegal tax credit” charge is a rehash of an accusation made in the 2012 campaign that was thoroughly discredited. Winburn has been completely exonerated of any wrong doing. And Winburn has always supported funds for schools.

Here is the transcript of the ad:

What do we get as Roland Winburn as our state representative? Ripped Off.  Winburn took an illegal property tax credit and failed to pay his own taxes on time while voting to raise our taxes by 800 million dollars and cutting state funding to local school. Less money for education, less money in our pocketbooks. Stop letting Roland Winburn rip us off. Learn more at rippoffroland.com

It is shocking that an organization that represents Republicans already elected to the Ohio House — The Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee (OHROC) — would admit to creating and promulgating this trash TV ad. You’d think official Republicans would want to distance themselves from an ad this shameless. It will say a lot about the character of Winburn’s opponent if he refuses to disavow such immoral advertisement.

It is true that because of the Republican agenda, a lot of taxpayers are being “ripped off.”  But not by Winburn. His record shows that Winburn has opposed crazy tax changes made by the House Republicans that balanced the state budget by cutting funds to local communities and changed Ohio’s tax structure so that those taxpayers least able to pay taxes are paying at a higher rate than those taxpayers most able to pay.

Winburn has opposed these Republican “rip offs”:

• Every new property tax levy to support local schools will cost home owners 12.5% more
• Most homeowners over age 65 will not qualify for the “homestead exemption” for their homes.
• Drastic cuts in state funds to schools and local governments mean that to continue service, more and more taxes will need to be approved at the local level.
• Sales tax will increase on all items.
• Decreases in the state income tax, for average or below average income earners, will not be nearly enough to cover these increases in taxes at the local level. The total percentage of income paid in Ohio taxes will increase for most taxpayers.

The chart below is posted at Policy Matters:

Of the total 360 precincts in the county, only 132 precincts (37%) — shown in yellow — are participating in the May 4 Democratic Primary to elect a member of the MCDP Central Committee. The first task of these elected members will be to act as a voting delegate to the reorganization meeting where the leaders and the direction of the party for the next four years will be determined.

The map shows that many of the 228 precincts without a candidate — shown in shades of blue — have a lot of Democrats. One question the party needs to address is why the suburbs, where many of Democrats live, there has been little effort or success in meaningfully organizing the local party.  If you click on the map it will enlarge to reveal the name of each precinct.

According to the board of elections, Montgomery County has 33,265 registered Democrats and most of these vote in Democratic primaries. The above map is the same as the first map, minus the yellow indicator of precincts with candidates. It shows each of Montgomery County’s 360 precincts and shows by color how many Democrats live in each precinct. If you click on the map it will enlarge to reveal the name of each precinct.

This Pew / PBS survey of twelve questions scored me as “very liberal.” I could have predicted that my score would categorize me as liberal, but I’m a little surprised that I am scored as very liberal. According to Pew, only 23% of Americans say they are liberal, while 39% of Americans claim to be conservative and 37% say they are moderate. Being liberal, according to the criteria of the Pew survey, means to agree with statements that, to me, seem like an expression of common sense:

• “There need to be stricter laws and regulations to protect the environment”,
• “The government should help more needy people even if it means going deeper in debt”
• “Labor unions are necessary to protect the working person.”

Liberals need a winning issue to champion — an issue that transcends the usual labels. None of the twelve questions on the Pew survey seem sufficiently compelling to become the driving force behind a successful political movement.

The big question that is missing on the Pew survey is one like this:  “Americans now have a government of the people, by the people, for the people.” But if asked to choose whether they “completely agree, mostly agree, mostly disagree or completely disagree,” with such a statement, most everyone — right and left — would disagree. The statement, therefore, would not work to divide participants into categories, and the point of the Pew survey is to formulate questions that will help separate respondents into a left / right scale.

As their first priority, Liberals should emphasize the need to vitalize our democracy. If we had a government of the people — if most of the people could be informed and engaged — it would be a liberal government. Our democracy is endangered and in need of vitalization, and more and more citizens are becoming alarmed. The time is right for a grass roots democracy movement.

The place for liberals to start a democracy movement is within the Democratic Party itself. My aggravation with our local party organization, The Montgomery County Democratic Party, is the fact that if it actually represented county Democrats — if it acted as the “party of the people” — in fact, it would be energetic and effective in promoting liberal ideas and in electing liberal candidates. I am disappointed with the MCDP, not because I heartily disagree with many of its actions — such as its imprudent endorsement of Nan Whaley for mayor of Dayton — it is because the process of decision making in the local party is rigged, undemocratic — starting with the fact that “the deciders” in the party owe their positions to a rigged selection system. See: Only 47% Of Montgomery County Dems Will Be Represented At The MCDP Reorganization Meeting

In order for liberals to help the MCDP be an effective advocate for liberal ideas and liberal candidates, we need to do the hard work needed to make the MCDP more democratic. There are over 35,000 Dems in Montgomery County who faithfully vote in Democratic Primaries, yet the leadership of the party, by design, have failed to meaningfully engage that group. It’s hard not to conclude that for the downtown crowd running the show — mostly those with patronage jobs and those who are elected county officials — an inundation of suburban Democrats into shared governance is resisted, not welcomed.

For liberals, the best way to advance liberal ideas and liberal candidates is to greatly expand the number of Democrats who are active in the local party. The most important liberal idea we can advance is the idea that we must make our democracy work — and if, in fact, this results in grassroots Democrats forming a consensus around ideas and candidates more conservative than I might like, that would be OK with me.

As part of the process for preparing for the MCDP reorganization meeting, liberals and every Democrat concerned about the state of our democracy need to brainstorm and come to consensus on an action plan that can be presented to the reorganization delegates for consideration.