To TEL The Truth

I don't like the TEL amendment and fully plan to vote against it in the fall. In fact, I don't like statewide initiatives in general. They've made a mess of the California ballot and we don't need that sort of thing here. That being said, the Ohio Constitution does allow for rights of petitioners, and those requirements have been met.

Speaking of the Ohio Constitution, one word that doesn't seem to appear in it is oligarchy, which is exactly how the state Republican Party is currently acting by deciding among them what can appear on the ballot. Whatever the back room deal they cut with the committee that filed the petitions for TEL, they are usurping the will of the voters with this unconstitutional legislation to remove it from the ballot.

What’s next, a Soviet style single party ballot?

That's the letter to the editor I just sent to the Dispatch in response to the republican's attempt to strip the TEL amendment from the fall ballot. But here I have the space to look at some other aspects of this.

I think the republican leadership is really screwing the pooch with this. They would have been a lot better off simply using their organization to defeat it much like some Cleveland area Democrats did with the redistricting effort last fall.

This is bound to not sit well with a portion of their electorate, and in this coming election they can't afford many more defections. Pretty bad idea all around.