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Ohio Gov Says No to Unions

Sorry netroots, more centrism for you

By: Kevin Holtsberry (Diary)  |  August 22nd, 2008 at 08:46 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

It seems Ohio’s economy is bad enough that even Democrats have to draw the line. The Obama supporting union SEIU has been pushing a ballot initiative which would require every business with 25 or more employees to offer seven sick days to full-time employees. Realizing that the last thing a struggling economy needs is more mandates, and the last thing he needs is to be blamed for more job losses, Governor Strickland has been trying to work out some compromise that might lesson the blow to business.

That attempt has failed and it has forced him to outright oppose the plan:

Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher said they will not back the sick days mandate that has been pushed to the November ballot by one of their major union supporters, the SEIU.

“We cannot support the paid sick-day ballot initiative,” they said in a joint statement. “While we would hope that all Ohio businesses would make paid sick days available to their employees whenever possible, we believe that this initiative is unworkable, unwieldy and would be detrimental to Ohio’s economy, and we will be opposing it and asking Ohioans to oppose it as a result.”

This highlights the problem the Democrats are facing across the country. Many of the Democrats that are getting elected are doing so as centrists and even conservative on social issues. This is not the power of the netroots but the failure of the GOP.


Seats that used to be held by moderate to conservative Republicans are now being won by moderate to conservative Democrats. Is this a shift to the left? Sure, but not a large one. Witness Strickland.

Has he remained popular by lurching to the left and attempting to push through the lefty wish list? No, he has remained popular by being competent, working with the GOP General Assembly, and not antagonizing business.

Think about that for a moment. In a choice between business and labor a Democratic governor just chose business.

Notice to the angry online left: start raising money to challenge Governor Strickland in a primary. After all, he is clearly another Democrat in the pockets of big business and you demand ideological purity, right?

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  • jdripper

    I am curious to know how the polls were running on this issue. A more honest post would have shown that.
    I find it odd that slightly more then 2 months till the voting they come out and oppose a resolution on the ballot. Is the outcome a foregone conclusion?
    Also this is like your so called centrist Democrats getting elected and then voting for Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker. The liberals get their wish in the end. Sorry but Democrats need to be defeated. They need to be defeated on all levels. The Governor you love to day will run for Senate soon.

  • Kevin_Holtsberry

    I am not canonizing anyone and I fail to see how the post did that. All I am saying is that the angry left isn’t winning in Ohio.

    The point isn’t whether to vote Democrat or not the point is that even Democrats are starting to realize that the union push toward more and more mandates on business is going to hurt.

    I took a dig at the netroots because they seem to believe that you can run as a crazy leftist and still get elected. But the candidates who are winning don’t back that theory up.

  • Dan_McLaughlin

    Take himself out of the running to be Obama’s running mate.

  • Strelnikov

    Greetings! Here in Columbus, where my my smarter 7th and 8th Graders are all mini-Republicans and the supposedly Catholic faculty sniffs their support for Nobama with their green tea, I do not sense any great support for such a bill outside of the usual suspects (i.e. Unionists, the uneducated, the undereducated, and those with I.Q.’s under 85).

    It is probably just too early: I think the criticism of Strickland above is perhaps not on target. I think he sees the reality: this will drive even more businesses out of the state.

    Strickland was seen on the stage with Shrillary, and his name was batted around as a VP possibility.

    But probably not for Obamaramadingdong.

  • Neil_Stevens

    You may want to retract that.

  • BrianH

    completely missed the point or both.

    I don’t know if this guy is a troll or just didn’t bother to read closely.

    For JDRipper: This article is about how the only Dems who can win elections are those who tend more towards the center. Even after being elected, they can’t bow to pressure from the far left. The lefties would like to think otherwise but lefty policies don’t win elections. As Neil said, I think you owe Kevin an apology and a retraction.

    As to your larger point, I agree, we need to get conservative Republicans elected over centrist Dems if we have any hope of correcting course in this country.

  • buckeye

    I think the governor’s opposition to this has more to do with a significantly worsening economy on his watch, particularly over the past year than it does with an on-going centrist pro-business agenda. Ohio’s unemployment rate has jumped from 5.6% to 7.2% in the past 12 months. With the first Democrat Governor in 16 years we now have the highest unemployment rate in 15 years. Ohio now ranks 47th for business tax climate. Yep, that’s a pro business centrist.

    Keep in mind Ohio Democrats across the state led by Strickland’s 2006 governor campaign supported the union backed 2006 minimum wage initiative that not only indexed an increased minimum wage to inflation at $6.85/hr but also provided power to any party including unions to act on behalf of employees and demand detailed payroll information at no cost to the requester, and without employees requesting someone act on their behalf. A job killing black mailing sledge hammer for the AFL-CIO that’s now coming home to roost at 7.2%. As a Congressman, Governor Strickland received a 100% rating from the AFL-CIO. He also wasted no time putting a moratorium on charter schools
    to please the NEA and even sicking the AG on a few. The little known SEIU (isn’t that a football school in the SEC?) doesn’t determine union policy in Ohio. That belongs to the AFL-CIO who knew better than running lead on this over the top initiative. There’s a reason the SEIU was running point. When Strickland stands up to the AFL-CIO or NEA then he’ll be deserving of your pro-business over union centrist accolades.