2023 Election Endorsements

November 7, 2023, will mark an off-year election in Ohio.  Turnout tends to be low in this type of election, so each vote is especially important.  Vote by mail and early in person voting starts on October 11. 

Issue 1: Reproductive rights – YES

Officially titled "The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety," this proposed Constitutional Amendment is listed on the ballot as Issue 1, having been certified despite the efforts of Ohio’s Secretary of State Frank LaRose and other extremist Republicans and pro-birth activists.  The centerpiece of this issue is allowing women to control their own bodies, including the right to have an abortion. 

These same activists, having failed in their attempt to raise the bar for passage to a nearly impossible level, are kicking up quite the fuss over this proposed amendment.  They are claiming that passage will lead to a rash of partial birth abortions and underage people obtaining gender reassignment surgery.  To use a polite term from another era: Poppycock!  Even Ohio’s Republican Attorney General, Dave Yost, has pointed out that there is nothing in the text of the amendment that even references gender reassignment or transgender people.  Read the complete text for yourself here.  Besides, is there an epidemic of young people in Ohio, or anywhere, seeking gender reassignment?  How would those wanting such a change even pay for it?  I don’t imagine the hourly wages at McDonald’s or wherever young people work would be sufficient.  As for partial birth abortions, the proposed amendment guarantees the right to an abortion during the time the fetus is determined to not yet be viable, as decided by the woman’s physician – unless that physician determines that continuing the pregnancy poses a danger to the woman’s life or health.  Less than .2% of abortions nationally have involved intact dilation and extraction and have generally been performed following a miscarriage.

I’m a gay man.  The chances I would get a woman pregnant are, well, basically zero.  But when it comes to allowing women to control their bodies, I stand with the vast majority of women.  I also believe that, as former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop did, the only way to lower the number of abortions is to lower the number of unwanted pregnancies – which means better access to contraception.  Not coincidentally, this is also something pro-birth extremists are trying to curtail.  Ultimately, whether or not to terminate a pregnancy is a decision best left to the individual woman in consultation with her physician.  Do Ohioans and Americans in general want to align themselves with countries like Yemen, Myanmar, Pakistan, or Nicaragua – or would we rather stand with Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom, or the United States before Roe v. Wade was repealed? 

I strongly favor passage of Ohio Issue 1.

 

Issue 2: Recreational Cannabis – YES

In 1975, the Ohio legislature passed, and Governor James Rhodes signed a bill decriminalizing cannabis – making Ohio the sixth state to do so. 

In 2016, the Ohio legislature passed and Governor John Kasich signed a bill allowing Medical use for Cannabis to treat 21 health conditions, and setting up rather byzantine regulations for creating Cannabis dispensaries.  It also severely restricted licensing for cultivation of medical cannabis.  By 2021, only 20 cultivators had been licensed and 125,000 patients approved for medical cannabis.

The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol initiative, to be listed on the ballot as Issue 2, will legalize recreational cannabis within Ohio, subject to the following:

• ·        Legalize the possession of up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and 15 grams of concentrate for adults 21 years of age and older.
• ·        Allow the cultivation of six plants for personal use, with a maximum of 12 plants per home by adults 21 and older.
• ·        Allow the sale of cannabis at licensed dispensaries, with a 10 percent sales tax imposed.
• ·        Divide tax revenue between social equity and jobs programs (36 percent), localities that allow dispensaries to operate (36 percent), education and substance abuse programs (25 percent), and administrative costs (3 percent).
• ·        Allow landlords and business owners to prohibit use of cannabis within their property.

Legalizing recreational cannabis does not equate to approval of same.  It’s simply an acknowledgement that people use cannabis, just as they smoke tobacco and drink alcohol.  Use of these is a decision best left to the individual, and regulations should be consistent: just as one is not allowed to smoke tobacco in public buildings or airplanes, cannabis use should take place where others will not be impacted by second-hand smoke.  Just as one must be over 21 to legally drink, cannabis should be similarly restricted.  The proposed issue makes provisions for all these matters.  As a homeowner, I will continue exercise the right to ask visitors to step outside if they want to smoke tobacco or cannabis.  Who is going to be harmed by passage of this issue?  Drug traffickers who profit over the semi-illegality of cannabis in Ohio. 

I favor passage of Ohio Issue 2.

 

Issue 5 – Cuyahoga Community College tax levy

I have stated elsewhere that I am in support of free community college for all who seek it.  While this property tax levy does not reach that goal, it helps keep the costs of a college education under control for the modest cost of an additional $14 per year for every $100,000 of taxable home value.  It’s a bargain which only the sociopathic would oppose.

 

South Euclid Mayor: Georgine Welo is running unopposed for her sixth term as mayor.  Just in case someone tries to mount a write-in campaign, let us review her accomplishments.  Welo became mayor in 2004.  During the decades before she took office, none of the previous administrations tried to stop the local slide in population, quality of life, or local amenities that began in the 1980s.  Here are just a few of the developments which have taken place since Welo became mayor:

·        Complete replacement of Cedar Center North shopping center.

·        Construction of Oakwood Commons shopping center.

·        Partial replacement of the May-Green shopping center.

·        Creation of the Food Truck Park.

·        Cutters Creek housing development.

·        Removal of several troubled houses on Greenvale Road; additionally, multiple decaying, unoccupied homes were torn down during and after the Great Recession – many since replaced by new homes.

·        Creation of several pocket parks.

·        Multiple infrastructure improvements on Green Road and South Belvoir Boulevard, with smaller improvements on side streets.

For the first time in recent memory, nearly every store front in South Euclid is occupied.  Further, home values are up, and South Euclid is now a sellers’ market.  There was a house Dan and I considered buying several years ago, and in retrospect I wish I had because it is now out of our reach. 

Mayor Welo wants to continue to build on these successes, and deserves to continue in the job.

 

South Euclid-Lyndhurst School Board

There are four candidates running for the two open seats on the South Euclid-Lyndhurst School Board.  I endorse Cathy Covarrubias for one of the two open seats.