Request for help from Ohio: Help pass Reform Ohio Now Act.

[iconoclastic cat]

From Kos:

Ohio - BREAKING - Need Help
by Pounder
Fri Aug 5th, 2005 at 04:54:00 PDT

WE need some help in Ohio from Kossacks again.

While most of the blogosphere has been focused on the OH-2 election, an even bigger grass roots effort has been taking place in Ohio that has the GOP shit scared and on the run.

The Ohio constitutional ballot initiative Reform Ohio Now (http://reformohionow.com)

You can read the details here, with links to the full language

Reform Ohio Now HAS qualified for the November 2005 Ballot in terms of signatures collected and the number of counties meeting their required totals too.

However, it was never going to be easy and a group has been set up to try and stop it.

Details below the bump, and what we need folks to do to help.

Licking County Pro-Active Citizens

It didn't take long for opponents of the Reform Ohio Now (RON) initiative to reach down into their Karl Rove bag of tricks.

In a disgusting rebuke to the nearly half-million Ohioans who have signed to put the election reform package on the November ballot, opponents earlier today filed a lawsuit in the Ohio Supreme Court seeking to prevent Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell from certifying the petitions.

The lawsuit, according to RON attorneys, is based on an obscure 1919 Supreme Court case that reportedly had nothing to do with the initiative process. It claims RON's petitions can't be certified because they only contain the new language to be adopted, not the old language being replaced.

This lawsuit, however frivolous, puts Blackwell between a rock and a hard place. As much as he might love to lose any attempt at statewide election reform, a successful challenge could also knock his pet anti-tax initiative off the ballot as well since it suffers the same alleged "defect."

So Blackwell might have to fight for the RON amendments, as might State Atty. Gen. Jim Petro, Blackwell's lawyer! How delicious can it get?

Organizing this week to oppose Reform Ohio Now is a group called "Ohio First," headed by Cincinnati lobbyist and former State Senate President Richard H. Finan.

At a Wednesday press conference, Finan didn't explain who is backing Ohio First, financially and otherwise. In view of the sorry state of the Ohio economy and Ohio politics, the name of the group is also puzzling.

Ohio First in what, you may ask. Certainly not in education, research, health care, incomes or Statehouse ethics, to be sure.

The lawsuit was filed as Reform Ohio Now announced it has achieved its goal of collecting more than 450,000 signatures to qualify the three amendments for the ballot. For details on the package, see www.reformohionow.com

To be certified, petitions have to be signed by 323,000 registered voters statewide, with the number in at least 44 counties exceeding 5 percent of the last gubernatorial vote.

Unofficially, RON says it now appears it will meet that 44 county requirement, providing enough petition signatures are found to be valid in terms of voter registration, petition formats, etc.

How can you help?
We need research.
Is Richard H. Finan. connected to the culture of corruption in Ohio ? Coingate ? Who does he lobby for and what have they gotten ?
Who is funding Ohio First ? What ties do they have to the culture of coruption ? What ties to the GOP ? Is this a national GOP effort ?

The more info we can collect to discredit these people the quicker we can take them down.

So google monkeys - that is your mission. Ohio Thanks you. Good Luck.

ps, please reccomend this is important to clean up ohio, end gerrymandering, stop campaign finance corruption and get blackwell and his future ilk the fuck outta the Sec of State office.

Just ending the gerrymandering is worth 3 congressional seats in Ohio in 2008. Its that important.

Anyone have any input? Register at Daily Kos and help out.

[Goldeneye]

1. Glad to see everyone is still concerned about stolen elections.

:dem:

[Algorem]

2. Finan used to be one of the top Columbus Cavemen,President of Senate

'97-'02,now lobbyist/lawyer superpig:

http://www.calfee.com/OURPEOPLE/DF/finanr.asp

Richard H. Finan

614-621-7762
[e-mail]


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SENATOR RICHARD H. FINAN, former president of the Ohio Senate, primarily advises clients on government relations and legislation issues.

Senator Finan was first elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1973, having previously served as Mayor of Evendale. He joined the Ohio Senate in 1978 and was elected president in 1996. He served as president of the National Conference of State Legislatures in 1997 and continues to be active in that organization as well as the Council of State Governments...

Senator Finan served in the U.S. Army from 1954 through 1956 in the G-2 Intelligence Division and was the appointed civilian aide to the secretary of the army for Ohio from 2001 through 2003. He was awarded an honorary degree from Xavier University in 2000 and joined Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP’s government relations and legislation group in 2003.




http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/112323438589840.xml?nohio&coll=2

Republicans ask high court to block vote on reform issues

Friday, August 05, 2005

Columbus - Republicans tried to block a trio of constitutional amendments aimed at changing Ohio's election system when they filed a lawsuit Thursday in the Ohio Supreme Court.

The proposed amendments are backed by Reform Ohio Now, a nonprofit group that has been circulating the petitions to qualify for the Nov. 8 ballot.

A new nonprofit group - Ohio First - sprang up to fight the proposals and bankroll the lawsuit...

[Eloriel]

3. Looks good

:kick: