Columbus Dispatch...
Issue 2 foes lack identity  
November 3, 2011 

The pro-Issue 2 campaign has a face. The opposition has no face or many faces, depending on how you look at it. 

The unequivocal pitchman for Building a Better Ohio, the Republican group supporting Issue 2, is Gov. John Kasich, who has been on a mad dash across the state for about a month speaking at traditional campaign rallies. 

We Are Ohio, the labor coalition responsible for placing before voters the GOP-backed limits on collective bargaining for public employees in Senate Bill 5, has largely (but not entirely) avoided the kind of campaign event where supporters gather to hear a prominent politician speak. 

The reasons for the differing campaign styles surrounding Issue 2 are many, but they all can be traced to this simple fact: on an issue campaign, there is no candidate on the ballot. 

“You want to talk about a big rally, the day we turned in our petitions was a big rally,” said We Are Ohio spokeswoman Melissa Fazekas, referring to the thousands who participated in a parade up Broad Street to deliver petitions to place the issue on the ballot. “In an issue campaign, especially during an off-year election where voter turnout is key, we’ve put a great deal of emphasis on direct voter contact.” 

Armed with a 4-to-1 cash advantage, 35 field offices and claiming 17,000 volunteers, Fazekas said the labor coalition’s campaign has been centered largely on door-knocking and phone-banking operations. 

Building a Better Ohio also has held phone banks and canvassing tours (and has gotten help from Issue 3 supporters and the Ohio Republican Party), but Kasich’s pounding of the pavement is a key component of the GOP group’s strategy. 

Already this week, Kasich spoke in Zanesville on Monday, in Hanoverton and Ravenna on Tuesday and has events scheduled in suburban Cleveland and Akron tonight, in Mansfield on Friday and in suburban Cincinnati on election eve on Monday. 

More than 200 people showed up for Kasich’s rally at the Spread Eagle Tavern in Hanoverton, and an estimated 400 attended the tea party-affiliated event in Ravenna. 

Building a Better Ohio spokesman Jason Mauk argues that Kasich is a natural pitchman for Senate Bill 5, in part, because it’s a part of his agenda as governor. 

But Kasich often speaks far more about his overall goals and accomplishments before turning toward Issue 2. 

“A lot of people here are focused on Issue 2, but I also think it’s important to recognize the progress we’re making,” Kasich said, following his Ravenna speech. 

We Are Ohio’s last foray on the campaign trail was in early October, when Cincinnati firefighter Doug Stern was featured on a statewide RV tour that coincided with the start of early voting. We Are Ohio’s campaign has featured heavy doses of police and firefighters, with a sprinkling of nurses and teachers, but the issue will impact many other public workers, and some spoke out in Columbus yesterday. 

“I know how important it is for employees like me to have a seat at the table,” said Jim Adkins, a plumber at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, who personally collected more than 2,000 signatures for the referendum effort. “I have been on many committees that have negotiated health and safety issues at our prison and other prisons around the state.” 

Adkins said that contracts also make it fairer to workers when prisons are closed or privatized. He worries that a new merit-pay system would lead the state to let go of more-experienced prison workers. 

Anthony Beatty, a bus driver for Columbus City Schools, also worries about outsourcing and said that with collective bargaining, “We have the ability to maintain strict safety standards for our students and drivers. And it gives us the ability to have the contract for seniority rights and to keep our buses.” 

Though We Are Ohio is skipping the campaign trail as the election draws near, a national firefighters union is planning a statewide bus tour that begins Friday to encourage a “no” vote on Issue 2. And tonight, the anti-Issue 2 side has scheduled a rock concert and rally at the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 189 Hall in Columbus. 

Kasich was asked this week if his barnstorming tour, and to a larger extent, Building a Better Ohio’s campaign, can spur an upset. 

“We never thought (former Cleveland Browns quarterback) Bernie Kosar would bring the Browns back and win that big championship game,” Kasich said. 

Kasich, a Steelers fan who grew up in suburban Pittsburgh, apparently didn’t know that Kosar never won a championship game with the Browns, going 0-3 in AFC title tilts with trips to the Super Bowl on the line. 

Read this and other articles at the Columbus Dispatch