ORP Update
Greetings!
Chairman Matt Borges

Our Party lost a great friend this week when State Representative Terry Blair passed away. Blair was dedicated to his community and spent 21 years as a Washington Township trustee before moving on to serve in the Ohio House. He leaves behind a great legacy.

He will be dearly missed by family, friends, and his colleagues. Our prayers are with all of his loved ones.

Cleveland is 2016 finalist

The Republican National Committee's Site Selection Committee announced this week that Cleveland and Dallas are the finalists to host the 2016 Republican National Convention. The Ohio Republican Party is thrilled that the Site Selection Committee chose Cleveland as one of two finalists to host the 2016 Republican National Convention. The Cleveland Host Committee clearly demonstrated that Cleveland is the ideal location to host the Convention. We will continue to work with them to bring the Convention to the nation's most important political battleground. Republicans in Ohio have demonstrated how powerful balanced budgets, a focus on jobs, tax relief, and common-sense conservatism can be. Ohio is a model for the nation and there would be no better launching point for the next President of the United States.

Take a moment to watch Governor Kasich's video in support of Cleveland in 2016 and make sure to show your own #TeamCleveland support!

Ohio's economic ranking dramatically improves

CNBC ranked Ohio #2 for Most Improved State for Business Since 2010. Under Governor Kasich's leadership, Ohio's business climate has improved dramatically. Before John Kasich took office, Ohio ranked #34, but thanks to pro-jobs policies, Ohio has jumped all the way to #18. Read more from CNBC here. Ohio's improvement helps explain how we have gone from 350,000 jobs lost under the Democrats to over 250,000 jobs gained under Republican leadership.

Grand Opening brings 250 new jobs

Governor John Kasich attended the grand opening of Wilmington Air Park's newest aircraft maintenance hangar. The new 105,000-square-foot facility will allow Airborne Maintenance and Engineering Services (AMES) to increase their operations, creating 250 new jobs. AMES already employs close to 400 in the area. The Air Park was most recently home to DHL Express, but the company was greatly hit by the economic recession under Strickland and left the facility vacant. AMES taking over the site is a breath of new life into the local economy and a sign that Ohio's comeback is real.

Senator Portman urges corporate tax code overhaul

Senator Rob Portman was featured on CNBC's Squawk Box this week urging the overhaul of the corporate tax code. Portman discussed his op-ed in the Wall Street Journal where he argued that because the U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the world, making American businesses more likely to relocate overseas and more vulnerable to foreign takeovers.

"We have an international system that dates back to the 1960s," Portman stated. "Every one of our major competitors has reformed its tax code substantially since the 1980s when we lowered our corporate rate. So we've got a great opportunity here to do the right thing and to give the economy a shot in the arm." Watch the entire interview here.

Speaker Boehner to sue Obama

Speaker of the House John Boehner announced his intentions to sue President Barack Obama for not carrying out laws approved by Congress. President Obama has been exceeding his constitutional authority with executive actions, completely ignoring the Constitution. Speaker Boehner and other Republicans have voiced frustration with Obama's second-term strategy of pursuing policy changes without Congress, particularly environmental rules via the Environmental Protection Agency and numerous unilateral changes to the implementation of ObamaCare.

Lt. Gov. Taylor praises new Tipp City jobs

Abbott Laboratories, the company behind Ensure and other health products, opened a new state-of-the-art facility this week. Lt. Governor Mary Taylor was on hand to celebrate the new plant that will be bringing 240 new jobs to Tipp City.

"This is great news for Tipp City and obviously great news for the state," Taylor said. "If you add up the number of jobs that have been announced just in this region, it's been over 2,700 new jobs because of announcements like this today."

Share Ohio Initiative launched

Auditor of State Dave Yost launched the Share Ohio Initiative this week which allows local governments to share costly heavy equipment through a collective website. Lake County is the first county to participate, listing all their inventories and allowing officials to inquire into sharing arrangements. The new initiative will likely save local governments thousands in tax dollars that would otherwise go to buying new equipment that they can now share.

NFIB endorses Mike DeWine

The National Federation of Independent Business/Ohio endorsed Attorney General Mike DeWine for reelection this week. The announcement from the voice of small business stated that DeWine got the endorsement because of his tireless dedication to making Ohio a fair place for businesses.

"Given his family's small business background he understands the need to establish an environment in which they can grow their companies and create jobs, helping to drive our economy forward," said Roger Geiger, Vice President of NFIB/Ohio.

Financial EDge launched

This week, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel's office hosted the Central Ohio Smart Money Choices conference. Smart Money Choices is a free, half day financial planning conference which brings together experts who present on topics such as budgeting, credit and debt management, consumer scams, investments, educator resources, retirement planning and social security.

Treasurer Mandel's office has made spreading the message of financial literacy a priority. During his time in office, Treasurer Mandel has also launched Financial EDge which is a suite of personal finance tools in support of Ohio's parents, educators and students as well as made CPIM courses available online for Ohio's public funds officers.

Election officials meet with Secretary of State Husted

Secretary of State Jon Husted visited Guernesey County this week to speak with local election officials. The meeting was a part of the 2014 Ohio Elections Officials Summer Regional Meetings. The Secretary took time to recap the 2014 Primary Election and then outlined preparations that are underway for the remaining 2014 election cycle. The meetings will continue throughout the summer until he has met with all election officials across the state. It's all part of his commitment of making it easy to vote, but hard to cheat in Ohio.

FitzGerald's fiascos continue

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's June 27th headline read: "Fanning the flames of a fiasco", and it pretty well summed up Democrat Ed FitzGerald's week. In an editorial, FitzGerald is torn apart for how he handled (or refused to handle) the significant ethics violations his nominee for County Treasurer made. The Treasurer is in charge of nearly a billion dollars of taxpayer money. FitzGerald's appointee violated numerous ethics rules, including taking illegal tax breaks, and for a week FitzGerald refused to talk about it or remove her. After finally withdrawing his pick because County Council refused to go along, FitzGerald declared that he was not going to discipline his appointee - even as the Inspector General continues to investigate her.

Meanwhile, The Columbus Dispatch pointed to FitzGerald's request for 11 debates as a sign of turmoil in his campaign, stating it "smacks of a campaign grasping for any means to gain some traction." FitzGerald has been jumping from one campaign screw-up to the next which is leaving him in a financial hole along with exposing his lack of leadership to voters.

"FitzGerald has spent his career job-hopping, always auditioning for his next job instead of focusing on his current one, with the result that he lacks the store of experience and accomplishment necessary for anyone seeking the governorship of the seventh-largest state in the nation."

Our swipe cards are still going across the state following FitzGerald and trying to figure out what he is hiding by not releasing the public records of when he is in Cuyahoga County buildings. This week they were at the Pickaway County Fair and outside the Ohio Democratic headquarters.

Volunteers were also in Dayton where Hillary Clinton made a stop on her "book tour".

Finally our grassroots team worked with the Governor's campaign and other state and local candidates to go door to door on Saturday as we continue the vital work of identifying and talking with voters. Campaign season is starting to heat up and working hard and together, we will keep Ohio moving forward.

Sincerely,
Matt Borges
Chairman, Ohio Republican Party