Fate is a cruel mistress. And Ohio’s labor unions are about to learn that first hand.
In a fantastic twist of fate, the same union special interests that spent a royal fortune on inducing Ohioans to vote against their safety and welfare with a ‘No’ vote on State Issue 2 just over 300 days ago, are now met with convincing those same Ohioans to vote against their interests with a ‘Yes’ on State Issue 2 this November.
So this time around, what is Issue 2? It’s just about the worst thought out “reform” of Ohio’s redistricting and reapportionment process ever put to voters. First, it asks that the court system get involved in a political process—violating just about every tenet of the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine—by having the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court appoint a panel of judges.
Those judges would then select members to a commission, all of which can happen behind closed doors and in violation of Ohio’s open meetings laws. And the commission members would be completely unaccountable, with no method for removal even in the case of commission of a felony or accepting a bribe for favorable results.
Oh, and they could appropriate all the money their little hearts desire without any check or balance from anywhere. And that’s exactly what happened in California, where a similar reform was passed and has since seen its budget balloon to over three times original projections.
On its face, this is an awful, awful plan. It’s not well thought out and it’s earned the opposition of even those it demands be part of the process, not to mention Ohio’s lawyers find it to abuse our constitution.
But this year, the deck is stacked against them. Not only do they have to convince voters to cast a ‘Yes’ vote (most voters default to ‘No’ on ballot issues, thus last year’s Ballot Board fight), but they have to educate voters on the ins and outs of complicated facts—something they were averse to engage in last year.
Apparently it’s easier to yell conjecture than it is to engage in factual debate. Who knew?
On top of all that, Democrats and their union buddies already have their hands full trying to get voters to forget the failure that was the last three years of President Obama’s tenure. That $40 million+ they spent in 2011? Yea, they won’t have a fraction of that—unless they steal it from union members again.
But then what will they spend when trying to buy the election for Obama? Rock and a hard place, to be sure.
In the end, this all adds up to a union loss come November. They’re fighting their own created bias against “Issue 2.” They’re fighting a growing coalition, made up of business groups, legal minds and newspapers. They’re fighting voter distrust. But most of all, they’re fighting an education battle: they actually have to talk about the facts.
And we all know how good unions are at education.