Frankly, I Think Constituent Communications Are a Good Thing

So apparently there is a Gannett report lurking somewhere behind a paywall about the use of franking by members of Congress, and as a result, we've a spate of stories about the constituent communications of local members. The Dispatch goes pretty hard after Mary Jo Kilroy for placing seventh among all Representatives and first in the Ohio delegation in money spent. Other stories look at the delegation more generally.

And all these stories lead with the amount of money spent. I think we all agree that we want to know what our representatives are doing and we all think representatives listening to their constituents is a good thing. But *gasp* it all costs money.

And that's the tone of these stories. The lede and opening grafs are all about "They're spending your money! They're spending your money!" and framing the discussion like of course these are nothing but extended campaign ads. Of course none of this is substantive or useful or good. Then they get quotes from the various members who have been set up to sound like this guy:

Here's a thought. We should encourage our representatives to communicate more with their constituents, not less. And if challengers don't like the inequity of members having the franking privilege, I'm right there with them too.

It's yet another argument for public campaign financing.

Public Option Annie

Work of a guerrilla musical theater group that infiltrated a national conference of the health insurance trade group AHIP. Thanks to the friend who passed this along. Enjoy.



Apologies for any Ohio bloggers who may have hit this first. I have, as noted, been out of the loop.

Twenty Years Ago

In 1984 I was on a study abroad program in Yugoslavia. One night we met up with some German students and sampled a great deal of the local malt beverage and got talking about politics. I (clumsily) brought up the idea of reunification and they shrugged it off. A pipe dream, they said. Maybe in our lifetimes, but there's no sign of even a glimmer of possibility.

Five years later, and twenty years ago today, the Berlin Wall came down, and the dominoes fell in reverse. Having visited Czechoslovakia, I confidently predicted to my friends that whatever happened elsewhere in the Warsaw Pact, Czechoslovakia would remain stubbornly communist. Then the Velvet Revolution happened. (I related this story to an international law prof who told me he said the same thing. Took a little of the sting out.)

Today I teach young men and women who have never lived in a world with a Communist bloc. Perhaps one reason political adversaries are so careless with charges of communism is that it's been so long since we've seen the real thing.

A dance club we frequented back in Yugoslavia played David Bowie's "Heroes" pretty much every night. It is to this day one of my favorite pop culture indictments of Soviet totalitarianism. The song is about lovers trysting by the Berlin Wall, but Bowies singing transcends the specific narrative to capture the universal yearning for freedom.

Election Day Tomorrow

Yes it's mid-term, but that means you will be in and out quickly. So first and foremost, VOTE!

Since this blog is based on the increasingly tenuous assumption that people care about my opinions, a few thoughts/recommendation about the ballot.

Of course I will be voting for Sandra Kurt for City Council Ward 8 tomorrow. I'm not wild about a one-party monopoly on Council. But Sandra is such a good candidate I'll happily pull the lever fill in the oval for her.

For School Board I'm having trouble getting excited about any candidates other than Jason Haas and Lisa Mansfield. There are some OK people in the race, but none have distinguished themselves. I may vote only for Jason and Lisa just to strengthen those votes.

For Akron Muni I will be voting straight Dem ticket which I don't usually do in judicial races. Steve Fallis is a family friend and a smart guy. Jerry Larson is well thought of and has run an impressive campaign. I've expressed my doubts about Orlando Williams in the past, but have expressed far graver doubts about Katarina Cook. On second thought I don't really have any doubts -- she's just not judge material.

As for the issues. I'm voting down the three Ohio issues. I've covered 2 and 3 already. Not good ideas in their own right with bonus idea badness adding political flotsam to the Constitution.

As for Issue 1, I'm annoyed. If the thing is so rightfully popular, why don't we vote in a tax to pay for it now as opposed to adding to the debt load.

Closer to home we have Issue 4 which would convert the Engineer's office to an appointed position. I don't know about you, but I have no idea who should be the County Engineer. As such, I always feel a bit guilty about voting for the office. The issue has generated ungodly levels of handwringing in the name of democracy. Well, Summit County has appointed a medical examiner for years and democracy has survived.

On a blog/personal level, it appears that my health issues have abated, so hopefully this marks something close to a full-time return to blogging.

Today (Thursday) in the Akron Legal News

For the handful of folks who read both this blog and my column in Akron Legal News, an announcement: This week's column appears in today's paper, not the usual Wednesday. There were some absences at the paper due to, yes, the flu again and things got moved around as a result. "Cases and Controversies" will return to its usual Wednesday spot in two weeks.

This week's column takes on Issue 2. Issue 2 would set up an Ohio Livestock Standards Board, has been endorsed by pretty much everyone who matters on either side of the aisle and for the most part 2 has slipped under the radar. It's not the worst idea ever, but it's not a good idea. The board is set up in a way that goofs around with the usual constitutional system of separation of powers for no good reason.

What's more, the particular not-good reason at work here is fear of direct democracy. The backers of Issue 2 explicitly say that they have put it together because of the possibility that animal rights activists (of the relatively sane Humane Society variety, not the PETA crazies) might introduce a ballot issue establishing a few minimum standards for livestock care. Reflect on that. Voters might have to opportunity to consider livestock standards, so we need amend the constitution to establish a new bureaucracy.

Further reading:

Here is the official Issue 2 website. You can also find lots of pro talk at Ohio Farm Bureau. The anti- forces have styled themselves Ohioans Against Constitutional Takeover. The particular potential ballot issue that has given people the fantods is California Proposition 2. Here's some background from Wiki and thumb-sucking reaction from a Wisconsin ag paper. And here, for grins, is a piece in The Hill by Ohio's own Jean Schmidt about the issue.

What Kind of Democracy, Indeed?

Some time ago, in response to my post endorsing Sandra Kurt for City Council, a commenter posted:

What kind of a Democracy is it that allows 15 Democrat PC's win the endorsement of the entire Democratic Party?

Wayne in Akron revisted the point with a link to an Eric Mansfield post.

Not for want of trying, I'm having a tough time getting lathered about this. And I think it's not just because a friend of mine has benefited from the process.

The question presented is what sort of criteria the party should have for endorsing a candidate. It shouldn't be a big surprise that at least one criterion is service to the party. As an organization the party wants people who will be loyal soldiers. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. It's like saying "OMG, the Dem House Caucus endorsed all the incumbents!!"

I'm no stranger to criticizing the local party and it's leadership. But in a way I think the fact that Precinct Chairs have gotten endorsements is a potentially more democratic result, given that the Chairs themselves are elected unless no one runs in which case they are appointed. SCPD caused a stir some years back by running in as many PC races as they could. The party establishment wasn't exactly thrilled when a bunch of them won. They didn't take over, but it did highlight at least one way regular folks could demand change within the party.

And by the way it was her involvement in that sort of grassroots insurgency that brough Sandra Kurt to the attention of the party leadership. To their credit they embraced her, her energy and the important constituency she represents. Given some of the other, very fine candidates in Ward 8, Sandra certainly wasn't the "safest" choice, PC or not.

At any rate, in response to the question posed, what kind of democracy is it? A representative one. If you don't like what elected representatives do, you vote them out. But it's rarely a direct democracy. Happily, it's only an endorsement. What really matters is who gets the votes next week.

Recall Roundup

Briefcase Radical called it before the polls closed, but like everyone else, he low-balled the final tally. Fem Dem has a brief post-election post up.

Ohio dot com has full coverage. Some, but not all, of the anti-Plusquellic comment trolls are out. The loudest appear to be keeping their heads down today. BTW, Ohio.com's breaking story about the election posted around 9:20 last night after they called it. I suppose being a source for real-time updates isn't going to make or break ABJ but it's worth noting that ANN owns them on this score as of now.

For their part, ANN has audio of the Mayor's victory speech, audio and video of his remarks to reporters and some snippets from Mendenhall.

Cleveland Magazine's politics blog saw it ultimately as a contest between Chrissie Hynde and Miss Tia. This sort of thing will happen when you let a lifestyle magazine carry a politics blog.

As noted in comments in the last post, CAN lost in every ward, in every precinct. Think about that. The recall effort couldn't even win a ward in Ellet, which to this day resents having been annexed into Akron two generations ago. You can find that official canvas here.

Following the Recall Results

The best online place to be is Akron News Now which has a live feed from the newsroom. It's kind of cool -- you can see anchor Lindsay McCoy gathering info from online and from the BoE and relaying it to on-air talent. A bit of behind-the-scenes.

One thing we learn from Lindsay is that the online BoE updates are more current than what the reporters at the BoE can get from staff there (having done voter protection duty at BoE, it's not surprising. At this time of night, the main BoE office is essentially vacant as everyone is in back processing the ballots.) As such, you can keep an eye on the BoE page by loading it and refreshing it every couple of minutes.

As of now (around 8:30) the Board shows 48% reporting, the results are 76.85 against the recall to 23.15 for. The trend line has been slightly toward narrowing that enormous gap. At around 8 the first 12 percent of precints showed an 80/20 split.

UPDATE 8:36 56% in, still 3-1 advantage for Plusquellic. ANN is calling it against the recall. Fascinating to see how manifestly unscientific the "call" decision is. Also, ANN is Twittering the results under hashtag #akronrecall

UPDATE 10:20 It's official -- Change Akron Now got boatraced. 74%-26%. Akron News Now signed off their live feed, but the recall page now features an interview with Mendenhall in which he confirms that his group will try to field candidates in all the city council races and that his wife Kelly is running for council at large. He also whines that he didn't have any money to run the campaign. Of course if people agreed with the recall they would give money, but . . .

Some recall results fun facts:

The received wisdom was that pro-recall voters would certainly vote and that the election would be close if turnout was low. Well turnout was low -- 21% -- and the recall still got crushed. That means either the pro-recall folks weren't significantly more motivated than anyone else (possible) or that there just aren't that many of them (more likely.)

At a total vote of 7325, Team Mulligan didn't even double up the 3800 some-odd valid petition signatures. That is, if everyone who signed the petition voted and brought a friend to vote, they would have exceeded the total actually garnered by 275 votes.

At 20895 the anti-recall vote is 30% higher than the 15895 he got in the uncontested general election in 2007.

Last Thoughts on Recall Election Day

Mostly, if you haven't already, GO VOTE. The general impression, bolstered by anecdotal evidence and what the anti-recall camp has said about their internal polling, is that a clear majority are against the recall but that the pro-recall voters are fanatical highly motivated. It would really be a shame if the will of the majority were defeated by the zealotry of the minority. Yes it's a beautiful day and all, but GO VOTE. You won't be in their long.

A few other points.

• I was voter number 46 in my Ward 8 precinct. The flow was pretty steady this morning at my polling location which includes two other precincts. That is consistent with the report from Summit BoE that Ward 8 is heaviest, and that Ward 8 voters led in absentee voting. In that last story, Mendenhall acknowledges that Ward 8 is more Plusquellic territory
  
• It's a shame that the recall has cast a shadow on the rare bits of good news Akron has heard in the current climate. For example, the rollout of the downtown wifi zone has been scheduled for June since at least last Fall. But because that prescheduled date happens in proximity of the recall it's dismissed as a political stunt.
  
• That said, the Mayor skipping the the rollout was the political equivalent of Darryl Strawberry acknowledging the Fenway crowd. Hizzoner needs to ignore the bleacher creatures.
• The Team Mulligan campaign has been able to pull off little other than volunteer canvassing. No mailers, no bilboards, no yard signs. But over the weekend someone tried to go online-linkage with FixAkron.com signs. The website is more of the same. (E.g. Akron is losing population (as is every city other than Columbus and Cincy). One interesting aspect -- hanging problems with the Akron Building and Health Departments on the Mayor. But remember how Mendenhall tried to pump up Joe Finley's campaign by claiming that the mayor had a tirade at the Building Dept? And that we found out later that he went off because they were offering lousy service to property developers? And that in fact that same building dept was put on probation by the state? Same stuff as we've seen this entire campaign.
• Count me among those who grew weary of the anti-recall mailers that demonized Warner Mendenhall. I'm assuming that with a quarter million to play with that stuff was focus-group tested and all, but after the third mailed reminder of Mendenhall's tax delinquency, I was done.
• Having said that, look for a reprise this fall. Mendenhall's "band of radicals" (according to the mailers) will have candidates going in a lot of city council races this fall and I'm guessing their linkage to Mendenhall will be a frequent talking point in the campaigns.
• One interesting feature of this election has been the total radio silence from the local Republican Party. It may be that the Republicans prefer the devil they know. It may be that the rank and file was insufficiently interested in a recall to make it worth putting the party behind the effort. Still, given the past practice of A²cutting deals across the aisle, it's worth keeping in mind going forward that he never put a dog in this fight.

BTW, if you missed the tweet, my absence the last few days was due to technical difficulties. As of now, those difficulties appear resolved.

Now GO VOTE.

Mendenhall Grasping at Straws Again

Team Mulligan leader Warner Mendenhall's comment to last week's post about the recall warrants special attention. Quoth he:

My opinion is based on knowledge of the city's current and future liabilities. The expert failed to include about $500 million in liabilities that are coming due--Sewers and Retiree Health Care. When those future, but imminent, debts are accounted for we are bankrupt.

The expert is only as good as the information he is given to review. The input from the City was junk. The expert never called Change Akron Now to become informed about what our concerns are.

The Bond ratings companies are similarly kept in the dark about these liabilities and property values. (the median sale price of houses in Akron fell 50% over last year).

That bit about retirement liabilities didn't sound right. While that's a broadly germane topic, what with Chrysler and GM sinking under legacy costs, local governments in Ohio generally aren't saddled with such costs for retired workers. Local governments are responsible for some contribution into a statewide retirement fund (e.g. the Public Employees Retirement System [PERS], Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund [OPFPF]; State Teachers Retirement System [STRS]). Once an employee retires, the liability for benefits and health care shifts to whichever fund the employee participates in.

Entertaining the possibility that Mendenhall knows something I don't, I contacted the city and confirmed the above. The city does not have an imminent legacy cost liability.

And so it goes with Team Mulligan. Aside from the conceded fact that the Mayor can be a piece of work, they've been consistently wrong in their critcisms of the city government.

Casino Effort Calls and Raises

Following up on posts from last week, the would-be casino operators who were subject to an injunction last week have moved to have the whole thing vacated. Their theory -- that Mahoning County Common Pleas doesn't have jurisdiction over a statewide petition effort makes little sense. Where violation of a state law is alleged, you are going to start at the county level somewhere -- there is no statewide court with original jurisdiction. Without seeing the actual motion, it's hard to opine further.

Having said that, this description of the argument in the Dispatch's Daily Briefing blog is pretty funny. Granted this is a reporter putting the position into non-legalese, but it's pretty funny:

In today's legal filings, the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee asks Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge James Evans to dismiss the party's lawsuit and lift the restraining order against lying. The committee's lawyers say the Mahoning County court has no jurisdiction over a statewide signature-gathering process and that the Democratic Party is playing politics.

Objecting to an injunction against lying? Accusing a political party of playing politics? Yep, sounds like a gambling initiative.

Bankrupt: The Fundamental Incoherence of the Recall Argument.

The nature of the recall campaign allows each discontented resident to project his particular gripe onto the Mayor. Job losses? Mayor's fault. Money spent retaining or wooing employers? Mayor's fault. Crime? Or "out of control" police? Check and check.

As a result trying to take on the recall argument is no easy task. And it's made harder by the slipperiness of Recaller-in-Chief Warner Mendenhall. The Beacon Journal has been braving the fray and reporting on the major arguments raised by the Warneristas. Two weeks ago the paper examined the Mayor's travel expenses (Yielding Warner's precious "The business of the city is not business" quote). Yesterday the lede was an analysis of the argument that the city's debt load is excessive (the city is "broke" they like to say.) None of this will matter to the hard core of the recall movement, but at least they do not vent their folly in a vacuum.

The bottom line of the ABJ story is that Akron's debt is not out of line with that of similarly situated Midwestern cities. The story could have been better -- I would like to have seen opinions of experts who are more generally hawkish on debt that the CSU prof they rely on. But overall it's a good read.

The major lesson of the article is that not all debt is the same. Much of the $760 million that Team Mulligan goes on about is special obligation debt -- that is, debt incurred with a funding stream already in place to pay for it. The best example of this is the school rebuilding project for which the city has taken out $200 million in debt to be paid for by a voter-approved income tax.
Confronted with evidence that the debt is not crushing the city, Mendenhall shift the subject. The problem, says he, isn't the debt. No, that's not what he's saying at all. It's what we've spent it on:

Mendenhall said Akron should have spent more on neighborhoods, rather than on public improvements to assist projects like the Northside Lofts and a student housing and retail complex being built on South Main Street downtown.

''When you have strong neighborhoods and good housing, this supports the tax base and the schools,'' Mendenhall said. ''The neighborhoods have clearly suffered.''

First and foremost, if that's the argument, it surely is not a recall argument. I might listen to an argument for recalling a Mayor who has recklessly spent a city into bankruptcy. But this amounts to different policy priorities, which is not an appropriate reason for upending an election result.

Second, the city has spent money on neighborhoods. When I first moved to 'Akron in the early 90s we lived in a neighborhood a little dicier than the one we're in now, one in the midst of a city-sponsored street-level upgrade. The city fixed sidewalks, driveway aprons and sewer lines and provided grants to homeowners to bring their houses up to code. This was going on all over the city in "transition neighborhoods" -- basically those that could go either way. Neighborhood level work has limitations in that people will only allow the city to do so much on their private property, but the city does have a history of doing that sort of work.

And of course the AMHA has been revamping housing projects and trying to create mixed-income subsidized housing developments, first in Cascade Village and in now in Edgewood. Not the city per se, but certainly the city has been at that table.

Moreover, the school/community learning center building project is all about neighborhoods. Good schools grow good neighborhoods. A shiny new building isn't the end of school reform, but at least anecdotally the new schools have seen improvements in student and parent morale which can't hurt.

Ultimately a lot of how people feel about the recall comes down to how they feel about Akron. Team Mulligan has been poormouthing the city from the start. I see a city no longer reeling from losing it's one-time manufacturing base and reinventing itself as a tech center. Doing so requires investment, and not just from the private sector. Akron may have debt, but we also have a more discernable future than most of the metro areas in Northeast Ohio.

Recall Catch-Up

With the recall election 15 days away, that will be a focus of this blog in the near term. A few developments from last week deserve attention.

• This week Akron FOP will vote on what stance, if any, to take on the recall. The fact that there is a debate at all is good news for the Mayor. His conflicts with APD and the rank and file's distrust of him is legendary. Personally I think it's a good thing that the two most powerful agents of executive power -- the police and the executive himself -- are not on the same page.
  
• The funniest event was recall face guy Warner Mendenhall declaring that he won't run for Mayor if the recall is successful. The anti-recall messaging has in part focused on him, his tax delinquency, his general nuttiness. Clearly he felt the need to allay fears that a vote against Plusquellec is a vote for him.
  
• More nuttiness from Team Mulligan. They have petitioned Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to remove Wayne Jones from the Board of Elections. According to the Beacon Journal article, the letter to Brunner criticized Jones for being "overly partisan in his efforts against the recall." Not, mind you, in his work on the Board, but in his political work outside the Board. *sigh* For those of you still in touch with reality, Ohio's election administration system is built on a theory of bipartisanship, not nonpartisanship. Wayne Jones, Chair of the Democratic Party is, wait for it, partisan. Not exactly a news flash.
• The ABJ lede yesterday was an analysis of the city's debt burden. Thoughts on that later.
  

Casino Petition Update: Circulators Enjoined from Lying

Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge James Evans handed the anti-casino crew a partial victory today. The judge found enough evidence of shenanigans (excuse the legalese) to intervene, but stopped well short of enjoining the petition drive.

It is therefore Ordered that Defendant Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee and all persons who act in concert or participation with Defendant Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee are enjoined from misrepresenting the contents, purpose or effect of the initiative petition proposing an Amendment to the Ohio Constitution to authorize a single casino with each of the cities of Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo.

What does it mean? Basically that if circulators are caught dealing from the bottom again the judge can levy fines and possibly a harsher injunction.

Some unsolicited strategic advice based on the discussion in the comments to the last post. If the plaintiffs do find evidence of further misrepresentation, they should do discovery to establish how the circulators are paid. If they are paid per circulator, you can make a case for enjoining the practice (which is generally a pesitilent practice, infesting the political practice with this sort of low-level fraud.)

Casino Petitioners Caught Loading the Dice

Got a presser today calling out the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee (i.e. the hundred somethingth attempt to legalize casino gambling in Ohio) Folks working against the issue (yes, including some adjacent-state casino interests) caught some petition circulators erm bluffing a little with the facts. And caught it on video and posted it.



The Mahoning County Dem Party has filed for a temporary restraining order to stop the Committee from circulating petitions.

The video gives a good picture of how this sort of thing happens -- including the celebrated case of ACORN. The guys in the video don't look like they've read the same briefing book about which lies to say. They look like guys who are paid by the signature and say anything to get voters to sign on the line that is dotted.

As someone opposed to legalized casino gambling I enjoy seeing a little mud splashed on those who insist on inflicting this issue on us every election cycle. As someone interested in how campaigns use online tools, this is an interesting case study (about 500 views so far. Meh.)

But mostly it's the lawyer in me that will be watching this with fascination. While the evidence doesn't support a vast conspiracy to lie to potential signatories, it does point to bad training and bad quality control. So what will the judge do about that? I've been told that the judge will decide the case shortly. Wait and see.

UPDATES. The judge in the case issued a temporary restraining order on June 5. The pro-casino group moved the court to vacate the order and dismiss the action on June 9.

Today in Akron Legal News

In today's column I consider the recall effort. For the most part I discuss the merits of Change Akron Now's arguments only to say that they mostly come down to policy disagreements, which generally aren't considered the stuff of a recall campaign. Mostly the column considers whether Akron should consider raising the threshold for getting a recall on the ballot. Surveying the recall laws in major cities in Ohio reveals that Akron has arguably the lowest threshold. This is from the column:

• Cleveland uses 20% of the total vote in the last municipal election.
• Parma uses 25% of the total vote in the preceding municipal election, as does Toledo, whose mayor is also fighting a recall effort.
• Dayton bases its threshold on the number of registered voters in the city. A recall effort needs 25% to reach the ballot.
• Columbus also sets the threshold as a percentage of registered voters, requiring 15%. As an additional barrier, Columbus does not allow petitions to be circulated; they are posted in firehouses and the city clerk’s office so that interested citizens must go to the petition to sign.
• Youngstown doesn’t peg the threshold to any variable, instead having set the threshold at a constant 5000 registered voters, which currently amounts to about six percent of the total population.
• Neither Canton nor Cincinnati currently allows for a recall, though the local NAACP in Cincinnati is currently spearheading a drive to add recall provisions there.
  

(BTW, if you want to follow the Toledo recall story, my friend Lisa Renee's local blog Glass City Jungle is a good place to start.)

From there I make arguments in favor of a higher bar. Irate comment coming from Mendenhall in 3, 2, 1. . .

The Mayor Recall Begins Now . . . Okay, NOW.

For a variety of reasons -- some of them good -- I've been off the blog for another protracted period. And for a variety of reasons -- some of them good -- I'm still not ready to give all this up. I've found that when getting back into the blog, the best strategy is to take on some low-hanging fruit. Go after some person place or thing easy to criticize, deride, snark about.

So let's check in on Warner Mendenhall's effort to recall Akron Mayor Plusquellec.

This week, in conjunction with the Mayor's State of the City address, Mendenhall rolled out release 1.2 of the recall effort. Last November the Mendenhollers set up a (now nearly static) website and promise to work at recruiting volunteers. This week however many folks they have are supposedly beginning the petition effort. Warner robo-called to invite me to a meeting about the whole thing, but unfortunately I had some important dishes to wash.

Aside from the fundamental argument that the city is broke and therefore needs to spend another $160 grand on a special election, the fundamental silliness of all this is captured nicely by Mendenhall's response to the State of the City address itself:

Mendenhall, who watched the speech on the Web, said Plusquellic addressed several partnerships but not the one with the community. He said the mayor doesn't listen to or solicit feedback from citizens, especially when it's critical of him.

"We need to hear from people: 'What is the state of the city?'" he said. "It's not for the mayor to say. It's for the citizens to tell him."

O great Warner Mendenhall. How wiser you are than James Madison! Those foolish founding fathers thought that the executive addressing constituents about the state of the nation was a good enough to enshrine in the Constitution. Fie on their folly.

This sort of knee-jerk contrariansim has marked Mendenhall's political career -- particularly his running fire fight with the Mayor. He offers little other than the immediate objection to whatever Plusquellec has proposed. Well, that and sucking up to city employee unions. The recall group has offered some reasonable critiques, but are hard to take seriously packaged with this venom and goofiness.

Which is the real tragedy in all this. The city could use a serious minded critic of city government. One-party political environments rarely produce good government. (*cough* Cuyahoga County *cough*). That Akron has stayed afloat as long as it has without any serious threat to the power structure in itself speaks highly of that power structure. But it's far from perfect and legitimate loyal opposition would be welcome.

That Mendenhall has been able to maintain his practice as well as whatever power base he has through all his political adventures disproves the adage that you can't fight city hall. Unfortunately he has yet to demonstrate that he can fight city hall without acting a fool.

Yes, the Apportionment Board Matters. A Lot.

A Jill post from yesterday points to a Mark Naymik column about the looming primary fight to go after Sen. George Voinovich's soon-to-be vacant seat 2010. The column focuses primarily on the possible battle between Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner for the nomination. One objection to Brunner's nomination is the fact that leaving her position makes it harder for the Democrats to hold on to the office, also up in 2010, and that she sits on the apportionment board. This is, for example, why I don't want her to run, even though the prospect of listening to Lee Fisher stump speeches for an election cycle is horrifying.

In response to the apportionment board argument, Naymik notes the following:

[Brunner] and others correctly argue that the power of the Apportionment Board may be overstated - as evidenced by Democrats' success last year in House districts last drawn by Republicans. (Democrats, though, performed badly in Ohio Senate districts.)

Also, if Democrats deliver on their promise to pass election reforms, those reforms are likely to include changing the apportionment process. Computers can redraw the lines without partisan politics, eliminating the need for board seats.

OK, let's take these one at a time. First, while it is correct to say that the Democrats did well in the Ohio House the last cycle, it isn't correct to say that the power of the Board is therefore overstated. Yes, in the year of a Democratic tsunami, in which a popular Democratic Presidential nominee poured a gazillion dollars into state organizing and turnout efforts, Dems did well in Republican districts. That's not the same as saying the districts don't matter, just that they matter less in an outlier year. Unless those factors will be repeated every two years, this one cycle doesn't alter the power of the Board.

Since 2000 Ohio has been close to 50/50 in Presidential elections. In that same time span, until this past election, the Ohio House and Senate have each been split around one-third Dem to two-thirds R. That's in large part thanks to the very effective map drawing the Apportionment Board did when it was composed of one Dem and four Republicans.

Moreover, the just-wait-till-last-year argument ignores how the Republicans draw districts -- they concentrate Dems in a few very strongly Dem districts, then draw Republican districts with relatively small but fairly stable margins. Sitting at home I don't have access to PVIs for the Ohio House districts, but a look at the Congressional districts (just scroll down to Ohio. There you go) illustrates the principle. Of the six districts drawn blue only one -- the Sixth, Strickland's old district -- has a PVI under D+6. One is at six, the rest are eight or above. In contrast, only four Republican districts are above +8, two more are R+6 and the six are +4 or lower. Those relatively low R+ PVI districts are the ones in which Dems did well last year, but before that they provided a strong enough margin to maintain Republican hegemony in the Statehouse.

As for the second argument regarding redistricting reform. First off, no one hold their breath. At this point we haven't heard a serious reform proposal since Dems started looking strong again. Moreover, any proposal has to get past the Republican dominated State Senate. At this point Republicans have an incentive to agree to real reform. If they think they will retake the Apportionment Board by winning a vacant Secretary of State position, there is that much less incentive.

Jennifer Brunner needs to honor the promise she made to serve out her term as Secretary of State, plus a second, assuming she is reelected. She needs to do so, not only because she is an effective Secretary during a time when election adminstration is seeing significant upheaval. She also needs to stay because her party needs her to hold onto the seat for reapportionment.

Tips for Voting Tomorrow

Assuming you haven't done so already, voting tomorrow will present challenges. Here are a few tips for making it a little easier on yourself and making sure your vote gets counted. I offer this as a service and, yes, it's based on my voter protection work. But in case there are any questions, this officially comes from me, not the voter protection effort.

1. Bring Your ID

Yes, you know that already, but really. Bring your ID. No ID and you have to cast a provisional ballot.

Also remember, if you use a driver's license, state ID or military ID, the address on the ID need not match the address under which you are registered. If a poll worker tries to tell you otherwise, firmly but correctly point out that that isn't the rule.

If for some reason you don't have one of the above, remember that you can bring a utility bill, paycheck or government document of any kind, provided it shows your name and (different this time) the address under which you are registered.

2. Go to Your Proper Polling Place

The one sure way to cast a vote that won't be counted is to cast it at the wrong polling place. Questions about your polling place? Check out GoVote.org and plug in your address. But remember, that only gives you a polling location. Many locations house multiple precincts. You have to find the table where your precinct picks up ballots. Polling locations have greeters this year to help you find your way.

If you try to vote and aren't on the list, it may be because you aren't at the right polling place or precinct table. So first off, check that. Polling staff are supposed to look your address up in the book if there are questions, but if the crowd swells, you might have trouble getting this done.

Whatever you do, if you aren't on the list do not cast a provisional ballot at that precinct unless you are sure it is the right one. Some poll workers were letting/encouraging this in '04. Remember, if you cast at the wrong precinct your ballot does not count.

3. If You Have Problems, Look Out for Voter Protection Observers.

While we don't have observers at every location, where we do they are there to help. We should have outside observers at lots of locations, and inside plus outside observers at a good many. They can help you resolve problems with voting if they arise.

4. Leave Your Campaign Gear Behind

The rule about campaign shirts/hats/buttons etc. isn't clear, which means poll workers will be enforcing it as they see fit. The base rule is no campaigning within 100 feet of the door to the polling location. Under some interpretations, wearing a candidate's paraphernalia is campaigning.

If you want to test the rule and have a well-connected team of lawyers ready to file a declaratory judgment action and get a judge on the phone for on on-the-spot ruling, by all means, be a test case. If not, understand that the presiding judge at the polling location has the last word unless you go to court. So the smart move is to go into the polling place sans Obama (or McCain) gear.

Yes, "Your Professor" at 216 said the opposite. One difference between Your Professor and the present instructor -- he says you can look it up; I actually do.

5. Vote.

Seriously. No matter what happens tomorrow, people will be talking about this election for decades. You want to be part of this.

6. Tell Your Story.


Wiki the Vote is compiling voting info with an eye toward improving the process. SoS Jennifer Brunner's website also encourages voters to log their experiences. Whatever doesn't go right will be a lot harder to solve if people don't know about it.

TNR Spotlights Jennifer Brunner

Just up on The New Republic's site is an article shadowing Ohio SoS Jennifer Brunner as she prepares for tomorrow's elections. Much of it is familiar to Ohioans -- chaos in 2004, Republican attacks on her neutrality, howling fantods about database mismatches. As the article notes, Brunner is now lining up her bucket brigade to douset any fires that flare tomorrow. A taste:

On the floor below Brunner's office, dozens of staffers in the Elections Division are recovering from months of GOP blasts while, at the same time, bracing themselves for Tuesday's swarms of voters and the hiccups or disasters they might bring. "We're preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best," says field leader Katherine Thomsen, who will coordinate polling site checks and conference calls on Tuesday to keep the secretary of state's office in the loop about what's happening on the ground.

One wing of the floor houses a "phalanx of lawyers," in one staffer's words, ready to handle any legal problems, while another is staffed by campaign finance officers still answering phone calls about possible problems with candidates' yard signs. Piles of filing boxes stuffed with election documents stretch down one wall in the floor's central hub, past cubicles where "paper jockeys" are busy with faxes and e-mails from local precincts.