Two weeks ago, Gov. John Kasich asked the group to take the referendum off the November ballot, and to sit down and talk about the issues. That did not happen. Tuesday was the deadline for taking the issue off the ballot. It came and went.
“We told the governor that he needed to call the legislature back in and repeal the entire bill. And then we would be happy to sit down and have future conversations with him,” Fazekas said. “Unfortunately, they chose not to do that. And so we will not be making any changes in court. We will be heading toward the ballot box in November.”
Fazekas said the public has responded in a positive manner about repealing the law.
“The enthusiasm has been really overwhelming,” Fazekas said. “We had more than 10,000 volunteers who were out circulating those petitions and collecting the 1.3 million signatures that we turned in. And all of those volunteers have now transitioned over into getting out and canvassing, knocking on doors, making phone calls, talking to their friends and family. We have been out knocking on doors for about a month now. We were at over a hundred events last weekend. So the enthusiasm is really high, and people are really excited to have an opportunity to vote no on Issue 2.”
Fazekas said We Are Ohio is busy urging people to turn out and vote. She said information on events in this area is available at www.weareohio.com.
The Scioto County Democratic Party is calling for people to join them in the River Days Parade on Saturday to support labor and repeal of Senate Bill 5. The SCDP said the group will assemble between 9 and 10 a.m. at Spartan Stadium. The party will also hold a Labor Day rally at 10 a.m. with speakers present to discuss SB5.
Secretary of State Jon Husted is predicting between 3 million and 3.5 million voters will turn out for that election.
Kasich’s office indicated they had not had communication with We Are Ohio on Tuesday.
FRANK LEWIS may be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 232, or flewis@heartlandpublications.com.
You must be one of those Steve Hayes' CAVE people speaking in Tounges?
Ohio Tax Payers are the ones all concerns should be addressed to. Not some elected official.
Hopefully someday soon everyone will understand that all Americans need to follow one socially and morally acceptable retirement age and retirement terms (regardless of how long you worked). That is... no more keeping your job after retiring. That shuts out the next generation; in these tough economic times for years to come.
Hopefully someday soon everyone will understand that certain municipal worker groups must never have given given to them certain vehicle assets as a collective bargained benefit. (such as redundant police car fleets.)
Hopefully someday soon everyone will see that our young students must sigularly come first as to what we can do for them instead of what can be done for us (or a few). Everyone knows the sad shape of what we are pushing out school doors in this ever changing technical world. We need to be able to change and adapt quickly; not bound to some behind the scenes made agreement between public officials and a minority group of working adults.