Ohio voters brace for a trump Biden rematch [Music] welcome to Columbus on the record Joe Biden ran in 2020 as a transitional president apparently he wants it to be an eight-year transition Biden used a pre-produced video to make his re-election bid official this week his theme is to quote finish the job and protect the country from Donald Trump and his allies but you know around the country Maggie extremists we're lining up to take on those Bedrock freedoms cutting Social Security that you paid
for your entire life while cutting taxes from the very wealthy dictating what health care decisions women can make Banning books and telling people who they can love all while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote of course Joe Biden is in the midst of his 81st trip around the sun he would be 82 on inauguration day at 86 at the end of his term Derek clay at any other president approaching the end of his first term be no question but with Joe Biden's age there is a question what do
you think it is a question but it's an unfortunate question I mean we've essentially made this campaign about ageism and if we were in any other workplace if we brought ageism into the workplace or talked about it in any other form then we would be like how dare you talk about someone's age and deny them an opportunity to to to work and that's what we've made this campaign about or what the Republicans have attempted to make this campaign about the bottom line is the GOP knows that if there's a
Biden Trump reelection Biden is going to win and the ageism is a distraction Mike it is a factor though I mean this is a hard job president of the United States leader of the quote free world what do you think about that it's a very hard job and I think anybody would be concerned about his age even if he were a republican I'd be concerned about his age but I I disagree with Derek the Republicans are trying to do this maybe they are but the polls I've seen is a large amount of Democrats that did
not want Biden to run would prefer somebody else and I I can't think of any reason why unless they're they're quite concerned about his age it seems to me yeah Donald Trump is in his mid 70s it's not like he's like 50. you know I'm gonna point that out yeah um he's taking with Kamala Harris she is very prominent in that video there was some speculation he might switch running mates but that's obviously not going to happen now no not now but I think that you know maybe that was uh on design to b
e a comfort level like hey you know if something happens that I can't fulfill my term we've got this competent vice president here who you can count on and I think you know he was trying to evoke that maybe uh when he was doing that plus uh you know she's got a lot of experience and of herself so are you excited by Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee or are you accepting that he is a good candidate to run in 2022. listen I'm I would I would be sitting here lying to say if I didn't want to see wh
o all is out there right but Joe Biden is the best that we have right now and to switch to a different candidate you the public would have to learn that candidate again that that person would have to raise so much money in order to even be competitive I think the Republicans are banking on uh this ageism uh deflection to to be the demise of the president but Joe Biden has delivered us the infrastructure Bill and a number of other things that the GOP just hasn't been able to do Donald Trump Mike
has won Ohio by eight points in the past two cycles in which he's run 2016 and 2020. is there any chance he doesn't if if he is the GOP nominee any chance he doesn't carry Ohio again do you think uh well there's always a chance I I for one as you know hope he is not the Republican candidate he's not one of my favorite people by any anyways but I think if he runs that chances are he will win Ohio I mean Ohio's been eight points is a very solid lead and and again I don't think the president is goi
ng to add any to his 46 percent or whatever Trump may lose some with some Republicans that have had enough of him but I I don't think it would be as much as eight percent so I would think that if that's the two Biden and Trump the Trump will probably win Ohio although I would think probably right around the same eight percent he'll lose some and the president was um of course he Biden if he is the nominee which looks like he will be and he will not be on the ballot by himself he'll be on there w
ith Sherrod Brown Derek I mean how does that how does Biden influence you know the Sherrod Brown re-election bid a possible uh minimum wage question on the ballot redistricting on the ballot listen I think the the Democrats are fired up for a number of different reasons you know you you got gerrymandering that that's happened in the state you got the whole abortion issue so I think that there's going to be more reasons than just coming out to vote for the president and or uh our U.S senator the
bottom line is I think Senator Brown helps President Biden in the state do I think that Senator or President Biden can win Ohio if the election were held today not at all um but I do think that that Sherrod Brown being on the the ballot definitely helps the president okay uh less than four months after signing a law that makes them largely illegal Governor dewine says he now supports an August special election the midsummer vote would ask Ohioans if they want to make it harder to change the Cons
titution if it gets on the ballot and if voters approve a 60 margin would be required to pass a constitutional amendment the legislature has until May 10 to act in order to get the issue on an August ballot dewine support runs counter to four former governors Democrats dick Celeste and Ted Strickland as well as Republicans John Kasich and Bob Taft oppose the maneuvering to require a 60 threshold Joe Ingles you were the reporter who uh kind of grilled I guess in a polite way Mike dewine to get hi
m to answer the question would you support an August race what were the reasons why he would support changing his mind on this law so quickly he said that if lawmakers pass it he would sign it but he said basically he wants to get this issue behind him but we all know ideologically Governor dewine is very anti-abortion we also know that there is a petition being circulated this Summer that could put abortion rights on the November ballot and if there is a an August election and if this gets vote
d on a passes it would affect the passage rate that would be needed for that November issue so that's the big key here but did he voice any concern that an August vote to change the Constitution would not get the turnout it deserved such a major vote well you know he knows that he's he's said that before and so have all the people who are now backing it basically a lot of them have already said we know there's low turnout but this is important and we've got to have it in August anyway so like a
lot of folks well some Republicans even don't like this idea of an August vote don't like the idea of making it that much harder for voters to change the Constitution where do you come down on this well first of all I think that that the governor uh I don't know that he supports it but like Joe said he he said he would sign if it came his way so he will maybe that's just he didn't want to get involved but uh I think there'll be a large turnout because I think the pro-abortion people know exactly
what's going on that if this thing passes they need 60 percent and apparently polls show that it'll probably pass over 50 but it won't make 60. they know that and so I think those people will turn out in huge numbers to to defeat it and I think they will defeat it I think it'll come that way I to me it seems like sort of a silly idea I would like to have the 60 but it has nothing to do with abortion it's just I think changing the Constitution for all this stuff is constantly uh it's just not go
od it's so difficult to change the U.S Constitution and I think it should be but be that as it may I just think that there's some chicanery involved it's it's done for one purpose and that's to give them better odds to defeat the abortion issue in November and uh I I don't think it'll work either way Derek Governor Taft former Governor Taft said he's he doesn't he doesn't like the August election because it's too low a turnout for an important issue and he doesn't like the 60 threshold because h
e says it'll make the really hard to pass Bond issues borrowing the state won't be able to borrow much money because they'll have to get to the 60 and he pointed out that Economic Development Bond packages like his third Frontier might not have passed he's right about that and I mean those are some of the unintended consequences that could happen if this passes in August I happen to agree with Mike this is not going I don't think this is going to pass I think the people see the writing on the wa
ll um you know this is a huge waste of money uh as well I think they were talking about somewhere in the tune of 20 million dollars that it would take to do this special election um the the Board of Elections don't even like it so this is going to be one of those things where I think you are going to have you may have higher than higher than normal turnout for a special election but is still going to be low and I think it's going to it's not going to pass so are lawmakers Joe are they are they l
ooking at this the winds seem to blow against this you have former governors from both parties a lot of even Republicans in the legislature not so sure about this the house speaker is not sure about this it's an easy campaign against they're taking away your vote but they still there's still a good chance it may make it to the August ballot yeah there are 250 groups uh maybe even more who are who have already come out against this and said we will campaign against it and the lawmakers are seeing
this these groups are coming in to testify every day on this stuff and the thing is that they the lawmakers know that they need to do something or try to do something and they to get the agenda that they want passed and they're working behind the scenes so we don't know what that magic number is is it 59 votes they need is it 60 votes they need we don't know what exactly it is because there's some vacancies and this has never been addressed before but they are working behind the scenes to try e
verything they can to stop that November ballot yeah and they have until secretary of state says May 10th is the date if you want to have it in August you've got to have everything finalized by the first three first week and a half of May anyway um irony is a wonderful thing the backers of the 60 thresholds say it is to keep out of state special interest from trying to change the Constitution it came out in the dispatch that a conservative Mega donor is chipping in one million dollars to the PAC
supporting the August election and ironically enough he is from Wisconsin Richard Uline the mega donor from the Republican Party you can't write this stuff Derek new line is that the Box Company yes they sell the boxes they need to put all this stuff in the box and mail it out of the state right because it's a bad idea um it is not gonna I I predict that it's not gonna pass in August it's just a bad idea it's an insane amount of wasted money like out of state interest it's it's a reality in pol
itics I mean but to say this will keep out of state interest out is yeah it is ironic it's really sort of a foolish argument you're not going to keep it out anyway regardless of what happens in November the Democrats are going to have George Sarris and the Republicans are going to have it's the same thing I mean when they start when people from outside just County or state start contributing fairly serious money not huge amounts but five thousand here ten thousand there the County Prosecutors ra
ces and things of that nature it's just uh it's not like it used to be and they're not going to be able to stop it Joe is ready to talk of another maneuver putting another question on the ballot there was some speculation on this show a couple of weeks ago that if this doesn't fly maybe they can get 60 votes in the house and then a super majority in the Senate to put a competing Constitutional Amendment on the ballot in November one that would more or less restrict abortion rights and there has
been talk about that but right now it seems like all the big eggs are in that 60 basket but we also know that house Speaker Jason Stevens is not saying he's going to move that out anytime soon and the big question becomes will it get taken to the floor for a vote yeah yeah because it could force a vote regardless all right well watch they got till May 10th the state budget lays out how the state will spend 88 billion taxpayer dollars over the next two years the approval process has moved to the
Senate after the house passed its version this week the house plan includes some tax cuts it increases minimum teachers salaries is it increases funding for schools it also expands the state's private school voucher program but it does not make the program Universal as many school choice supporters want Joe Ingles it's a bipartisan budget Democrats and Republicans are both praising it it's amazing how that happens when there's a lot of money yeah well we're flush with cash at the state house rig
ht now well and and a big thing was that this plan actually funds the public school plan the the fair what is it fair school funding plan I think it's called this actually funds that and that was huge for Democrats they really wanted that it also has a lot of things that Governor dewine wanted there's a lot of funding for various programs to help people who are cash strapped or you know young parents the the tax situation in there is not what some of the hard-line tax people wanted which was a c
omplete flat tax so that's not you know it's not killing it you know for the the Democrats so you've got a situation where there's a lot of people that like a lot of stuff in it now everyone will say it's not my dream budget so there you go but uh it does have a lot for everyone the flat tax by conservatives wanted a flat tax two and three quarters percent which would have been a pretty good reduction for the top tax bracket they claim it will spur Economic Development what do you think about th
at is it a good idea to have one tax rate for everybody or have it graduated well that's a tough question Mike I would think I know what they did they reduced the taxes if I remember the numbers right for people everybody pays the same amount two point something percent up to ninety thousand dollars I think uh but I I am a believer I fly tax for everybody I know I don't think that's a good idea I people who make a lot of money and uh they need to pay their fair share of taxes which is going to b
e more it's going to be more than people that don't make a lot of money and I think that's as it should be and you look at the numbers uh I saw something the other day on the U.S budget and I it's something like three or four percent of the population pay like 25 percent of the taxes that's a huge difference but I don't think that's unfair so for somebody making a million dollars a year to pay three percent and some guy makes twenty thousand a year to pay three percent or whatever I don't think
that's right they might want to make it up to 90 000 that's fine but anything else I think a tax rate should be higher yeah the progressives argue that that three or four percent does make 25 of the income of the United States and that's why they get taxed on that way it will be yeah this seems to be a tax cut that does help the lower and middle income folks first Eric yeah it it definitely helps but um I think you know agreeing with with Mike I'm not sure that a flat tax is going to be fair for
everyone uh and you know do you get into a situation where you're starting to raise that in years to come and what what does that look like so you know we'll we'll see where that goes but I'm not sure if the the flat tax is the way to go the education funding is interesting that's a source of controversy the backpack bill this is the one where every student every family in Ohio would be eligible for a voucher to attend a private school taxpayer-funded voucher uh estimates came in it would cost
a billion dollars a year didn't make it into the house budget is that why he said was it would that did that scare that was huge uh because if you uh fully fund that backpack bill then something's got to get out of there and uh you know there were other things that they that the certain lawmakers wanted to fund more than the backpack bill so but there's still a lot of pressure out there and we've got to remember it has to go to the Senate and the Senate President Matt Huffman has been a traditio
nally he's been a big backer of these vouchers and Charters and that sort of thing so it'll be interesting to see where it goes from here Mike you're a big supporter of school choice is this a good compromise where I think that the new plan in the house if you're a family of four making 135 000 a year you would be eligible for a private school voucher but families above that no is that is that a good compromise rather than giving it to everybody well I think it's a reasonable compromise I you kn
ow people making you know as you say I think that's right 135 000 or so if you're making more than that uh it would seem to me most people could afford to pay it for themselves uh so I think it's a good idea I would like to to have had that in where everybody gets it but I think this is a reasonable compromise what do you think raising income level offering some vouchers for those folks is that fair who knows yeah I mean the bottom line is you know the voucher program started started out for fam
ilies that really couldn't have couldn't afford you know to to uh go to private schools and whatnot but now it seems like everybody is is wanting a voucher why not just make public edu fun public education at a level that it deserves and you may not have to even worry about these vouchers you know when Jason Stevens won the speakership in a surprise he needed the support of Democrats enrollment sort of watching to see is there they also there was no deal there was no quid pro quote there was no
promises made we've all been kind of watching to see well maybe he promised this to Democrats does this budget Derek give you any idea of what he might have promised those democrats for their support back in January well what I what I do know is that one of the reasons why the Democrats actually put their votes to speaker Stevens is because they felt like they could work with him um you know I know that Democrats have actually been in the room for the first time in in several years on during the
budget so that's not really happened before they usually went into the room May made the deal and then the Democrats found out about it now the Democrats are actually in the room while the deals are being made so you know even though the the Republic Republicans have a super majority uh there's a little more cooperation in that and they know that they need Democrat votes to make this to make this budget happen and Joe said and Joe they said the Democrats that education was a key issue they thou
ght they could work with him and it seems like they got their way in this in this budget sure does I mean but you know Allison Russo who is the leader of the minority Democrats in the Ohio house also said you know before we go for Universal vouchers maybe we should have Universal free School meals so I mean there's a different agenda there with the Democrats okay the house budget also includes money to study whether the state should move the Ohio State Fair the fair has been at its current locat
ion just north of downtown Columbus for 137 years but it's a very valuable piece of property and talk of using that land for other purposes surfaces everyone once in a while the provision was put in the budget fairly late in the process who put it there is a mystery as first reported by the dispatch Columbus area lawmakers called the move ridiculous Mike Miller you know I want to say you were at the first state fair in the fairgrounds but you've you had the longest view here on the table um what
do you think is that a good spot for the fair should we look at moving it well I don't know why I'm looking at moving it I mean I part of the as I understand it if the bill says it has to be a contiguous County to Franklin if they move it so they're going to keep it in the center of the state which makes all the sense to work because people do come to the fair from you know outside the county Cleveland Cincinnati OH that sort of thing I don't have any problem looking at it and if they really th
ink that it's better to have it in you know some contiguous County close to Columbus it doesn't bother me do I think that's going to happen no I don't think they'll move it it's been too many years and people even if they think it might improve they're used to a certain way of doing things and so I I just don't think anything's going to happen to it the fear is used for much more than just those few weeks in August or Late July but that piece of property is next to some some neighborhoods that h
ave been struggling it could be used as a as a job center a manufacturing plant maybe a retail Center might it be worth looking at using that piece of property for something else you know there's nothing wrong with looking at it and studying it but the bottom line is the fair has been there for 160 plus years you have some other major uh events that come to the fair like the the U.S Quarter Horse Congress that comes there that generates millions and millions of dollars for the central Ohio regio
n so you know moving moving the Ohio State Fair I'm not sure if that's the the best way to be utilizing our time at the state house but there's nothing wrong with studying it one thing I will say is that the fairgrounds could probably use a a little a little makeup right so if part of that study is repurposing how the State Fairgrounds looks then I think it's well worth it now Governor dewine wants to do just that he wants to renovate the fairgrounds he wants to build new buildings tear down bui
ldings renovate them really make it look good for not just the fair but the year-round attractions the house is saying well maybe we should move it is this another squabble between the governor's office and the legislature or are they just saying we're not going to spend this money until we know we want it to be there I think maybe it's just a little bit of a bargaining chip you know just to kind of play with here more than anything I I always find it curious though when we find things that occu
r in legislation and no one wants to stand up and say hey I put that in there this happens all the time at the state house and if it's a you know if it's something that really should be given serious consideration you would think one of the lawmakers would be out there beating the drum for it any any and you can't we don't want to speculate but let's do it anyway any educated guesses as to who it might have been I'm not even going there Mike it's safe to say it probably is not a Columbus represe
ntative or maybe you never know I don't know I don't know there could be somebody in leadership but I mean it just when you when you when people drive by 71 and they see all the vacant lots that has to give them pause they don't realize what's going on inside the Expo Center and things like that I mean the bottom line is you could you could repurpose the the where the fairgrounds look without moving the fair I do think that there could be some other hot you know some some hotels there uh there c
ould be a convention space there so there's ways to look at this thing and and kind of repurpose what's there right now I think that's what governor dewine wants he wants to reconfigure it building parking garages so there's less surface slots maybe open up some of that they've talked about that Recreation space up there where the historic Crew Stadium is and right using that space as well oh well 137 more years of the fair that's what we predict here anyway let's get to our final off the Record
parting shots perhaps some other predictions for the week ahead of Mike Miller well as I said earlier I I don't think this bill to change the constitutional percentage of 60 is going to get on the ballot I don't think it will happen but if it does it'll so come we'll know May 10th whether it's going to get on in although August whether it passes but I I think at any event when the when the November election comes around it's going to be the same 50 plus one winning number the spotlight will be
on Columbus when America's Mayors will Converge on Columbus in June for the U.S conference mayors that all the America all the Mayors from across the country are coming here uh June 2nd through the 5th and it's going to be a great opportunity to showcase city of Columbus all right Joe most of wosu's listeners and viewers know that Ann Fisher is retiring soon but also Joan Duffy is retiring and I would like to say that four decades Joan has been behind the scenes she's been encouraging to everyon
e at wosu she organizes everything and people are going to just going to miss their Sunny personality so I want to wish best wishes to Joan and and congratulations on your neck and good luck on your next chapter indeed Joan Duffy is the first smiling face that many of us saw on our first day of work here we will definitely miss that smiling face in the weeks and months and years ahead we have great political discussions here on wosu but there is one thing that can make them even better and that'
s beer craft beer we'll combine the two as we bring back politics at a pint in about a week and a half it'll take place at seventh Sun Brewing on North 4th street in Italian Village on Thursday May 11th from six to eight I'll be there along with Ann Fisher so please join us get your tickets at wosu.org events it should be a good time and it's nice to have that event back that is Columbus on the record for this week continue the discussion on Facebook watch us anytime at our website or on the PBS
Video app I'm Mike Thompson have a good week foreign [Music]
Comments
😳🤣