Citizens not Politicians is a Democracy Issue
State Issue One, also known as the “Citizens Not Politicians” amendment is a democracy issue. A recent Scioto Post letter to the editor erroneously framed Issue One as a financial issue. Hmmm…. Strange that our Republican legislators had no problem finding $20 million for Rep. Brian Stewart’s failed August ’23 special election, which Stewart’s own internal documents revealed was all about making sure that the November ’23 pro-choice amendment, as well as the Citizens not Politicians amendment never made it to the ballot. Strange also that our Republican legislators accepted truckloads of bribe cash to pass HB6 which forces us citizens to spend more truckloads of cash to bail out two obsolete coal burning power plants poisoning our atmosphere.
Our current Republican legislators are illegitimately elected from districts creatively engineered, by these selfsame legislators, to perpetuate an ongoing Republican stranglehold on the Ohio legislature. The fox is set up to design the hen house. The proof is in the numbers. Ohio is roughly 50/50 or 52/48 Republican/ Democratic counting registered voters. Yet 67 of 99 of our House seats are solidly Republican, the Senate similarly so. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled multiple, multiple times that these Republican legislator drawn districts were unconstitutional.
Bottom line, it is proven we cannot trust legislators to pick their voters, rather than voters picking their legislators. Democracy is worth the cost it takes to protect it. If we pay a non-partisan, non-politician , non fox-designing-the-hen-house board to fairly draw our districts then our money was well-spent, compared to continuing to pay Republican legislators to cheat.
Two last critical points: Republican Frank LaRose’s language describing the Citizens not Politicians amendment is sickeningly , jaw droppingly dishonest and completely misleading. We must also elect Ohio Supreme Court justices Donnelly, Stewart and Forbes or risk having an Ohio Supreme Court, that like our US Supreme Court, rubber stamps undemocratic authoritarianism.
Brad Cotton
Executive Committeeman, Pickaway County Democratic Party
