Ohio’s top presidential debate search topic stands out from other states: Capitol Letter

Rotunda Rumblings

The heart of it all: In forty-nine states, abortion was the top-searched political topic during Tuesday night’s presidential candidate debate. But Ohioans had their own queries. As Andrew Tobias writes, Buckeye State residents’ top search topic was immigration, which likely was prompted by debate viewers scratching their heads after former president Donald Trump falsely asserted that migrants there are eating people’s cats and dogs.

Father’s plea: The father of an 11-year-old boy who was killed in a 2023 school bus crash denounced “morally bankrupt” Republican politicians for using his son’s death for political gain and begged them to stop using his son as “a political tool,” Sabrina Eaton writes. Speaking at a Tuesday night Springfield City Commission meeting, Nathan Clark said he wished the crash that killed his son, Aiden, had been caused by a 60-year-old white man instead of a Haitian immigrant because then “the incessant group of hate spewing people would leave us alone.” “They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis, and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members,” Clark said. “However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio.”

Place your bets? New Ohio Senate legislation would legalize online casino gambling, or iGaming, allowing each of the state’s four casinos and seven racinos to set up websites and apps that offer online poker, slots and other games. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, Senate Bill 312 seeks to make Ohio the ninth U.S. state to legalize iGaming, though its chances of passage are still unclear.

Gold standard: Ohio’s Frank LaRose was one of six secretaries of state from across the country who traveled to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday for a House Administration Committee hearing about November’s election. “You can make elections both convenient and secure,” the Columbus Republican told the committee. “We can make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. That’s what we’ve done in Ohio. That’s one of the reasons why we’re nationally recognized as a gold standard for elections administration.”

Pick up the case pace: LaRose’s office has asked Attorney General Dave Yost to take over hundreds of cases of suspected election-law violations, as county prosecutors so far have only filed charges against 12 of the 633 people LaRose’s office referred to them. “We don’t necessarily expect all 633 referrals to lead to criminal charges, but only 12 out of 633 shows a second set of eyes might be needed here to determine whether prosecution of these crimes is justified,” wrote Hun Yi, director of investigations for the Ohio secretary of state’s public integrity division, in a letter to Yost quoted in a release. The release didn’t say how many of the 12 criminal cases that have been filed resulted in convictions.

Master’s of none: False assertions about Republican U.S. Senate nominee Bernie Moreno’s academic resume have popped up in multiple places over the past 13 years. As Marty Schladen of the Ohio Capital Journal reports, Moreno’s November 2011 application to open a Florida car dealership stated incorrectly that he held an MBA from the University of Michigan, as did Moreno’s Cleveland Foundation website bio when he first joined the foundation’s board in 2014. A 2018 Cleveland State University bio, as well as the website of a Moreno-owned Mercedes-Benz dealership in North Olmsted, asserted he earned multiple degrees from Michigan. A spokeswoman for Moreno (who holds a single bachelor’s degree in business from That School Up North) blamed the dealership application claim on an unnamed staffer and said Moreno never told the Cleveland Foundation he held an MBA.

$50 million and counting: The Ohio Division of Cannabis Control reported another $10.6 million in recreational sales for the week of Aug. 25 through Saturday, the beginning of the Labor Day holiday weekend. In all $54.6 million in product has been sold to adult-use customers. Since sales began Aug. 6, 689,034 receipts have been rung up at dispensaries.

Full Disclosure

Five things we learned from the Jan. 2, 2024 ethics disclosure filed by Bradley Lacko of Amherst, the Republican nominee for Ohio House District 53, about his 2023 finances:

1. Lacko made $53,000 in gross income last year from working as a truck driver.

2. At some point in 2023, Lacko owed more than $1,000 to Firelands Federal Credit Union and 7 17 Credit Union.

3. He’s a trustee for the Lorain County Farm Bureau.

4. His only listed investment worth more than $1,000 was an Ohio deferred compensation retirement account.

5. He owned two properties in Lorain County (legislative candidates aren’t required to list their personal residence or property used for personal recreation).

On The Move

The National Council of Teachers of English announced Honesty for Ohio Education, a coalition that is fighting ring-wing influences in education, will receive its National Intellectual Freedom Award honorable mention at a ceremony during its annual convention in Boston on Nov. 23.

Straight From The Source

“The Republican candidate for president’s remarks about Haitian — meaning Black — immigrants in Ohio were barbaric, bombastic and beneath the dignity of someone aspiring to hold the highest office in the land. People are struggling, but these outrageous and racist lies are an insult to our Ohio communities — including the ones I represent here in Congress.”

– U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat, denouncing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s comments about Haitian immigrants to Ohio during a Wednesday U.S. House Agriculture Committee hearing.

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