Ohio

Ohio

Akron residents head to the polls today to decide the fate of the city’s mayor. Long time Mayor Don Plusquellic could be out of office as early as July, when the voted will be tabulated. This is the first recall in city history.

Read the story from the Akron Beacon Journal

The Hancock County Commissioners are scheduled to take a second look tomorrow at putting the future of the three-quarters of one per-cent sales tax before voters in November.

Read the story from WFIN 1330

Clark County Commissioners have approved a measure that will put a 1.00 mill renewal levy on the November ballot. The levy, which will benefit the Clark County portion of the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Clark, Greene and Madison counties, received the commissioners’ endorsement at their weekly meeting Tuesday, June 16.

Read the story from Springfield News-Sun

The chairman of the Ohio Jobs & Growth Committee announced Wednesday that the Ohio AFL-CIO is endorsing its plan to develop four casinos in the state.

Read the story from The Business Journal

Toledo mayor may be recalled

Wed, Jun 10 2009 — Source: Toledo Blade

Toledo voters will get to decide Nov. 3 whether to keep Mayor Carty Finkbeiner in charge of the city for the two months that will remain in his term, the Lucas County Board of Elections decided yesterday.

Read the story from the Toledo Blade

The petition drive for a proposed amendment to allow casinos in three Ohio cities continues after a judge barred signature collectors from misrepresenting the effect of the amendment. The leader of the ballot initiative petition drive has vowed to reinforce proper signature gathering instructions with its circulators.

A Mahoning County judge has declined to halt signature-gathering to put another casino issue on Ohio’s November ballot.

Common Pleas Judge James Evans on Friday ordered the Ohio Jobs and Growth Plan, which is collecting the signatures, to not misrepresent the contents of the proposed constitutional amendment, according to a statement from his office.

Read the story from Business Courier of Cincinnati

Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert is betting on the success of a proposed ballot initiative that would put casinos in several Ohio cities.

Gilbert, a chief investor in the proposal, said Wednesday that an initiative to collect more than 400,000 signatures required to put the issue on the November ballot is nearly complete. The signatures are due July 1.

Read the story from USA Today

Speed cameras on U.S. highways?

Thu, Jun 4 2009 — Source: CNN

Lawmakers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Montana and Mississippi failed to get a freeway speed camera measure onto a ballot, but points to Maryland as an example of lawmakers’ success. He says 13 states have specific laws banning freeway cameras, but he sees a natural progression from states using red-light cameras to using freeway speed cameras.

Read the story from CNN

Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic has filed an absentee ballot for his own recall election. He was joined in voting by several others who oppose the recall, most of them government officials. The election is June 23.

Read the story from the Dayton Daily News

The Ohio farm lobby and the Humane Society of the United States are girding for a fight over the confinement of farm animals.

The Washington-based society says it is confident that voters will side with animals, while farmers say the group’s real goal is to reduce consumption of animal products.

Read the story from the Columbus Dispatch

Meet Cincinnatians for Progress, a new organization with broad support from the city’s political establishment.

Its goal: to defeat the anti-streetcar measure and put the brakes on the steady stream of ballot measures that have second-guessed decisions Cincinnati City Council and Hamilton County commissioners in recent years.

Read the story from Business Courier

Supporters of a campaign to reduce the size of the Toledo City Council from 12 members to 9 have launched a petition drive to put the matter before voters this September. The group needs to collect signatures of 10 percent of the voters who voted in the 2007 council election, 4,600 signatures, to qualify for the ballot.

Read the story from the Toledo Free Press

An effort to recall Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner has collected almost 20,000 valid signatures to put the recall question on the Nov. 3rd ballot. 19,753 signatures were required to trigger the recall effort. If recalled, Finkbeiner will leave office with about two months left in his term.

Read the story from the Toledo Blade

A group of citizens attempting to recall the mayor of Akron is set to turn in signatures today. Recall supporters must have 3,179 valid signatures to trigger a recall election. If the signature threshold is met, the mayor will have five days to resign. If he doesn’t resign, a recall election will be scheduled for 40-60 days after.

Read the story on Ohio.com