**** More and more people in central Ohio are starting to question whether we need a former bank lobbyist, Republican Steve Stivers, to go to Washington. Stivers is a Republican candidate running against U.S. Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15th-Dem). Kilroy has gone out of her way to vote for legislation to help and protect her constituents. Stivers, on the other hand, has worked to help and protect banks. Which candidate do you think would protect you from predatory lending, unfair bank charges, and consumer protection?????
Here is an article from Roll Call (August 4, 2008):
...That race pits Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy (D) against Steve Stivers (R), who was vice president of government relations at Bank One in Columbus until 2003 when he became a state Senator.
“Steve Stivers’ career as a lobbyist is a central theme in this race because Central Ohio residents are looking for real answers to the serious economic problems that have been caused by too much lobbyist influence in the state and federal government,” Kilroy’s communications director, Brad Bauman, said in an e-mail. “It simply cuts to the core of his credibility. ... He spends a lifetime advocating for banking deregulation and then wants to tell people in Ohio how he’s gonna help fix the mortgage crisis, people simply don’t buy it.”...
Do we really need someone to protect those Wall Street bankers?
>>> According to an opinion piece in the Plain Dealer, Republican Jon Husted, candidate for Ohio Secretary of State and recently embroiled in a residency controversy, has started to sound just like former Ohio Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell.
In a recent fundraising letter, Husted looks very partisan, says writer Mark Naymik:
....now he's exploiting the episode to raise money.
Husted mentions Brunner by name eight times, claims she has ties to left-wing special interest groups and suggests she is a friend of the now-infamous ACORN community organizing group.
....If Husted truly believes Democrats can't be trusted on voting issues, he is going to have a hard time making nonpartisan decisions if he's elected in November 2010....
Husted seems cocky because of his residency win in the Republican dominated Ohio Supreme Court. Let me remind Husted that Ohioans do not want to go back to the days of Kenneth Blackwell when the right to vote was difficult to exercise because of games played with voting machines and counting ballots.