Ted Strickland

Nobody likes a good narrative better than me, but at somepoint the truth has to trump the legend (look out, Gov. Palin).

Paul Hackett is a darling of the DailyKos crowd and many Ohio progressive bloggers , even though politically, he's much more conservative that they are.  The sole reason for this is because of his performance in the low turnout special election in which he almost defeated Jean Schmidt to fill the remainder of Rob Portman's term.

The very next year, after flirting with running for the Senate instead of a rematch, Hackett dropped out of politics almost entirely.  The Democratic nominee, Dr. Victoria Wulsin, actually outperformed Hackett and came even closer to defeating Schmidt as an incumbent in a regular election than Hackett did in an open seat race during a low turnout special election.

Beyond that, he said that Sherrod Brown was too liberal to defeat Mike DeWine.  And was proven wrong.  He then endorsed Rosemary Palmer over the consensus challenger candidate to Dennis Kucinich.  Palmer performed worse than just about any other challenger.

Then Hackett decided this Spring that he had to denigrate Wulsin's chances this cycle.  As a result, I said on this blog that I was officially done with Hackett.

Treasurer and Attorney General candidate Rich Cordray and former congressman Louis Stokes were Grand Marshals in place of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

On Monday at the 11th District Labor Day Parade, an event long hosted by Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and this year co-hosted with the North Shore AFL/CIO, there were many moving tributes to the late congresswoman, large and small, formal and informal.

Gov. Ted Strickland and Louis Stokes chatting after the parade.

Near the reviewing stand, while the parade was still widing up, I had the chance to speak with Grand Marshals Rich Cordray and Louis Stokes and Gov. Ted Strickland briefly about their sense of the occasion. Here is what Congressman Stokes had to say:

It brings back a lot of nostalgia for me to come back to this parade and picnic, which I started 37 years ago. At that time we were the 21st Congressional District of Ohio, and we later became the 11th Congresssional District.

And I'm so proud that since my retirement Stephanie continued the tradition and the institution of this parade an picnic. So it has now had 37 continuous years, and this community loves this event, they love Stephanie.

This is a great celebration in her honor, and she left us another great legacy.

When I spoke to Gov. Strickland, he related the event to the presidential election:

Well, this is a great day, a great parade. The last time I talked to Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones we talked about this parade. She was very proud of the parade, and the turnout. She was very proud of the community and of the district she represented.

I think that we're doing the right thing by being here today and continuing this wonderful tradition. I think it is exactly what Stephanie would have wanted us to do.

But having said that, it is a bittersweet day. Because we are having a good time, fellowshipping with each other, it's a beautiful, beautiful day in this part of Ohio, and yet Stephanie isn't with us, and that's ... that's almost surreal, that's difficult to comprehend, because certainly she was such a vital part of this event, and of this community.

But I think that Stephanie would have wanted us to continue forward and that's what I think people are going to do. I was asked earlier today if I thought that the loss of Stephanie may result in a lesser turnout for Barack Obama, and I said well, perhaps just the opposite, because coming to the polls to vote for Barack could be one last thing that the people who loved Stephanie could do for her, and to honor her. So I would hope that the turnout would be even greater, as a way to say how much this community loved and respected Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

Rich Cordray said that sharing the occasion with Congressman Stokes will be a special memory for him:

This is a really special day. It is poignant because of the memory of Stephanie, but for me personally it is special because that had picked me out before to co-Grand Marshal this parade with Congressman Lou Stokes. I had the chance to sit and talk with him in the car, and to get out with him periodically and walk and try to keep up with him is something that will be a long memory for me, long after this campaign and long after any office.

Many more photographs from the parade on the ODB FLickr Page.

A couple weeks ago I posted about Sick Days Ohio and the decision by Gov. Strickland to oppose the bill.

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I have been saying that this is a bad piece of legislation ever since it came about. I agree with the Governor that this is the wrong time but more importantly the wrong bill. In addition, I took Lowquality Ohio to task for abandoning its position in opposing the bill instead moving to neutral.

Yesterday I was forwarded the following email:

Special Update, Thursday, September 4, 2008, 9:19 am

Sick Leave Backers To Pull Issue From Ballot

A coalition pushing a ballot initiative that would have provided seven days of paid sick leave for certain Ohio workers said Thursday it will remove the issue from the fall ballot.

Service Employees International Union District 1199 President Becky Williams said the Coalition for Healthy Families will ask to have the proposal taken off the ballot.

Ms. Williams said the decision “was not easy nor made lightly,” but was reached after “it became clear that a shrill and vitriolic ballot campaign marred by misinformation and disinformation would be impossible to avoid.”

So that's what was being annonuced at 9:15 today. From the Columbus Dispatch:

Ohioans for Healthy Families, the group that backed the paid sick-day amendment, said today that it has asked that the proposal be pulled off the Nov. 4 ballot.

Officials with the Serice Employees International Union were holding a press conference this morning with Gov. Ted Strickland and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to announce the decision.

Strickland and Brown said they would push for a separate law requiring paid sick days.

SIEU District 1199 President Becky Williams said the union was "absolutely optimistic" about the  possibility of a national sick-day law. "I believe we are all committed to make it not just the law of  Ohio, but the law of the land."

Brown promised that a sick-day law would be "part of a Democratic agenda starting in January."  He said, "We know this works and needs to be done nationally."

The elected officials, all Democrats, said they were counting on the election of Barack Obama, who supports a national sick-day proposal,  to provide the impetus to pass the legislation.

This just in:

"A coalition pushing a ballot initiative that would have provided seven days of paid sick leave for certain Ohio workers said Thursday it will remove the issue from the fall ballot.

Service Employees International Union District 1199 President Becky Williams said the Coalition for Healthy Families will ask to have the proposal taken off the ballot.

Ms. Williams said the decision "was not easy nor made lightly," but was reached after "it became clear that a shrill and vitriolic ballot campaign marred by misinformation and disinformation would be impossible to avoid."

This ballot issue had polled very well and was expected to draw Democratic-leaning voters to the polls. Barack Obama has indicated his support for the idea of madatory paid sick leave. However, Gov. Ted Strickland announced his opposition to the version contained in the ballot issue after his attempts to negotiate a compromise version failed, and a massive and well-founded opposition campaign was in the works.

UPDATE: More from the press release after the break.