Blackwell Wrong Candidate for Ohio Governor
By Doug Pepple (Letter to the Editor)
In last week's Observer, columnist Christopher Thomas sung the praises of Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Blackwell. In particular, Thomas spoke very favorably of Blackwell's proposed Tax and Expenditure Limitation (TEL) amendment. Thomas dismissed Plain Dealer columnist Brent Larkins' assertion that "(TEL) passage could...make it extremely difficult to raise money for schools" as "fear mongering." Apparently, Thomas (not to mention Blackwell) refuses to learn from other states' mistakes.
Blackwell's TEL sounds great on the surface — and that's the biggest reason why Blackwell is touting it so heavily. He hopes that Ohioans will give him their vote based on a knee-jerk reaction to simplistic descriptions of his ideas without reading the fine print. — Doug Pepple |
Colorado passed a Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) in 1992, and very soon afterward started experiencing a dramatic drop in the quality of its most critical public services. Colorado's spending on higher education in 2004 was 38 percent lower than spending in 1992. Colorado dropped from 35th (in 1992) among states, for higher education spending relative to personal income, to 48th (in 2004). Colorado dropped from 20th (in 1995) amongst states, for giving on-time vaccination to children, to 50th in (2003). (See "Flawed by Design" at www.policymattersohio.org for more information.) As a result, Colorado voters overwhelmingly passed Referendum C, a ballot issue that suspended their TABOR's spending limits. As a result, last November, Colorado voters overwhelmingly passed Referendum C, a ballot issue that suspended their TABOR's spending limits.
Blackwell's TEL sounds great on the surface — and that's the biggest reason why Blackwell is touting it so heavily. He hopes that Ohioans will give him their vote based on a knee-jerk reaction to simplistic descriptions of his ideas without reading the fine print. Even if the TEL ultimately fails, it will have served its purpose — for Blackwell — just as his limelight-capitalizing press conferences and "public service announcements" did during the 2004 presidential election.
This is symptomatic of a larger problem with such a candidate. Kenneth Blackwell is the ultimate political chameleon, with a long history of changing his political stripes (and even his political party!) to suit his own self-advancement. To quote The Free Press columnist Bob Fitrakis, "[Blackwell has] metamorphed from a charter reform Democrat, into a Carter Democrat, then a New Democrat, then an Independent, then a moderate Republican, then a conservative Republican, and is now the state's leading reactionary right-wing Republican." If such a licentious candidate is willing to say anything and do anything to get into office, who's to say what he will do when he gets there?
