Mike Check

“Reign of Terror,” “When A ‘No’ Vote Literally Means No Vote,” and “Trash Maps:” What’s Making Headlines With Republican #OHGOV Candidates This Week

November 8, 2021

Good Monday afternoon, and welcome back to Mike Check, your weekly source of all the infighting, conspiracy spewing and corruption that’s making headlines in and around the Republican governor’s race and Mike DeWine’s statehouse, courtesy of the Ohio Democratic Party.

As the gubernatorial race heats up, Republicans are in disarray with Mike DeWine’s popularity dropping by the day, facing attacks both inside and outside of the Republican Party, and having to answer for the largest public corruption scandal in state history. It’s hard to keep up with all of the corruption and mess surrounding Mike DeWine and the GOP gubernatorial primary, so here are some stories you may have missed:

ON OFFENSE. The Browns and the Bengals weren’t the only ones battling it out on Sunday. Ohioans watching the game saw an ad from the Renacci campaign that took viewers of the Browns-Bengals matchup inside the other messy and divisive game that is the Republican gubernatorial primary. Viewers saw this ad targeting DeWine’s lack of leadership in Ohio, before going extreme and saying his “reign of terror must come to an end.” All of this as Renacci tweeted just after the ad played that DeWine “shut down” football last year. It’s just the opening salvo of what is sure to be a messy primary that will play out over the airwaves and across Ohio.

LITERALLY A “NO” VOTE. At a recent event, Jim Renacci told a crowd of Republican activists not to vote for Mike DeWine if he gets through the Republican primary, showing just how apart the GOP base is from DeWine. A few days later, Renacci went on to admit he did not vote for Mike DeWine in 2018 at all. When asked if he would consider a “none of the above” box on a ballot forcing a special election runoff, Renacci said “I didn’t like him [DeWine] in 2018 and I left it blank. All right? That was my none of the above vote.” Seems bad!

MAPMAKER, MAPMAKER, YOU MADE TRASH MAPS. Since blatantly unconstitutional and gerrymandered maps now under lawsuits weren’t enough, and Republicans including Mike DeWine couldn’t handle the constitutional responsibility of doing their jobs, Ohio Republicans got a chance to draw lines on paper last week. This time for congressional districts. Hint, they didn’t do a good job. The “map” proposed by Republicans is, in fact, nakedly partisan and rigs Ohio for Republicans. So, did Mike DeWine step in on this map to fight for what Ohioans demanded at the ballot box? When asked, DeWine said he’s pretty sure the maps “won’t fly.” But if we’re betting, DeWine will follow his own precedent and just sign the maps anyway because DeWine will always put his political ambitions over the needs of Ohio voters.

Thanks for catching up with us, that’s all the Mike Check we’ve got for this week. If you have questions my email is ckeir@ohiodems.org. Have a great week!