The Ohio Secretary of State Race of 2010

Update 10/29/10:


I now endorse Charlie Earl for Ohio Secretary of State based on in the information I received from Principled Policy Yahoo! Group concerning Mr. Earl's support of an Ohio Personhood Amendment. 
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Maryellen O'Shaughnessy (Democrat)

This woman is endorsed by a bunch of anti-Christian death-loving perverts, including the pro-abortion group EMILY's List, and several sodomite groups, including Dayton Area Stonewall Democrats, Equality Ohio, Stonewall Democrats of Central Ohio, and Stonewall Democrats of Summit County. The Buckeye Firearms Association gives her an F.

Jon Husted (Republican)

According to Husted's website, "As Speaker of the House, Jon Husted fought to preserve opening prayer before House session. Husted protected guest pastor prayer, and in a memo to the House Clerk stated that as “the leader of this esteemed chamber, I will not allow our prayers to be censored.” After questions about the policy arose, Husted stood strong on the principles of free speech and religious tolerance by protecting the important tradition of reflection and guidance through prayer."

His website also says he opposes using tax dollars to fund or promote abortion.

However, Mr. Husted was the state campaign manager for pro-abortion Jennette Bradley's campaign. When a bill was introduced in the Ohio legislature to ban all abortions, Mr. Husted, who was then the Speaker of the House, did not support the bill and said he would not schedule a hearing for it. Only after the bill's sponsor, Tom Brinkman, made a deal with Mr. Husted did Mr. Husted schedule one hearing. Mr. Husted promised Mr. Brinkman that he would schedule another hearing, but he never did. (I know this because Mr. Brinkman told me.)

According to Chris Littleton, President of the Ohio Liberty Council, Husted’s other fiscally irresponsible and market-inhibiting votes include increased regulation in the mortgage lending bill, short term loans, a vote for the Commercial Activity Tax, and irresponsible budgets. According to the Buckeye Institute, during Husted's time as Speaker of the House, 2005 to 2009, spending increased an average of $3 billion per year. In 2010, Husted voted yes for the corporate welfare program called Third Frontier.

Charlie Earl (Libertarian)

Mr. Earl is a former State Representative. He professes to be a God-fearing Christian.

His website says "Charlie Earl is dedicated to the principle that the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Ohio provide the fundamental basis for self governance in our state and in our nation. He believes, further, that any law, action, rule or regulation that violates either Constitution should not be implemented or enforced. In addition, Charlie pledges that he will not willingly engage in any activity as Secretary of State for Ohio that does not conform with both Constitutions."

Mr. Earl supports an Ohio Personhood Amendment to guarantee legal protection to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being. When I asked him if he would issue a business "license" to an abortion facility, he says "I will NOT do anything as Ohio SoS that violates either
Constitution, and that includes the issuing of permits or licenses for any entity that takes life."

Mr. Earl's website says "Dedicated to enforcing free, fair and efficient elections, Charlie will strive to insure that every legal state citizen who is registered to vote can rest assured that her/his vote will be counted fairly and efficiently... and once for each election."

And "as Secretary of State, Charlie will address efforts to attain ballot status in a pro-active manner. In other words, the "benefit of the doubt" will always be in favor of the petitioner rather than a stance that assumes all petitions are corrupt, inadequate or incomplete."

Also, "As Secretary of State, Charlie Earl will have a seat on the Apportionment Board I the body responsible for redrawing legislative districts.... As a member of a third party, the Libertarian Party, Charlie can play a pivotal role in the redistricting process. He will, in effect, be the swing vote that assures that NO backroom deals or incumbent-protection districts prevail."

I ENDORSE CHARLIE EARL for Ohio Secretary of State!
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Original Post:

I don’t know yet who I am going to vote for in this race.

I don’t know much about O’Shaughnessy.  Husted supporters say that she would be just like Jennifer Brunner.  But I need to see concrete evidence of this, not just rhetoric.  O’Shaughnessy expresses concerns about how the transparency of elections is in jeopardy due to electronic voting machines.  (But she unfortunately stops short of calling for hand-counted ballots only.)  However, since O’Shaughnessy has refused to answer all of the candidate surveys, I would assume that she has something hide, and therefore I won’t vote for her.

Jon Husted claims to be pro-life and a fiscal conservative.  But his record on these issues is far from perfect.  He did not support Tom Brinkman’s bill to ban abortion in Ohio.  He supported the amendment to our state’s constitution to use taxpayer’s dollars for the Ohio Third Frontier Project (OTFP).  This belies his claim that he has “Tea Party Values” as he had said in primaries.   OTFP is clearly corporate welfare and essentially the same thing as a bailout.  Millions of dollars which had already been appropriated to OTFP had been used to redesign hospital gowns.  We need to send Husted (and 87% of the other lawmakers in our state) that we have real Tea Party value and we are paying attention to what you are doing.  Our state constitution is supposed by for the purpose of protecting our rights, not some economic scheming to try to create jobs by shifting money from one person to another.  Husted does not even mention transparency in election procedures.   If I vote for Husted, I will literally be holding my nose while I do it.

I met Charles Earl once in person.  He is a nice man.  He answered the Abigail Adams survey the way you expect a Republican to answer it.  He indicated that he was pro-life, fiscally conservative, pro-marriage, pro-school choice, and against teaching sex education in grades K-6.  (I don’t agree with some of his answers on other issues, but they are acceptable.) But he did not answer the Project Vote Smart and Cincinnati Right to Life surveys.  And whether a candidate is really 100% pro-life cannot be determined from the Abigail Adams survey unless the candidate provides additional comments to that effect (which he did not, and the same thing would be true of the CRLT survey).  Husted and O’Shaughnessy refused to answer this questionnaire.  I am still waiting for Citizens for Community Values to publish the results of their survey.  Right now they only have their endorsements.  The candidate’s answers (not any endorsement) will likely be determining factor of who I vote for.  (They usually wait until just before the election before they publish the answers.  If they don’t publish the results, I’m going to write an angry letter to them.)  Charles Earl received the endorsement of COAST (Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes).

Sandy O’Brien for Ohio Secretary of State

Sandy O’Brien is running for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State of Ohio. She believes that life begins at conception and that abortion should never be allowed. She supports vigorous enforcement of pornography laws, opposes expansion of gambling, opposes sexual orientation as a protected class, supports a marriage amendment, supports a tax and expenditure limitation amendment to the Ohio Constitution, opposes the use of eminent domain for non-government use, and supports education choice through vouchers and/or tax credits. She is also pro-second amendment and a fiscal conservative.

Her opponent Jon Husted endorsed the pro-choice, pro-gun control Jeanette Bradley in the 2006 race for State Treasurer. He voted to increase Ohio’s sales tax and the state’s gasoline tax and has voted to create the new CAT (food) tax. He voted for the wasteful Ohio Third Frontier Project (vote no on this May 4th). He has also introduced a bill that would take the Ohio Apportionment Board out of the hands of elected officials.