Thursday’s speakers included Dayton natives Desiree Tims, a former congressional candidate and current president of left-leaning think tank Innovation Ohio; Tom Roberts, former state Democratic legislator and current president of the Ohio Conference of the NAACP; and Tonya McCoy, the vice president of the local chapter of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
“We really have to lean into a grassroots movement to let people know that this election is happening and it’s going to impact your rights,” Tims said. “We’re traveling around the state, we’re talking to our neighbors and we’re telling them, ‘Hey, this is an important election, and we really need you to vote ‘No.’’”
Roberts told Dayton Daily News that he believes Issue 1 deals with several aspects of civil rights. He characterized the issue’s proposals as a power grab by the Republican-dominated legislature and argued that raising the voter threshold to 60% dilutes the power of individual voters on constitutional amendments.
“We want to make sure that whatever we vote on, my vote, I can cast, and that vote will make a difference in the final analysis; and this will not allow that to happen,” Roberts said.
Unions opposed to Issue 1
So far, union activity in the Aug. 8th election has, at least publicly, been exclusively in opposition to Issue 1. Many unions see the citizen-initiated amendment as a way to trump the legislature in the event that lawmakers pass policy that are unfavorable to unions, their workers, or the state as a whole.
McCoy took aim at the fact that Issue 1 was up for a vote in an irregular August election, months after the legislature mostly banned August special elections in a December 2022 bill in part because they yield low voter turnout.
“We all should be upset,” McCoy told the crowd. “These are sneaky politicians that are trying to trick voters into giving up our rights, our power and our voice.”
Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Educators Association, told Dayton Daily News that his organization has a vested interest in preserving the current rules on citizen-initiated constitutional amendments as a way of circumventing the legislature on issues of education, should that ever be necessary.
“Fully and daily funding our schools has been a top priority for the organization. We want to make sure that every student, regardless of where they live, has the resources for a high quality public education,” DiMauro said. “It has always been important to have the option to go directly to the people if the legislature is unable or unwilling to act on that.”
‘Yes’ campaign claims hypocrisy
When asked for comment regarding the event, “Yes” campaign spokesperson Spencer Gross characterized the NAACP’s stance against Issue 1′s 60% rule as hypocritical, given that the organization’s chapters require a 66% vote to amend their own charters.
“I think it’s interesting that the NAACP requires a higher than 60% threshold to amend their own bylaws, but they are opposed to a 60% threshold to amend the state constitution,” Gross told the Dayton Daily News. “If its good enough for them, and they believe that their bylaws are worth protecting at that threshold, and they don’t believe that that same threshold is key for the state constitution, I think that’s a bit hypocritical.”
That sentiment has been reiterated by Secretary of State Frank LaRose, an ardent supporter of Issue 1 who has levied similar claims against other Issue 1 opponents, including the Ohio Democratic Party, the League of Women Voters of Ohio, the Ohio Education Association, the ACLU of Ohio and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio.
Gross said, philosophically, it’s fair to compare organizational charters with state government.
“To those organizations, that’s the most important document that they have to govern themselves. As the state, we feel it’s equally important to have a higher threshold if we’re going to amend a higher threshold,” Gross said.
The “Yes” campaign, which has had local door-knocking events orchestrated by the Montgomery Republican Party, has yet to hold an official event in the Dayton area, but Gross said it’s still in the cards before Election Day.
Issue 1, up for a statewide vote on Aug. 8, proposes raising the vote threshold for a constitutional amendment to pass to 60%, and making it harder for citizen-initiated amendments to get on the ballot.
The Dayton Daily News is committed to covering both sides of the issue as the election continues.
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