Former President Obama has placed Ohio atop his to-do list for states in need of a few more Democrats to swing the political agenda leftward.
He sees Richard Cordray, who served as one of his key regulators for six years in Washington, as a big part of the equation in turning the tide in the Buckeye state.
Cordray, running against conservative Mike DeWine, has not shied away from associating with his former D.C. boss, even though Ohio went solidly for Donald Trump in the presidential election less than two years ago. He confirmed the “big news” on his Twitter feed that Obama will be traveling to Ohio on his behalf.
We can now confirm the big news that President @BarackObama is coming to Ohio. My partner @BettySutton and I will welcome him to Cleveland for a public event on September 13.
Sign up to learn more here: https://t.co/4NXSmJJQ4M
— Rich Cordray (@RichCordray) September 5, 2018
Cordray served six years as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Board, a creation of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, (D-MA).
On his website, Cordray is inviting people to “sign up” to get information on how they can get free tickets to hear Obama speak.
“President Barack Obama will campaign with Rich Cordray and Betty Sutton on Thursday, September 13. President Obama, Rich and Betty will host a rally together in Cleveland in the evening.
President Obama will discuss what is at stake for Ohioans in 2018, highlighting the need for Ohio’s next governor to expand economic opportunity to more Ohioans and protect their families’ access to quality, affordable health care.
This event will be free and open to the public but tickets are required. Sign up to receive ticket information.”
For a list of what Cordray sees as “at stake for Ohioans in 2018,” all one needs to do is go to his Twitter feed.
In just the last 24 hours, Cordray has tweeted about his desire to keep abortions free and easy by continuing to give away federal tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, he has advocated for government intervention in the energy sector by subsidizing wind energy in a coal-mining state, and wants to aggressively prosecute companies that use 1099 contract workers.
According to a New York Times article Thursday, Obama was the one who helped convince his fellow D.C. insider Richard Cordray to run for governor of Ohio.
The article asserts: “Mr. Obama is said to be especially determined to make the case against Republican economic policies.”
Has Mr. Obama checked the stats on Ohio’s economy lately?
Job growth has accelerated 132.3 percent in the wake of the GOP tax cuts, and the average Ohio family of four is seeing a savings of more than $2,200 a year. That means Obama won’t have an easy sell trying make Cordray, whose career at CFPB was based on harassing businesses, look like he’ll be a force for economic growth, said Mandi Merritt, the Ohio spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.
It’s no surprise that President Obama is attempting to inject life into Richard Cordray’s campaign, after Cordray spent years in Washington implementing a partisan agenda of over-regulation at the nation’s most unaccountable agency,” Merritt said. “Ohioans spoke when they rejected these Obama and Strickland era policies, and Richard Cordray’s desire to turn back time on our economic progress proves just how out-of-touch he really is.”
Ohio is the 8th-largest coal-producing state in the nation. Coal is one of Ohio’s primary fossil-fuel resources. The state has almost 1.4 percent of the nation’s coal reserves at producing mines, but Cordray wants to subsidize the coal-mining industry’s competitors — solar and wind — giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace.
It’s no surprise Obama would use what’s left of his political clout to stump for Democrats in the midterm elections, as he is still highly engaged in Washington politics through several community-organizing groups. He also plans to campaign for Democrat candidates in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida.
But that he would pick Ohio and California as his first priorities tells what is at stake in those states – not just politically for both parties but for the direction of the Ohio economy.
Cordray and Obama wish to make Ohio more like Obama’s home state of Illinois, which is run by Democrats who taxed and spent themselves into a corner, where the only way to solve the state’s debt problems is to raise taxes even higher. Meanwhile, DeWine promises to continue Ohio on a course similar to that of Tennessee, where taxes are low and economic growth is propelling balanced budgets and job creation. As a result, the Chicago Tribune reports an unprecedented flight of middle-class working families out of Democrat-controlled Illinois into Tennessee, Florida and other states that figured out a long time ago that over-taxing and regulating businesses hurts the very middle-class American workers that Democrats say they want to help.
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Anthony Accardi is a reporter for The Ohio Star.
