Why are Ohio Republicans worried about non-citizens voting? Today in Ohio
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Marisa Darden, the first Black woman to be confirmed as U.S. attorney in northern Ohio, withdrew from the position on Tuesday. Darden said she wanted to prioritize her family and return to private practice.
We’re talking about the decision and the process to find the next federal prosecutor on Today in Ohio.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, on Wednesday with city hall reporter Courtney Astolfi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.
You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up for free by sending a text to 216-868-4802.
Here are the questions we’re answering today:
Marisa Darden is the first Black woman to be confirmed as U.S. Attorney in the Cleveland district, but she’s not taking the job. Why not?
Why are Republican legislators seeking to ban non-U.S. citizens from voting in municipal elections?
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb tried to bring common sense to a tax abatement program in the city, reducing it a bit in neighborhoods are thriving. Why is City Council thwarting him?
How much does the Cleveland Clinic say it would have had to spend to save the Cleveland Playhouse?
Is it a symbolic move, or do the Democrats in Columbus think they have a chance of guaranteeing abortion rights to women in Ohio?
It’s good news for the bottom line, but is it bad news for children and seniors at risk? What’s the word on the Cuyahoga County budget?
Is Cuyahoga County’s last heritage farm going to make it? How badly will it be hurt by losing acres to a highway ramp?
Maybe Lake Catholic High School is a school that needs a critical race theory curriculum. What are they teaching the students there, anyway? the controversy that had people buzzing from a meeting of Lake Catholic’s lacrosse team with Orange High School?
Why are mortgage companies reducing their workforces so suddenly?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris: [00:00:00] If it’s Wednesday on today in Ohio, Courtney to Staffie is in the chair. It is today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plain dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Courtney, along with Lisa Garvin and Laura Johnston, Courtney, it feels like everybody knows somebody who has COVID right now.
And nobody really is worried about it. Yeah. It’s
Courtney: just out in the world. And I guess we’ve all accepted that the pandemic is quote unquote over. It’s just circulating and here we go.
Chris: And if you have the vaccine and the boosters, you’re just treating it like the flu or the cold. You’re not, you don’t want to get it, but you’re not going to hide out in your house and not have a life to avoid it.
If you get it, you get sick for a couple of days and you move on unless you’re immunocompromised or have kids under five. It seems like we all know people that have it now and a year ago that would’ve been like a five alarm fire bell going off. And now it’s like, eh,
Laura: well, and I know people who have had it, who are like, the only reason I knew I had is cause [00:01:00] I tested because of some other reason, you know, they, they weren’t sick at all.
Chris: Yeah, it’s just, it’s just strange. Oh, well, we’re not talking about COVID. We have other stories talk about, well, let’s get going. Marissa. Darden is the first black woman to be confirmed as us attorney in the Cleveland district, but she’s not taking the. Laura. This was a shocker yesterday. It’s never happened before.
Why not?
Laura: Well, we don’t exactly know why, because she’s never talked to us about this job, but she did put out a statement. She said it was family that she was prioritizing her family, especially after this pandemic. And everything it’s put us all through, but she did get confirmed three weeks ago and she was nominated in November.
So she’s had a long time to think about it. Um, she never stepped foot in the federal courthouse in Cleveland. She was never sworn into. I wonder if
Chris: it’s a money thing. I wonder if the severe cut in pay, because she’s a very prominent attorney [00:02:00] and probably can make a lot of money. It is that what hurts her family, but she can’t provide the level of service.
It just was a surprise. Sherrod brown of course came out and said he supports her decision. Although maybe he knows more than. Yeah,
Laura: maybe he said, you know, he, she made a personal decision. I fully support and respect her choice. He thanked her for her service to Ohioans. It did catch the people from surprise.
Bill Edwards, who Adam furries talked to. He’s a long time. Federal prosecutor said, no, no us attorney had ever done this, but everybody spoke very highly of her. No, one’s condemning her for this decision. She said in a statement, it was the honor of her career to be nominated, considered. Firmed. And it would have been the privilege of a lifetime to serve the approximately 6 million residents of the district.
But she said she did a lot of soul searching. She talked to her colleagues, it’s Squire, Patton, Boggs, and she wanted to prioritize her family. And I mean, you can’t fault anyone for that. And we’ve talked a lot on this podcast about how COVID has changed priorities. Um, a [00:03:00] lot of people have. It’s not worth working, you know, they’ve rearranged their lives because of COVID it’s just surprising.
I think it came at this point when the job was supposed to start.
Chris: Yeah. I mean, she was supposed to be sworn in after you’re confirmed. You’re supposed to be sworn in and that’s when I guess it kind of became real. Uh, we wish her, well, it’s a surprise back to square one. We have, yeah,
Laura: they’ve got to start the whole process over again.
So it’s not just like they have a number two waiting in the wings that they can switch.
Chris: Well, and look, let’s face it by the time they get somebody, the term is going to be pretty short because if a Republicans elected president, they’re going to replace them all anyway. We’ll see it’s today in Ohio. Why are Ohio Republican legislators seeking to ban non us citizens voting in municipal elections?
Lisa, this seems like a dog whistle. We just want to get people to the polls. We’re going to say immigrants are wrecking the country
Lisa: well, and. Seeking to ban it. I think they’re just reacting to a joint. Well, we all know what the end game is, [00:04:00] but they’re reacting to a joint resolution that’s to be released today in the Ohio Capitol to amend the constitution, to drive home.
The fact that illegal residents can’t vote in local and state elections, it’s already illegal in Ohio for non-citizens to vote in state and federal elections. There are laws in place for that local elections. A bit murkier. We were not really sure. You know, it’s not really included. And so people have kind of taken liberties with that yellow Springs, a little community near Dayton, amended their village charter back in 2020 to allow non-citizens to vote on local elections and tax issues.
But then they. Enacted that yet, because they got legal threats from the secretary of state’s office. But of course the Republicans are going to pile onto this. A bill cites a Republican from Cincinnati, said that, uh, he referred to the yellow Springs case as well. And he said that it’s a proactive response to a [00:05:00] trend in coastal cities.
Some us cities have allowed non-citizens to vote in local elections. So Republicans are trying to get ahead of that and stop it in its tracks.
Chris: Yeah, it’s, it’s a solution in search of a problem. Uh, you know, if bill sites is behind something, you can pretty much sense that there’s something wrong with it.
And the guy just doesn’t seem to ever be on the right side of things. This is clearly just a move to try and rally Republican voters to go to the polls in November with this phony fear that immigrants are going to take over the state. Nobody’s seeking to have. Non-citizens vote in most places in Ohio.
It’s not, it’s not really an issue, but you know, they fought like hell to not have the marijuana initiative on the ballot because they don’t want a democratic cause to rally voters. But now they’re trying to come up with stuff. But we’ll bring repolarize
Lisa: right. This is all about who to get to the polls for their little hot button issue of the year, [00:06:00] surprisingly, or maybe not the…
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