Gov. John Kasich made the cut and was in the first Republican presidential debate in Cleveland this week, after starting off the week at another event in New Hampshire. Kasich was among the 14 GOP hopefuls at the Voters First forum on C-SPAN on Monday. Kasich was in 10 th place for the Fox News debate, and he shared the stage with – in order from 1 st to 9 th place – Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Dr. Ben Carson, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
This week there’s been a lot of talk about drugs – illegal drugs, and a plan to legalize one of them. First, a recycled proposal to test people in the state’s Ohio Works First program for the presence of illegal drugs in their systems. But its backers, Reps. Ron Maag (R-Lebanon) and Tim Schaffer (R-Lancaster) say while other bills that would drug test welfare recipients have never gotten far, this legislation is different. But details in the measure are concerning for critics, Lisa Wurm is with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and Sen. Charleta Tavares (D-Columbus).
Marijuana is an illegal drug in Ohio and 26 other states, and this fall, Ohio voters could see a constitutional amendment that would do the same in Ohio – but with a few additional rules, such as requiring a marijuana control commission and 10 official growing sites. This amendment hasn't made the ballot - yet - but another one has. This amendment, which will appear as Issue 2, would “prohibit an initiated constitutional amendment that would grant a monopoly, oligopoly, or cartel, specify or determine a tax rate, or confer a commercial interest, right, or license to any person or nonpublic entity….that is not then available to other similarly situated persons or nonpublic entities.” This would directly hit the ResponsibleOhio amendment and its 10 growing sites, which are owned by investors. Two key backers agreed to sit down to discuss these two amendments. The day before the interview, a spokesperson for ResponsibleOhio's Executive Director Ian James said he wouldn't appear because of a scheduling conflict. But Auditor David Yost did come to the studio to talk about his concerns about the ResponsibleOhio amendment and his support for the anti-monopoly amendment on this fall’s ballot.
To dig a little deeper into this issue, two journalists who've been covering it talk more about it. Jackie Borchardt is a government and politics reporter at with the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Plain Dealer, and Jo Ingles is with the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.
Last week here in the studio, the chairs of the state’s two major political parties talked about a variety of topics, but were also asked about the ResponsibleOhio issue.