Snollygoster

Election Day is Tuesday. That is when the final votes are cast. Early voting ends Sunday. Just one more weekend of muting political ads during football games and Jeopardy. Just a few more days for candidates to travel the state in their fancy buses to try to get their voters to cast ballots. Here is where we stand. Pretty much where we have been for the past month or so. The latest poll done by Suffolk University for the USA Today Ohio Network has Amy Acton with a 4-point lead over Vivek Ramaswamy in the race for governor and Sherrod Brown with a 3-point lead over Jon Husted in the race for U.S. Senate. Vivek Ramaswamy continues to run his controversial ad featuring Amy Acton's mother, but the campaign has shortened it. The ad has her mother accusing Acton of generically lying, not lying about her background. The image of the tent is gone. Former President Barack Obama was in Cleveland last weekend urging voters to support Brown and Acton, and making fun of former President Donald Trump and chain…

It has been an extraordinarily ugly week in an already extraordinarily ugly campaign for governor. This week, a video appeared featuring Amy Acton’s birth mother. The woman, Donna Arthur, is long estranged from Acton. Arthur was married to a man charged with sexually assaulting Acton as a child. After he was indicted and fled the state, Arthur remained married to him until he died. At first, we did not know who was responsible for the ad, but Vivek Ramaswamy owned up to it and said his campaign would spend $4 million running it. So we had lots to talk about at WOSU Public Media’s latest Politics and a Pint event this week in suburban Columbus. Nursing craft beers with 120 of our closest friends, our panel laid out what’s at stake in the final two weeks of the campaign. The panel included Associated Press government and politics reporter Julie Carr Smyth, WOSU News Director Mark Ferenchik, and WOSU’s "All Sides" host Amy Juravich.

President Trump was in Youngstown this week trying to energize Republican voters. Sen. Jon Husted was there to keep his seat and defeat Sherrod Brown. Husted needs Trump’s supporters; he needs Trump to shower him with praise. I am not sure this is what Jon Husted had in mind. “I don't do this with men very often. I started examining his body because I didn't know he was a great athlete. And I looked, and I watched up and down. I looked at his ass, and I looked at the whole thing," Trump said. "And then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands. He's got these like claws. And I got it. You are a great athlete. I didn't know that because he doesn't talk about that. Congratulations. Now they finally know.” Believe it or not, that was the most newsworthy thing to come out of that rally. Whether it helps Jon Husted or not, we shall see. What is hurting Jon Husted is President Trump’s approval rating in Ohio. A recent New York Times/Sienna poll had 60% of Ohioans disapproving of President Trump’s performance. In…

Election month has arrived. We all point to the second Tuesday in November, but Election Day is kind of a thing of the past. It is really election month, and it began this week with the start of early voting. With turnout even more crucial in this election than in the past few cycles, early voting could play a huge role in deciding who will be Ohio's next governor and sit in the U.S. Senate. Two new polls show Amy Acton has a lead in the race for governor. A Suffolk University poll conducted for USA Today shows her with a 9-point lead over Vivek Ramaswamy, 50% to 41%. The poll included likely voters, and even its lead author questioned whether Acton's lead is really that wide. Another poll gives the Democrat an advantage. A Marist Poll shows Acton with a 6-point lead, 50% to 44%, among registered voters, a wider pool. Both polls go against previous polls that showed the race tied. So, do we believe the polls? Let's ask our Columbus on the Record panelists: Jake Zuckerman, politics and government reporter for…

Gasoline prices have fallen a bit over the past week. Here in Columbus, they have gone down from $4.50 a gallon to about $4.30 a gallon, so a 20-cent drop. Come next week, they will drop at least another 38.5 cents because Ohio lawmakers this week passed a suspension of the state's gasoline tax. It passed overwhelmingly, with only a few Democrats opposing it. Gov. Mike DeWine, who once said it was a bad idea, will sign it, and it will take effect almost immediately. The move will cost the state more than $700 million in lost revenue, money that pays for road repairs and construction. However, the state ended its last fiscal year with a surplus, so lawmakers will use part of that money to pay for the holiday. Presumably, we will save a few bucks at the pump, the potholes will get filled, and the bridges will not fall down. This happened so fast because both candidates for governor called for it. Amy Acton and Vivek Ramaswamy announced their support for suspending the gas tax. No doubt the Republican…

Many believe Bernie Moreno did not defeat Sherrod Brown in 2024; the cryptocurrency industry did. Cryptocurrency firms and their affiliated political groups spent a whopping $40 million opposing Brown as he sought re-election. It might have made the difference. Donald Trump won Ohio by 11 percentage points, but Moreno beat Brown by just 3 1/2 percentage points, a relatively tight election by Ohio standards. Crypto has a grudge against Brown because when he was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a leading member of that panel, he backed tougher regulations on the crypto industry. And Brown is back, looking to reenter the Senate, and the crypto industry is back trying to stop him. This week, the leading crypto political action committee, Fairshake, said it plans to spend at least $30 million to support Sen. Jon Husted and oppose Brown. It is just another example of how important this race is in the struggle to control Congress, and another example of big money exerting a huge influence on how…

We have a new poll to give us an idea of where Ohio voters' minds are as we approach the start of early voting. It is hard to believe, but Ohioans start casting ballots in about two and a half weeks. There are two big races on the ballot in Ohio. The race to succeed term-limited Mike DeWine pits two outsiders: Republican billionaire businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat former Ohio Health Director Amy Acton. Then there is the race to fill out the term of former U.S. Senator and now Vice President JD Vance. Appointed Republican Senator Jon Husted faces Democrat and former Senator Sherrod Brown. It should come as no surprise that the races remain very close, according to the poll conducted by Bowling Green State University. But the BGSU poll does show a slight advantage for the Democrats. In the race for governor, Amy Acton leads Vivek Ramaswamy by 3 percentage points, 48% to 45%. In the race for U.S. Senate, Sherrod Brown leads Jon Husted by 3 percentage points, 48% to 45%. Now, the margin of error is a…

It has not gotten a lot of attention, but Ohioans have the chance to change the state constitution this year. Here is the catch: If they do, none of us will really see much of a change. Ohioans will vote on whether to put in the constitution a requirement that Ohio voters show a photo ID before they can cast a ballot. It is Issue 3 on the ballot. Now, if you have voted in an election since 2023, you might be saying, "Wait a minute. The nice volunteer already politely asks me to show my ID when I go vote." You are correct. Ohio law has mandated photo voter ID since 2023, when Gov. Mike DeWine signed the legislation. It seems a bit like overkill, but lawmakers have their reasons. To dig into those justifications, we turned to Signal Statewide reporter Andrew Tobias, who wrote about the proposed amendment last week. Snollygoster of the week Early voting starts in a couple of weeks. The Iran War continues. Gas prices are at $4.30 a gallon. Inflation is high. Interest rates remain high. All of this is bad news…

The race for Ohio governor is heating up. Amy Acton and her Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, have been traveling the state, doing the grassroots work and raising money. Ramaswamy, who has much more money than Acton, has been running ads for months, as has his political action committee. Acton appears to have been saving her money for the stretch run and has just started running ads. The ads are coming fast and furious, setting up a rough-and-tumble final two months before Election Day. The question is, will the positive and negative ads help us understand who these candidates really are? To help dissect the candidates and the race going forward, we welcome Cheri Strachan, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. Snollygoster of the week For those of you outside Central Ohio, you should know we have not had a competitive mayoral race in Columbus since at least the Clinton administration, possibly the first Bush administration. Competitive races for mayor…

Florida this week became the latest reddish-purple state to nominate a Democratic Socialist as the party's candidate for major office. Angie Nixon defeated moderate Democrat Alex Vindman. Vindman raised and spent roughly what Nixon did, but she won by 12 percentage points. Nixon is a clear underdog to incumbent Republican Ashley Moody in red Florida. Still, like victories in other states, Nixon’s primary upset has energized progressive Democrats. That is not the case in Ohio, where Democratic Socialists are limited to a few urban areas. But that will not stop Republicans from trying to pin the label on candidates like Amy Acton. The Democrat running for governor is doing her best to stay away from any kind of socialist label. She has taken some moderate stances in recent weeks. She said she does not support transgender males participating on female sports teams. She does not want to ban data centers, only regulate them. Most recently, she came out in favor of a ballot issue that would enshrine Ohio’s voter…

When it comes to politics, Ohio has little in common with New York or California. Michigan is a different story. So lessons learned from a Michigan election are a little more valuable than ones from New York or L.A. So what lessons can Ohio Democrats, or Ohio politicians in general, learn from Abdul El-Sayed's far-left progressive victory in that state's Senate primary? To discuss that and the latest on data center posturing, we turn to the "Columbus on the Record" panel: reporter Jessie Balmert from the USA Today Ohio Network, former state legislator Gene Krebs, and Ohio State University political scientist Herb Asher. Snollygoster of the week Let's just say Amy Acton is not trying to win over Democratic Socialists in Ohio. She has come out against transgender women participating in girls' and women's sports. She wants to regulate data centers, but not shut them down. This week, she came out in favor of the fall ballot issue that would enshrine Ohio's photo voter ID law into the state constitution. Many…

Up until a couple of months ago, very few Ohioans outside his district knew who Rep. Max Miller was. They may recall he is the guy who took former Rep. Anthony Gonzalez’s redrawn district seat after the former Ohio State University wide receiver did not seek reelection. But Miller was no Jim Jordan, a household name in Ohio politics, until this summer. That is when details of his bitter divorce from Emily Moreno and their resulting custody battle came to light. Adding to the drama is that Moreno is the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno. Objectively, this is an ugly breakup. Emily Moreno, in court filings, accuses Miller of physically abusing her and their 2-year-old daughter. Miller denies the allegations and says his ex-wife has mental health issues. The accusations have been percolating under the surface for weeks. A couple of weeks ago, a PAC supporting Miller’s opponent reportedly placed thousands of robocalls to voters in his district highlighting the allegations. Then came word that internal polling…

Our look at the campaign for governor this week runs from property taxes to the rights of transgender athletes to police union endorsements. We start with taxes. Next to rising gas prices and grocery prices, property taxes have loomed as the symbol of affordability in Ohio. Thanks to rising property values and voter-approved levies, property taxes have risen sharply in Ohio over the last few years. State lawmakers have done a little to limit the increases. A ballot effort to abolish property taxes has stalled. And candidates for governor are laying out their plans. Democrat Amy Acton has presented her plan to lower tax bills for some. Her plan calls for extending the homestead exemption, which helps low- to moderate-income seniors. She also proposes a rebate to low- and moderate-income Ohioans who see sharp increases in property taxes. Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has promised to reduce property taxes across the board to levels from before the end of the pandemic. Neither candidate has said how they would make…

As back-to-school shopping begins and families return from vacation, the 2026 campaign will really start to ramp up. With an open governor's seat and control of the U.S. Senate at stake, candidates running for major office in Ohio this year are attracting lots of donations. In the race for the U.S. Senate, Sherrod Brown has done better than Jon Husted. Over the last few months, Brown has raised $14 million, more than triple Husted's $4 million. In the race for governor, the candidates have raised close to the same amount of money. Vivek Ramaswamy got a head start, but Amy Acton has outraised him since January. To discuss the latest in the campaign, we turn to the WOSU "Columbus on the Record" panel: reporter Jessie Balmert from the USA Today Ohio Network, Republican strategist Bob Clegg, and progressive activist Morgan Harper. Snollygoster of the week It has been a rough couple of weeks for Ontario and the northeastern quarter of the United States. Canadian wildfires have grown to nearly 2 million acres, and…

This week, we discuss the race for the U.S. Senate and Sherrod Brown’s slightly risky new ad, where he takes on Jon Husted and data centers. Despite getting hammered in TV ads, Democrat Amy Acton continues to hold her own against Vivek Ramaswamy in the governor’s race. And calls grow for greater transparency and tighter rules for JobsOhio, Ohio’s public but privately run economic development agency. We start with data centers as a growing issue in this year’s campaign. As you may have heard, Ohio has become a magnet for warehouses filled with computers. We have more than 200, putting Ohio in the top five of data center populations in the country. The data centers draw opposition because they consume a lot of electricity, water, and farmland. But they also create lots of construction jobs, specifically union construction jobs, which is why a new ad by organized labor champion Sherrod Brown is a bit surprising. Our panel includes reporters Jo Ingles from Ohio Public Radio and Jake Zuckerman from Signal…

WOSU hosted a Politics and a Pint event last week. These events are a lot of fun. We get together at a Columbus-area brewpub and talk politics in front of a crowd of political junkies and public media fans. This time we looked at the mood of the Ohio voter, the Ohio governor’s race, the race for U.S. Senate, property taxes and data centers. We covered a lot of ground and drank some good beer. Thanks to the Politics and a Pint panel: Ohio Public Radio’s Sarah Donaldson, WOSU News Director Mark Ferenchik and WOSU’s All Sides host Amy Juravich. Snollygoster of the week U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan serves as the chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Apparently, chairs get to have their portraits hung in the hearing room. So Jordan is due a portrait. Instead of having to raise up to $80,000 to hire an artist to paint it, his wife, Polly, will paint it for free. This story was first reported by OpenSecrets. Polly Jordan is an artist, and disclosure forms indicate she has earned a little money selling her art. It is…

Governor DeWine and the death penalty: We talked about it last week on this podcast, and this week we will dig a little deeper into the reasons why the former tough-on-crime prosecutor now says Ohio should stop executing people. To recap: In the early 1980s, a tough-on-crime former prosecutor helped write Ohio’s death penalty law. That new state senator was Mike DeWine. As Ohio’s attorney general, DeWine helped carry out 15 executions. Now in his final days as governor, DeWine says Ohio should abolish capital punishment. His sole reason is that it is not a deterrent to murder because it takes too long to execute someone. At this point, DeWine’s change in position seems little more than symbolic. Republican leaders in the Legislature support the death penalty. There is no movement ready to put it on the ballot. For deeper analysis, we turn to WOSU-TV’s "Columbus on the Record" panel: OSU political scientist Herb Asher, Republican strategist Terry Casey and Ohio Public Radio Statehouse reporter Sarah…

Gov. Mike DeWine has come out against Ohio’s death penalty. This week, the conservative Republican governor, who co-sponsored the bill that reinstated capital punishment in 1981, said Ohio should abolish it. His reason for saying Ohio should stop executing people is that the death penalty is not a deterrent because it takes too long to put a condemned person to death. When asked if he is now morally opposed to the death penalty, he was unclear. When asked if he would consider commuting the sentences of some or all of the 109 people now on Ohio’s death row, he declined to answer. The governor’s decision was based on data, which he displayed on PowerPoint charts during his press conference. He called on state lawmakers to abolish the death penalty or at least put it on the ballot for voters to decide. That seems unlikely. Some Republican leaders blame DeWine for not allowing a single execution since he took office in 2019. He says that is because drug companies denied the state access to lethal injection…

The effort to abolish Ohio property taxes has failed – at least for now. The group collecting signatures to put an amendment on November’s ballot says it has fallen short of the number needed to qualify. The group, Committee to Abolish Ohio Property Taxes or Ax Ohio Tax, had to collect at least 415,000 by July 1. Brian Massie, the leader of the effort, said they would not have enough by that date, but they will continue to collect signatures in the hopes of getting on next year’s ballot. To analyze what happened and what happens next with the property tax fight, we turn to WOSU TV’s Columbus on the Record panel. Democratic Strategist Brian Rothenberg, who also serves on the Norwich Township Board of Trustees, Gene Krebs from the group Better Choices for Ohio and Ohio Public Radio Statehouse Reporter Jo Ingles discussed the attempt to abolish property taxes. Data Centers: The controversy is growing Complicating the debate and the legislation to regulate the data center is a tax break nobody seemed to know…

Here in Ohio, the TV ad war between U.S. Sen. Jon Husted and his Democratic challenger, Sherrod Brown, is heating up. Gov. Mike DeWine, who supported a big tax break for data centers, has killed the tax break, at least temporarily, after it came out that the tax break is costing the state a lot of money. And then there is the fight against fraud, which suddenly is top of mind for Republicans here in Ohio and across the country. For these topics, we’ll turn to our panel discussion from WOSU-TV’s "Columbus on the Record." We are joined by reporter Sarah Donaldson from Ohio Public Radio, Republican strategist Terry Casey, and Democratic strategist Stanley Gates. We’ll start with Ohio’s fight against fraud. For weeks, DeWine has faced criticism from his fellow Republicans over allegations of widespread fraud in the state’s Medicaid system. It started with a report in the conservative outlet The Daily Wire, which accused home health agencies of fraudulently billing the system that pays for healthcare for…

With Ohio’s primary behind us, focus shifts to the November election, in particular, the race for governor. The primary did not change much. Democrat Amy Acton was unopposed, and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy easily defeated his long-shot opponent, Casey Putsch. It was already expected to be Acton versus Ramaswamy in November, and now it is official. With six months to go, campaigns are ramping up as reporters and voters pay more attention. To reset the scene, Mike DeWine leaves office at the end of the year. Term limits prevent him from running again. For the first time in eight years, Ohio will have a new governor. It will be someone from outside government: tech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who briefly ran for president, or Amy Acton, who served in government for about a year. Acton famously served as Ohio health director at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but she has not held elected office. The latest polls have the two candidates tied as the summer months approach. National politicos are keeping an…

The candidates are set for Ohio's general election in November. There were no big surprises in this week’s primary. Sherrod Brown easily beat his Democratic primary opponent and will face Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted. In the governor’s race, Democrat Amy Acton was unopposed. Vivek Ramaswamy easily beat his Republican challenger, Casey Putsch. Ramaswamy says Republicans are unified to take on Acton, whom he calls a socialist. Hyperbole aside, here is a significant contrast between the tech billionaire and the former Ohio director of public health. In other races, the favorites in the secretary of state primaries won. Current Treasurer Robert Sprague will face former House Democratic Leader Allison Russo. In the Republican primary for state treasurer, J.D. Vance-backed Jay Edwards beat Ramaswamy-backed Kristina Roegner by a comfortable margin. In a closely watched Republican primary in northwest Ohio, former state Rep. Derek Merrin won the chance for a rematch with U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo. To help…

An important election is just around the corner. Ohio will elect a new governor and decide who will represent the state in the U.S. Senate. A new poll provides a snapshot of what voters are thinking, and the results are interesting. The big headline from the Bowling Green State University poll is that the governor’s race is a dead heat. The BGSU poll shows Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton are basically tied. Ramaswamy has 48% support while Acton has 47%. That 1-point margin is well within the poll’s 3% margin of error. In the race for the U.S. Senate, the same poll showed that the contest is also basically tied. Jon Husted has a 3-point lead over his Democratic challenger, Sherrod Brown. This also remains within the poll’s margin of error. Given the political angst and polarization in the country, the results should come as no surprise. However, the poll gives Democrats hope and Republicans pause that deep-red Ohio could see tinges of blue after the November election. Joining us to dissect…

The race for Ohio governor has gotten personal in recent weeks. Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is out with a new ad where his wife shows off their new baby. In another ad, he goes after Democrat Amy Acton for her role in the COVID-19 shutdowns. Acton has been left to explain an incident at her home in 2019. NBC was first to report that Bexley police responded to a report of a domestic dispute between Acton and her husband. The report said the couple had a verbal argument and a mirror fell from the wall and shattered. There was no evidence of physical violence and no charges were filed. Acton said it was an argument over her long work hours. Acton’s campaign this week criticized Ramaswamy’s campaign for making an issue of her seeking counseling for sexual abuse she suffered as a child. To get a look at where this race and the race for U.S. Senate stand, we turn to WOSU-TV’s "Columbus on the Record" panel: reporter Jessie Balmert of the USA Today Ohio Network, Republican strategist Terry Casey and Democratic…

We look back at a time when Ohio was blue politically, or at least purple. And explore the reasons why Ohio has become pretty deeply Red. We will play an interview I did on WOSU TV’s Columbus on the Record with longtime Democratic activist Dale Butland. For 20 years, Dale worked for U.S. Sen. John Glenn, a Democrat. He also worked briefly for Ohio's other longtime U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, another Democrat. When Glenn left the Senate, Butland worked for many years helping progressive candidates and campaigns in Ohio. Dale is out with a new book, When Ohio Was Blue: My 20 Year Journey with John Glenn. It's a personal inside look at how the system works or is supposed to work. Snollygoster Of The Week We could give it to JD Vance for putting a picture of a Methodist church in rural Virginia on the cover of his new book, which describes the Ohioan’s conversations with the Catholic Church, but that might not be shrewd. Instead, we’ll give it to Samuel Ronan, who was running in the Ohio U.S. House District 15…

The 2028 presidential campaign likely will start about a year from now, but Democrats are not waiting to take on a likely candidate: Ohioan and Vice President JD Vance. Late last month, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear took a road trip to Ohio, where he spoke to a crowd of fellow Democrats in Vance’s home turf of Butler County. Beshear, who is considering a run for president himself, said Vance has abandoned his home region. He called Vance’s memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," hillbilly hate and poverty tourism. Other potential Democratic candidates for president have also taken swipes at Vance. A spokesman for Vance told The Associated Press that when Beshear seeks publicity, he ends up humiliating himself. To preview Vance’s likely presidential campaign, we turn to the "Columbus on the Record" panel. Joining us are reporters Jo Ingles from Ohio Public Radio and Andrew Tobias from Signal Statewide, Democrat Joseph Mas from the Ohio Hispanic Coalition and Republican former state legislator Gene Krebs, who gives us the…

JobsOhio is in the news not because of a big new project, but because of the role, however small, it played in the sudden resignation of Ohio State University President Ted Carter. Carter resigned after admitting to an inappropriate relationship with a podcaster sponsored by JobsOhio. The agency gave her $60,000 for four episodes of a little-watched podcast on veterans' employment. Former Gov. John Kasich, who helped create JobsOhio, took to social media to criticize the deal and accused JobsOhio of mission creep. That brought a response from Attorney General Dave Yost, who criticized Kasich for creating a publicly funded agency that operates with no oversight. Yost urged his fellow Republican to look in the mirror. Yost said that as auditor of state, he worried about such things. He told Kasich that the former governor ignored a subpoena and twisted every arm in the Legislature to pass a law to stop Yost from auditing JobsOhio. Yost then asked what other things have not come to light. To help us better…

Data centers are shaping up to be a very important topic in the 2026 midterms. Ohio has become fertile ground for data center construction. The state has some 200 data centers. At first, companies were building them near cities. The Columbus area has more than half of the state’s data centers, while metro Cleveland and Cincinnati have a couple dozen each. But more computer companies are looking to rural areas to locate the centers. These data centers need a lot of power to run the computers and keep them cool. Utilities struggle to keep up. They must expand the grid and bring new generation online. The question is who is going to pay for it. Residential electrical bills have already risen because of the increased demand. These centers also need water to help keep servers cool. At first, communities and the state fell over themselves to attract data centers. It is considered cool to have Google and Meta in a small town, and the thinking goes that data centers will bring in other companies. Local communities…

A presidential bombshell dropped this week. No, this is not about President Trump calling the Iran war a "short-term excursion." This is not even about the president of the United States. The focus is on the president of Ohio State University, who resigned this week, or was forced to quit. Ted Carter’s resignation came after he acknowledged an inappropriate relationship with a woman seeking public resources to support her personal business. While all details are not yet known, the university says the matter is under investigation. It is looking into Carter’s relationship with a podcaster who produced shows on post-military jobs. Carter is a retired Navy vice admiral. The podcaster produced some of her shows here at WOSU under a private client contract. It has been a strange few days at Ohio State and WOSU as the situation unfolds. The resignation ends Carter's short two-year stint as OSU president. It was an eventful tenure. He took office as Palestinian protests were occurring at OSU and campuses around the…

The United States once again is waging war in the Middle East. President Trump ordered the U.S. military to join Israel in a massive bombing campaign in Iran. It has killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, many other Iranian leaders, and hundreds of civilians. Given that this is an Ohio politics podcast, we will focus on how Ohioans are reacting to this. Ohio’s congressional delegation largely split along partisan lines in reacting to the attacks. But the guy many were watching was Ohio’s JD Vance. The former senator and now vice president once strongly said the United States should not get involved in endless wars. But soon after the attacks, Vance called Iran a major threat and defended President Trump’s starting a war in the Middle East. Critics say the president and his administration have not laid out a clear justification or strategy going forward. The justification shifted to supporting Iranian protesters, to Iran’s nuclear threat, to ballistic weapons, to regime change. Secretary of…

The Jeffrey Epstein scandal has had strong ties to Central Ohio. Last week, the congressional investigation into Epstein’s associates came to New Albany. Limited founder Les Wexner gave a deposition to the House Oversight Committee. He answered questions from members of the House Oversight Committee for about five hours about how much he knew about the sex offender and what role he may have played in Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking. Before the session began, Wexner submitted a long statement in which he said, “I was naïve, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein. He was a con man. And while I was conned, I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide.” Wexner’s name appears in the Epstein files thousands of times. They had a long relationship. Epstein controlled Wexner’s money for years. Wexner says Epstein stole from him. During the deposition, Wexner maintained that his relationship with Epstein was just business. Our panel of statehouse insiders this week includes reporters Jessie…

It was quite the day in New Albany. The state’s richest man, and some say one of the state’s most powerful men, was questioned under oath about his relationship with convicted pedophile and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. As the proceedings began, Wexner released a long statement in which he said that while he and Epstein were friends and Epstein managed all of his personal finances, he had no idea of Epstein’s illegal activities. Wexner said in his statement, “I was naïve, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein. He was a con man. And while I was conned, I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide.” Committee member Rep. Dave Min from California was not buying it. The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, said the committee has more questions for Wexner, and he said Ohioans should as well. Closely watching the news surrounding the deposition is the Ohio State University and its president, Ted Carter. Last week, Carter said that university officials…

The big issue of the 2026 campaign likely will be affordability: the affordability of groceries, the affordability of health care, and the affordability of housing. Candidates are falling all over themselves trying to tell us how they are going to help us make more money and help us save money. A big piece of the housing affordability equation is property taxes. Because of rapidly rising property values over the past ten years, and voters’ willingness to pass levies, property taxes have increased sharply. The median Ohio property tax bill has jumped about 25 percent in recent years to stand at just more than three thousand dollars a year. Obviously, many homeowners pay a lot more than that, while others pay less. The Tax Foundation says Ohio has the eighth-highest effective property tax rate in the country. With each revaluation notice and with each new property tax bill, politicians hear from their angry constituents. Some of those constituents say their lawmakers have not done enough to control property…

A federal judge in Washington extended Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants living in the United States. Judge Ana Reyes' decision to allow the Haitians to remain legally came hours before Tuesday's deadline. The Trump administration says it will appeal the judge's ruling, and the case continues in federal court. Advocates say they are ready to mobilize again should ICE's attention drift away from Minnesota and toward Ohio. So while that storm passed us by, we are still left with the remnants of last week's major winter storm. Much to the relief of parents, schools reopened this week. The leftover piles of snow and frigid temperatures caused most schools, at least in central Ohio, to close all of last week. AEP seemed to survive the storm pretty well, at least in Ohio. No major power outages here. But the utility made news when Governor DeWine mentioned his administration is trying to keep AEP's headquarters in Ohio. The company is looking to possibly move out of its 31-story headquarters in…

It has been an eventful year for the Trump–Vance administration. We’ve focused more on Trump than Vance, but Vance has been more visible than many vice presidents.

Protests continue in Minnesota and across the country. Here in Central Ohio, there is no sign of intense ICE activity, but detentions continue. Ohio State students protested the school, including the Border Patrol, at its career fair this week. Officials continue to warn protesters not to get in the way of any enforcement activity.

The new year started with a firehose-like stream of political news. Venezuela, ICE activity, the tragic shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis and false daycare fraud claims in Ohio have dominated the news.

A new poll from Emerson College in Boston shows some interesting trends that likely give Ohio Democrats hope and give Republicans pause.

In this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, hosts Mike Thompson and Steve Brown discuss how lawmakers weave their way through constitutional rules to draw new legislative districts.

In this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, host Mike Thompson discusses the maps released by the Ohio Redistricting Commission. Jen Miller, executive director for the Ohio League of Women Voters, joins the show.

In this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, hosts Mike Thompson and Steve Brown discuss the effort to send a bill to the statehouse for recreational marijuana.

In this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, host Steve Brown discusses the ongoing drama about vaccine mandates going on at the Statehouse. Ohio Public Radio reporter Jo Ingels joins the show.

The public authority that owns the arena says it needs 400 million dollars—more than double the original cost—to renovate it. And it’s looking for taxpayers to pick up much of the tab.

Tim Ryan, the former congressman, former presidential candidate and former U.S. Senate candidate said he will not run for governor.

President Trump campaigned on releasing the Epstein files and then refused to do so. He tried hard to persuade Congress to drop its demand to release them, but he failed. Then, the president reversed course and told Republicans in Congress to vote to release the files.

To examine the implications of the Democrats’ wins and look at how Ohioans voted on higher taxes for government services, we welcome our panel of experts: Statehouse reporters Laura Bischoff, of the USA Today Ohio Bureau, and Jo Ingles, of Ohio Public Radio, as well as Democrat Jo Mas and Republican Mike Miller.

For those of us tired of talking about redistricting, we’re happy. The Ohio Redistricting Commission has approved a bipartisan map and the issue appears settled for six years. But we might be the only ones who are happy.

We have a good snapshot of how Ohio voters are feeling, a year out from the election that will decide the governor’s office and Congress. Bowling Green State University is out with its latest poll.

For homeowners worried about skyrocketing property tax bills, a radical solution is gaining traction, but experts warn that abolishing these taxes could cause Ohio's income tax to increase drastically.

There’s no sign of a compromise in the government shutdown. Democrats in the Senate are blocking a funding bill, demanding that Republicans agree to reverse looming Medicaid cuts and extend Obamacare health insurance subsidies.