WestChesterBuzz.com

30,000 jam West Chester to hear Romney

WestChesterBuzz.com will count down the area’s top 12 stories of 2012 this month, concluding with West Chester’s most discussed topic of the year on Sunday, Dec. 30.

STORY POSTED NOV. 2, 2012
BY Cindi Andrews, Paul Kostyu and Adam Kiefaber

The presidential race returned to Ohio for the final push Friday (Nov. 2) as GOP challenger Mitt Romney held a massive rally in the Republican heartland north of Cincinnati and President Barack Obama cut a swath through central Ohio.

Romney spoke to a crowd of 30,000, according to West Chester Fire chief Tony Goller – making it the largest rally of the campaign, said Romney spokesman Chris Maloney.

“The question of the election comes down to this: Do you want more of the same or do you want real change?” Romney asked. “I promise change, and I actually have a record of achieving it.”

Both candidates are trying to make up for campaign time lost to super-storm Sandy and deliver their final arguments to voters before Tuesday’s election.

Obama, in his first Ohio trip since Sandy struck the East Coast, said in Lima on Friday afternoon that the policies of previous Republican administrations didn’t work.

“Ohio, we’ve tried our ideas and they work,” he said. “We’ve tried the other folks’ ideas. They don’t work. The eight years before I took office, we tried their ideas. What did we get? We got falling incomes, record deficits … and an economic crisis that we’ve been cleaning up after ever since.”

With less than four days before Election Day the race is too close to predict in several key states, including Ohio. The latest poll out Friday afternoon, by CNN/ORC International, shows Obama leading 50 percent to 47 percent in Ohio, well within the 3.5 percentage point margin of error.

Obama will make what’s almost certainly his last Cincinnati stop of the campaign at the University of Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Arena on Sunday evening, while Romney will be in Cleveland. And the candidates will campaign right down to the wire in Ohio – both have announced events in Columbus on Monday.

Kid Rock opened the Romney event, which also included appearances by a lengthy list of top Republicans, including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sens. John McCain and Marco Rubio, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

“This is like having the Republican National Convention come here,” said Ohio Rep. Margaret Conditt of nearby Liberty Township. “All of the speakers that we saw in Tampa are here, except for Clint Eastwood, of course.”

• Enquirer exclusive: How Obama won Ohio
• Ohio polls need short answer to long lines
• Election Day in West Chester: Voters pick Romney

Romney noted that unemployment is higher than when Obama took office, although the final pre-election report, released Friday, showed 171,000 new jobs added in October. The Labor Department also revised August and September jobs numbers upward. The unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent in October, from 7.8 percent in September, as more workers re-entered the labor force.

“Candidate Obama promised to do so very much, but he has fallen so very short,” Romney said. “He was going to focus on jobs, then he focused on Obamacare, which killed jobs.”

Romney said that Obama asked voters to vote for revenge but “I ask the American people to vote for love of country.”

Obama actually said, “Voting is the best revenge.”

Romney also promised to bring bipartisanship to Washington.

“If I’m elected – no, when I’m elected – president, I’m doing to work with … men and women on both sides of the aisle who care about our country,” he said.

Obama visited Hilliard, Springfield and, lastly, Lima, which hasn’t hosted a sitting Democratic president since Harry Truman in 1948. In his first trip to Ohio since super-storm Sandy devastated the East Coast and prompted both campaigns to cancel rallies, he said the nation mourns those killed in the storm.

“No matter how bad things are, we’re in this together,” Obama said. “We rise and fall as one nation. That has guided this country for 200 years and the last four years.”

He told the crowd in Hilliard that Americans need a champion in Washington. He said the middle class, the poor and small business owners need a seat at the table.

“The folks at the very top of this country don’t need another seat at the table,” the president said.

“The people who need a champion are those whose letters I read every night. Cooks, waiters and cleaning staff at a hotel, they need a champion. The auto worker … now back in the plant, he needs a champion. Those kids dreaming of becoming scientists … or even president, they need a champion in Washington. We’ve come back too far to become faint-hearted.”

Posted in: Election, Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Ann Romney, Butler County Election 2012, campaign, election, election 2012, John Boehner, MidPointe Library, MidPointe Library System, MidPointe Library West Chester, Mitt Romney, Mitt Romney Ohio, Ohio election 2012, Paul Ryan, presidential election, republican, Square at Union Centre, tickets, union centre, West Chester, West Chester election, West Chester top 12 stories of 2012, West Chester top stories of 2012

Mark Wert reports:

Putting together a winning political campaign is like building a mosaic. The tiles that the politicians use are the most basic units in which Americans count votes: the precinct.

Now that Ohio officials have counted sometimes troublesome “provisional” ballots and completed their official tally of the 2012 election, map are the mosaic that Barack Obama and his campaign built.

What’s clear to see in the map is where Obama once again patched together a winning coalition of minorities, young people and suburban women along with hard-core Democrats. It was enough for Obama to once again push once-solidly Republican Hamilton County into the Democratic column – something even Bill Clinton never did.

Holding Hamilton County was among the key steps Obama made to once again win Ohio and its 16 electoral votes, returning him to the presidency. Obama carried just 17 of Ohio’s 88 counties, but he won in the six most populous counties in the state, including Hamilton.

• How Hamilton County voted
• Map: Where more voted for Obama

Obama crushed Republican nominee Mitt Romney in Cincinnati, taking more than 70 percent of the vote. He won minority-majority suburbs such as Forest Park and Lincoln Heights by even bigger margins.

Obama also held his own in other parts of the county that typically are heavily Republican. For example, he won 10 precincts in Colerain Township, where minorities are moving into the eastern part of the township and a couple in Blue Ash, where women’s votes may have been crucial (given that exit polling showed that Obama did well with suburban women).

Romney performed best in Southwest Ohio’s three other counties, especially Warren County.

It was the only one in the region where Obama failed to win even a single precinct, which he did in both Clermont and Boone counties.

But Obama nearly carried 40 percent of the vote in Butler County, normally a GOP powerhouse.

• How Butler County voted

That hurt Romney’s effort to put a dent in Obama’s margin in the big counties, especially since he carried Cuyahoga, Lucas and Franklin counties by more than 10 percentage points.

In Butler County, a strong youth vote apparently gave Obama wins in 11 of Oxford’s 12 precincts despite the fact that Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan went to Miami University.

A strong minority vote helped give Obama nine of 48 precincts in Hamilton and 17 of 36 in Middletown. Wins in three precincts in West Chester, home to House Speaker John Boehner, and eight in Fairfield were likely due to the growing number of minorities in those areas along with women voters.

Across the river in Northern Kentucky, where neither campaign put in as much effort, Obama’s wins were largely confined to the precincts in the older cities along the Ohio River.

Posted in: Election, Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Barack Obama, Barack Obama Ohio, Butler County Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Mitt Romney Ohio, Ohio election 2012

The day after the election, House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester Township, delivered a statement on efforts to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. Here are excerpts:

The American people … didn’t give us a mandate to do the “simple” thing.

They elected us to lead.

They gave us a mandate to work together to do the best thing for our country.

We know what the best thing would be. It would be an agreement that sends the signal to our economy, and to the world, that after years of punting on the major fiscal challenges we face, 2013 is going to be different.

It would be an agreement that begins to pave the way for the long-term growth that is essential if we want to lift the cloud of debt hanging over our country.

We won’t solve the problem of our fiscal imbalance overnight, in the midst of a lame duck session of Congress.

And we certainly won’t solve it by simply raising tax rates or taking a plunge off the fiscal cliff.

What we can do is avert the cliff in a manner that serves as a down payment on – and a catalyst for – major solutions, enacted in 2013, that begin to solve the problem.

… There is an alternative to going over the fiscal cliff, in whole or in part.

It involves making real changes to the financial structure of entitlement programs, and reforming our tax code to curb special-interest loopholes and deductions.

By working together and creating a fairer, simpler, cleaner tax code, we can give our country a stronger, healthier economy.

A stronger economy means more revenue, which is what the president seeks.

Because the American people expect us to find common ground, we are willing to accept some additional revenues, via tax reform.

… To garner Republican support for new revenues, the president must be willing to reduce spending and shore up the entitlement programs that are the primary drivers of our debt.

We aren’t seeking to impose our will on the president; we’re asking him to make good on his “balanced” approach.

Posted in: Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: election 2012, fiscal cliff, John Boehner, John Boehner Cincinnati, John Boehner fiscal cliff, John Boehner West Chester, Ohio election 2012, presidential election, presidential election Ohio, presidential race Ohio

To let West Chester and Liberty Township residents catch up with the news that they need to know, WestChesterBuzz.com will list and link to all of last week’s top local stories every Monday.

West Chester voters wanted Romney - A total 69 percent of Butler County voters came out to the polls on Election Day, and 62 percent of those voters selected Republican candidate Mitt Romney as their choice for president. However, the state of Ohio and the majority of the nation voted to re-elected President Barack Obama. Furthermore, in a WestChesterBuzz.com exit poll taken at West Chester/Liberty Township’s largest polling location had Romney with 63 percent of the vote and Obama with 36 percent of vote.

Sherrod Brown keeps US Senate seat - Sen. Sherrod Brown won a second term to the U.S. Senate last Tuesday – fending off a hard-charging, well-funded GOP challenger and more than $30 million in withering attack ads from outside groups in one of the most expensive and closely watched match-ups in the country.

Election 2012: Butler County roundup - A Republican newcomer from West Chester Township became the newest Butler County commissioner in preliminary election results with 100 percent of the vote counted, while Sheriff Rick Jones kept his job in a landslide vote.

Liberty Township’s Sharon Kennedy ousts Brown as justice - Butler County Judge Sharon Kennedy helped Republicans continue their dominance of Ohio’s Supreme Court last Tuesday with a win over Yvette McGee Brown, the only incumbent Democrat on the court. Kennedy also made history as the first Butler County resident elected to the state’s high court in almost 150 years.

Carriage Hill could be Homearama’s ‘nicest’ location ever - Ground was officially broken last Thursday on what Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati executive director Dan Dressman called “one of the nicest locations” that has ever hosted its premier home showcase. Carriage Hill, which will have eight homes in this summer’s Homearama, features lakes, streams and woodlands spread throughout the 400-arce Liberty Township community.

Pair charged in possible hotel room meth lab in West Chester - Police arrested two suspects last Wednesday in connection to what they believed to be a potential meth lab in one of the rooms at the Tri-County Inn in West Chester. At around 8:30 a.m., the police received a report of a possible methamphetamine lab in a room at the local hotel. According to West Chester Police Public Affairs Officer Jeff Newman, precursors for a meth lab were found in room 417.

West Chester’s AK Steel imposes price hike - Shares of some U.S. steel manufacturers rose last Tuesday, a day after West Chester-based AK Steel Holding Corp. imposed a $50 per ton increase in spot market base prices for carbon flat-rolled steel used in such products as automobiles and appliances. AK Steel said Monday that the increase was effective immediately on new orders.

Moeller ends Thunderhawks postseason run - Northwestern commit Keith Watkins spoiled an early Lakota East lead by rushing for three second quarter touchdowns, which sparked Moeller to a 46-20 win in the regional semifinals at University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium this past Saturday. The loss ends a surprising run for Thunderhawks, who qualified for the postseason for the first time in their 16-year history. Lakota East also won its first postseason game when it defeated Springboro 45-38 in overtime the previous Saturday and snapped a seven-game losing streak to rival Lakota West in the last week of the regular season.

Kristen Bitonte named Liberty Township administrator - Finance director Kristen Bitonte is Liberty Township’s new administrator. She was unanimously selected by trustees last Tuesday – just two weeks after Dina Minneci announced she was leaving to become Indian Hill’s city manager.

Posted in: Crime, Election, Fall sports, Government, News, Sports |

Tags: Tags: 52nd House District election, 52nd House District race, Butler County commission race, Butler County Commissioner electiion, Butler County Commissioners, Butler County Election 2012, election 2012, Liberty Township election, Ohio election 2012, presidential election, presidential election Ohio, presidential race Ohio, U.S. Senate Ohio election, U.S. Senate Ohio race, West Chester election

Election 2012 provokes heated talks of what we can – and must – do better

Barry M. Horstman reports:

Long lines have almost become an Election Day fixture in Ohio and across the country, a sight that voters can reliably expect to see at the polls along with American flags, candidates shaking a few final hands and campaign teams making one last pitch.

Do they have to be? The answer, many experts believe, is no.

“We have to fix that,” President Barack Obama said in his victory speech early Wednesday, referring to the lengthy lines that greeted many voters at the polls.

On that and other facets governing the logistics of how Americans vote, Election 2012 offered some lessons that, if acted upon, perhaps could smooth future elections. Among the topics under discussion to ease the process are early voting hours, absentee voting, registration updates and ballot formats.

• Election 101: Bigger building + more hours = shorter lines

During last weekend’s early voting, hundreds of voters waited outside the board of elections in eastern Downtown from two to four hours to cast in-person absentee ballots.

One reason for the long lines is that, unlike recent elections when the board was open multiple weekends in the weeks leading up to Election Day, last Saturday and Sunday were the only weekend days available this year. And it took a federal lawsuit filed by the Obama campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the state Democratic Party to obtain even that over Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s opposition.

When Husted agreed – under intense nationwide pressure – to set uniform early weekday voting hours across the state, he curtailed evening hours from previous years, arguing that his plan to send absentee ballot applications to all registered Ohio voters that could be mailed back over a 35-day period eliminated the need for boards of elections to stay open later.

Many voters, though, prefer to vote in person – some because they like the experience, others because they feel more comfortable turning in their ballot at the elections board than putting it into a mailbox. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Election 2012, election 2012, Liberty Township election, Ohio election 2012, presidential election, presidential election Ohio, presidential race Ohio, U.S. Senate Ohio election, U.S. Senate Ohio race, West Chester election

Jane Prendergast reports:

With the whole country watching, Ohioans on Tuesday helped re-elect President Barack Obama, continuing the battleground state’s decisive role in a race of unprecedented intensity.

Obama defeated Mitt Romney, with some states still to come in, once he hit the 270 electoral college votes. That total came while the race was still tight in Ohio, but the networks went ahead and called the race for Obama because the still-out Ohio counties were in urban areas that were expected to go for Obama anyway.

The president acknowledged the win at 11:19 p.m., via Twitter, saying: “We’re all in this together. That’s how we campaigned, and that’s who we are. Thank you. -bo.” He also tweeted a picture of him hugging his wife, Michelle.

He emailed supporters, telling them Tuesday’s decision was not fate.

“I want you to know that this wasn’t fate,” he wrote, “and it wasn’t an accident. You made this happen.”

The Romney campaign initially refused to concede they’d lost Ohio. Gov. John Kasich said at almost midnight that he was waiting for more information before making any statements.

As of midnight, with 88 percent of Ohio precincts in, Obama had 49.6 percent to Romney’s 48.7 percent, a difference of about 50,000 votes. Obama carried Ohio with 51 percent of the vote in 2008, over U.S. Sen. John McCain.

Hamilton County, which Obama won in 2008, went for him again, 51.7 percent to 46.9 percent.

Chris Redfern, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said four words will go down as one of the most important reasons that Romney fell short in Ohio. Those words: “Let Detroit go bankrupt.”

Obama portrayed Romney in visits to Ohio as an auto-industry killer who’s out of touch with hard-working folks. He and Vice President Joe Biden hammered hard on their bailout of the auto industry, repeating over and over that one in eight jobs in Ohio is related to making vehicles.

Redfern, asked about a Democratic opponent for Kasich in 2014, said, “We’re coming. We are coming…We’ll celebrate for a few days and then we’ll get back to work.”

Republicans were leaving their party at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Columbus even as Treasurer Josh Mandel was conceding defeat. Worse news was coming, and they knew it. Obama won Ohio and the presidency. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: Ohio election 2012, presidential election, presidential election Ohio, presidential race Ohio

Charles Babington of The Associated Press reports:

President Barack Obama’s re-election, coupled with Republicans’ continued hold on the House, gives both parties a chance to rethink, and perhaps undo, the bitter partisanship that has gripped Washington for four years and frustrated Americans who see big problems going unsolved.

It won’t be easy. Both sides claim, with some justification, a mandate from the voters.

“We’ll have as much of a mandate as he will,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said shortly before the election, correctly anticipating the results.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was frostier in his post-election remarks. “The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president’s first term,” McConnell said.

“Now it’s time for the president to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House,” he said, “and deliver in a way that he did not in his first four years in office.”

After three straight swing elections, Americans decided to keep Obama in the White House, leave Republicans in control of the House and let Democrats stay atop the Senate, with Republicans still able to block measures with filibusters.

There’s an irony, or self-flagellation, there. Americans express exasperation at the partisan sniping and gridlock that pushed the nation to the brink of defaulting on its loans last year, and which might trigger new crises soon. The narrowness of Obama’s win accurately reflects the nation’s nearly 50-50 partisan divide. It’s a split that will make progress on any major issues difficult for at least another two years, and probably longer.

Every newly elected president claims a mandate, and Obama can point to the roughly $1 billion that Mitt Romney and his GOP allies spent trying to oust him. Yet, for all its tactical brilliance, Obama’s campaign was built on relatively modest ideas. It focused on helping the middle class, which is a coalition of identity, not ideology.

It may have been a status quo election. But if the White House and congressional Republicans simply stand their ground on taxes and other issues, they run risks — not just for the nation’s well-being, but also for the legacies of a barrier-breaking president and a Republican Party that has tapped a deep vein of conservative, almost libertarian emotion. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: election 2012, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Ohio election 2012, presidential election, presidential election Ohio, presidential race Ohio, Senator Sherrod Brown, Sherrod Brown, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, utler County Election 2012

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

A Republican newcomer from West Chester Township became the newest Butler County commissioner in preliminary election results with 100 percent of the vote counted, while Sheriff Rick Jones kept his job in a landslide vote.

And a countywide issue to provide about half of the $30 million budget to help abused and neglected kids got the nod, 61 percent to 39 percent.

A much needed 7.05-mill additional levy for the debt-ridden Monroe Schools passed 55 percent to 45 percent. The levy, proposed by the state-appointed Financial Planning and Supervision Commission, raises $2.5 million annually. The district is in fiscal emergency and under state control. The district is suing its former treasurer over the financial mess.

In the commission race, T.C. Rogers, a home builder and real estate agent, led the three-way contest through the night against Democrat Jodi Billerman of Liberty Township and Libertarian Daryl Olthaus of Milford Township. Rogers had 61 percent of the vote, while Billerman and Olthaus had 32 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

None of the candidates have held political office before.

All were campaigning on controlling spending and T.C. Rogers promised to create jobs. Butler County faces $1.7 million in cuts in its 2013 budget and has already trimmed about $900,000 to get through the end of this year.

The winner replaces longtime commissioner Chuck Furmon, who was ousted in the primary election in a three-way race with Rogers and state Rep. Courtney Combs. Combs lost his statehouse seat in January to term limits. Rogers beat out Combs by 13 votes in a recount.

A race for another commission seat held by Republican Don Dixon was uncontested.

In the sheriff’s race, Jones, a Republican, was handily beating independent challenger Dale Richter with 81 percent of the vote.

For Richter, a Springboro police officer, it was the third time he went up against Jones since 2004 and was walloped at the ballot box.

Also, locally, Republican Margaret Conditt comfortably won the 52nd District State Representative seat against Branden Rudie (Democrat) and Bob Coogan (Libertarian). Conditt had 66 percent of the vote, while Rudie and Coogan had 27 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: 52nd House District election, 52nd House District race, Butler County commission race, Butler County Commissioner electiion, Butler County Commissioners, Butler County Election 2012, election 2012, Liberty Township election, Ohio election 2012, presidential election, presidential election Ohio, presidential race Ohio, U.S. Senate Ohio election, U.S. Senate Ohio race, West Chester election

Deirdre Shesgreen reports:

Sen. Sherrod Brown won a second term to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday – fending off a hard-charging, well-funded GOP challenger and more than $30 million in withering attack ads from outside groups in one of the most expensive and closely watched match-ups in the country.

“Today in Ohio, the middle of America, the middle class won,” a jubilant Brown told supporters gathered at the Hilton in downtown Columbus, where the Ohio Democratic Party held its election night celebration.

Brown said the race was “never about me” but about veterans, steelworkers and other hard-working Ohioans who he promised to fight for in Washington.

Republican challenger Josh Mandel, the state treasurer, congratulated Brown about 11 p.m., adding, “I respect him as a leader. … It was a David versus Goliath battle.”

Brown’s voice was even more raspy than usual, barely audible over the crowd, which interrupted him with chants of “Sherrod, Sherrod, Sherrod.”

Supporters waved placards with a thick red line through the number $40 million – the amount outside groups spent against Brown in the race, which includes about $30 million in ads and $10 million on billboards, literature and other campaign items.

Brown eventually ceded the microphone to his wife, Connie Schultz, to finish reading his speech.

“They spent more money against Sherrod Brown than any Senate candidate in the history of the United States,” Schultz said of the outside groups. But “these groups they don’t know Ohio.

“They didn’t know that we had tens of thousands of volunteers,” she said. “They didn’t know that Ohioans could not be bought.”

Brown’s victory in Ohio – along with other Democratic wins in Missouri, Virginia and elsewhere – means that Democrats will keep control of the Senate come January. So Brown will return to Washington as part of a triumphant majority, not a vanquished minority.

Brown’s comfortable margin on Tuesday night belied a bruising, expensive and nationally watched race that began nearly two years ago. In the process, Ohioans were subjected to a dizzying 12,000 TV ads trying to influence their vote in the race, and the two candidates shattered spending records. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: election 2012, Josh Mandel, Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate, Ohio election 2012, Senator Sherrod Brown, Sherrod Brown, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, utler County Election 2012

Dan Horn reports:

Butler County Judge Sharon Kennedy helped Republicans continue their dominance of Ohio’s Supreme Court on Tuesday with a win over Yvette McGee Brown, the only incumbent Democrat on the court.

Kennedy also made history as the first Butler County resident elected to the state’s high court in almost 150 years.

Kennedy, who becomes the only Greater Cincinnatian on the court, led Brown 57 percent to 43 percent late Tuesday with most Ohio precincts reporting. In the two other Supreme Court races, incumbent Republican Terrence O’Donnell easily beat Democratic challenger Michael Skindell, while Democratic challenger William O’Neill topped Republican incumbent Robert Cupp.

If those tallies hold, Republicans would retain a 6-1 majority on the seven-member court, with O’Neill replacing Brown as the lone Democrat.

Kennedy, a Butler County domestic relations court judge and a former police officer, faced a bigger challenge than other recent GOP candidates in winning a Supreme Court seat. Brown, who was appointed to an open seat last year, is popular with her Republican colleagues and appeared to be more palatable to business interests than past Democratic candidates, in part because she voted with the court’s majority in 95 percent of her decisions. She also is the first African-American woman ever to serve on the court.

Kennedy also overcame a rare “not recommended” rating from the Ohio State Bar Association and a snub by the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, which did not endorse her despite her background as a police officer.

Despite those obstacles, Kennedy, 49, of Liberty Township, won the race and became the first Butler County resident elected to the court since Josiah Scott in 1866. (more…)

Posted in: Election, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Election 2012, election 2012, Liberty Township election, Ohio election 2012, Sharon Kennedy, Sharon Kennedy justice, West Chester election