Green Party candidate Dennis Spisak is running for Ohio Governor.

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Being from Ohio, elections here are especially important to me as they have a more direct impact on the Buckeye State than do federal elections.  So it was heartening to read at USelections.com that there is an independent candidate from the left who is running for governor and who isn’t culled from the pools of Big Business.  His name is Dennis Spisak, and he is running for governor this year.  You can check out his web site by clicking this LINK.

Other candidates for governor are incumbent and Democrat Ted Strickland, Republican and businessboy John Kasich, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. president in 2000, and building contractor Ken Matesz on the Libertarian Party ticket.

I am writing in support of Dennis Spisak because Governor Strickland has done a thoroughly mediocre job and we need someone in office who will better represent the public interest.  To date, Strickland’s actions have been too much of caution where boldness, frankness, and decisive action have been needed.  Although his first proposed budget made some necessary changes, better funding some areas that had suffered from the so-called “peanut butter effect” — that is, spreading budget dollars evenly across the board rather than focus money where it is most needed — his decision to cut funds for vital services like public libraries, and engage in “budget-balancing” (read: massive layoffs) at a time when Ohio most needs public spending, simply do not earn him a second term.

I write this as someone who, with a great many reservations about both his positions and his lackluster campaigning, nevertheless volunteered for that campaign in 2006 against fascist candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell, who rigged the 2004 presidential election and helped plunge the nation into four extra years of darkness under the dictatorship of George W. Bush.  Ohio cannot endure another four years of mediocrity when it suffers from one of the worst economies in the nation.

Nor can it endure four or more years of a Republican governorship, under which things would be even worse than they are now.  Given the choice among the good, the bad, and the mediocre, Ohioans should rally behind the good, and that is personified in Dennis Spisak.

His positions on various issues include, but are by no means limited to:

HEALTH CARE FOR ALL OHIOANS ACT: It’s time we establish single-payer healthcare in Ohio. The only 4 NOS you will hear:

No Co-payments, No Deductibles, No Premiums, No One Excluded.

You go to your personal physician for a visit. You pay nothing. The doctor bills the Ohio Health Care Fund (OHCF)

You have prescriptions filled by the pharmacist. You pay nothing. the pharmacist bills OHCF.

You need hospitalization. You pay nothing. The hispotal is paid by the OHCF.

You go to the emregency room. You do not wait for hours and hours. Since everyone has health care coverage, people can see their own doctors for routine care and don’t have to use the emergency room as a doctor’s office.

Your care is better. You choose your own doctor, who knows you personally and understands your needs. The doctor is part of a system that encourages phtsicians to practice medicine of the highest quality.

You sleep better. Your health care is secure. You no longer have to worry about losing your health care coverage if you lose or change your job. Your employer no longer has to worry about the ever-increating costs of health care. You no longer have to worry about ever-increaing deductibles and co-payments.

JOBS: It’s time Ohio’s Governor becomes an active participant in seeking new blue-green reneweable energy manufacturing  jobs for the buckeye state.

The city of Saginaw,Michigan is bidding to become home to a branch of the San Jose-based solar company GlobalWatt. If the Saginaw City Council approves a brownfield redevelopment plan, the company could receive ten million dollars in tax credits.

A city in Texas has already offered an incentive package to the company should they decide to locate their new facility there. The Texas city could be Corpus Christi, but some sources also state the location is still undisclosed.  GlobalWatt already works with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi on photovoltaics research.

The company produces solar modules, photovoltaic laminators, semi-automatic production lines, and conducts research. Their new plant  will cost about $177 million to create and will manufacture solar modules for commercial, military and residential installations.

An estimated 100 jobs will be created annually each year for five years, beginning in 2010.

Ohio could use 500 new jobs in the next five years. It’s time for Ohio to have a Governor to lead the job searches for new renewable jobs.

TAXES: Ohio Must Return to a Progressive Fair Tax System!

Low-and middle-income Ohioans pay a much greater share of their income in state and local taxes than the state’s most affluent do, according to a study by Policy Matters Ohio.

The top 1 percent of non-elderly Ohio families by income, who earned at least $352,000 in 2007, on average pay 7.8 percent of their income in state and local taxes. By contrast, the lowest fifth, who make less than $17,000, on average pay 12.0 percent. Families in the middle fifth of the income spectrum, who make between $32,000 and $50,000, on average pay 11.0 percent.

Recent changes in Ohio’s state and local tax system have increased the disparity. The report found that Ohio ranks 28th among states in the fairness of its tax system, based on the share of their income affluent Ohioans are paying in state and local taxes compared to that of lower- and middle-income Ohioans. Last time the study was done, which covered the law as of 2002, Ohio ranked 14th by this measure.

The national report, Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States, was produced by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and released in Ohio by Policy Matters Ohio and The Center for Community Solutions. It reviews every state’s tax system based on permanent changes in law enacted through October 2009 and income levels from 2007 (the most recent year that necessary data is available across states).

“No one would ever design an income tax with lower tax rates for the best-off taxpayers,” noted Matthew Gardner, ITEP’s executive director and lead author of the study. “But that is exactly what Ohio’s tax system overall does: It allows the very wealthiest individuals to contribute less of their income, on average, than middle- and lower-income families must pay. In other words, Ohio has an unfair, regressive tax system.”

Given these and other positions on issues vital to Ohioans — indeed, to all Americans — it makes sense that voters support a candidate who represents their interests at the polls in November.  Those who threaten us with a Republican victory if Strickland loses votes to Spisak would do well to remember that their terroristic threats did not go over well with Massachusetts voters last month, and for good reason: we’re simply fed up with Democrats who promise us reform but govern like Republicans anyway.  Democrats are not entitled to non-Republican votes.  Strickland is in danger of losing the governorship to Kasich because he is a middling politician who has done poorly at the job to which Ohioans have elected him, and because his idea of campaigning is to tout his past jobs while refusing to illustrate where he really stands on the issues or how he plans to address them.  (Again, I know this because I worked on his campaign as a volunteer in 2006, and so am in a position to write from first hand observation.)

Anyway, there’s my post in support of Dennis Spisak.  Look up the information in the links provided and make up your own mind.