Columbus now has a contested race for mayor. City council president Shannon Hardin, tired of waiting his turn, wants to deny Mayor Andrew Ginther a fourth term.
Politically speaking – the gloves are coming off.
We're talking with Shannon Hardin about why now, his vision for the city, and whether this is really a good move for Columbus Democrats?
In other political news, Columbus City Council is considering changes to they way they are election, a Republican caucus memo warns that the data center issue could derail congressional candidates like U.S. Senator Jon Husted?
We'll discuss this and more on our Weekly Reporter Roundtable show.
Guests:
- Shannon Hardin, Columbus City Council President and candidate for mayor in 2027
- Mark Ferenchik, news director, WOSU Public Media
- Megan Henry, reporter, Ohio Capital Journal
- Shane Stegmiller, reporter, Hannah News Service
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. This week, we're breaking from our usual Reporter Roundtable to spend some time on big political news for the city of Columbus. Late last week, Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin announced that he will run for mayor, challenging current mayor Andrew Ginther, who is seeking a fourth term. The move will likely divide Columbus Democrats. Both Hardin and Ginther were mentored by former Columbus mayor Michael Coleman. And Hardin and Ginther have seen eye-to-eye about the city until recently. Joining us now to talk about why he's decided to run for mayor is City Council President Shannon Hardin. Welcome to All Sides, Shannon.
Shannon Hardin: Thank you so much, Amy, for having me.
Juravich: So you are the second most powerful politician in Columbus. What can you accomplish as mayor that you can't accomplish as city council president?
Hardin: Well, there are a lot of different things that you can do as the administrator of the city versus on the legislative side. You set the vision for the city, you set the direction that we go in, you are able to convene the business community, neighborhood leaders, civic leaders to solve our community's biggest challenges. And that's why I'm running for mayor. It got us here, for sure. Will not get us to where we need to go next. We're going to cross over the million person mark soon. And for so many folks in our community, they are seeing the growth, but they're only experiencing some of the downsides. Their rents are going up, their utility rates are going, their property taxes certainly are going. And they're just asking, can we get cut in on the deal of this growth? And so I think this is a time where we have a choice to make. Do we want to continue to do things the way that we've always done them, or do we want a change and bring, you know, to tackle some of our biggest issues that we face as a city?
Juravich: You said at your event last week that the Columbus Way has lost its way. But you've been the part of the Columbus Way for years. I mean, you literally grew up in City Hall with your mom working there. There were a lot of decisions by Mayor Ginther that City Council supported and passed nine to zero. So under your leadership, what's changed? How has the Columbus Way changed?
Hardin: Yeah, I said that I also have some regrets so I'm really proud of some of the things that we've been able to accomplish even with the mayor We've done some good things together, but there are also some things not just things that We've don't but how we have done them I spent the last year and a half having conversations with residents from around the the city Asking them what about their hopes and their dreams for the future of this city And one of the thing that I heard loud and clear is how we do things is building mistrust out in our community one of the residents that I had dinner with pointed to his wife, said, I've been married to her for 18 years and we don't agree on everything. And so when we see you all downtown agreeing on everything, standing behind the same podium, his words, it makes us not trust none of you out stuff there. Oh dear. And so I got those type of indictments over and over again. If it was one person, I'd say, okay, that's a cranky old man. But when you hear it hundreds of times in different ways, you see that this thing that we thought was good, Not not airing all of our grievances out in public, coalescing behind the scenes and putting a forward united front had that unintended consequence that made people feel, well, wait a minute, this is baked behind scenes, this is done by those folks, and where do I get to raise my hand and say, oh, I have a different opinion? And so, yes, I think that public-private partnerships are a great thing, but the people have to be a part of that. And so people want to see debate, People want to see. Uh have opportunities to to see that there are differences and they want to be able to weigh in as well and so that's one of the things that uh changed in me uh and and one of the regrets i have is that for far too long we thought that we were doing it the right way um by just having all those conversations uh behind the scenes and are you saying
Juravich: So are you saying that you disagreed behind the scenes a lot of the time, but then you would come out to a podium and agree with the mayor?
Hardin: I said, well, what we would do is we would work behind the scenes to fix all the issues before taking those things public.
Juravich: So any public-private partnership that was like announced you had negotiated and dealt with all of them. For sure, I think any
Hardin: I think anyone who has worked in Columbus or the last 30 years, we know what we're talking about. Everybody knows what we are talking about. You can't really challenge the system out loud. You work those things out. You can actually get things done and I think that's what convinces folks that, okay, this is how it should be done. But the issue is that more and more folks are paying attention to what City Hall is I'm paying attention to. You know, who is really at the table. And what that breeds is mistrust when they don't see the full breadth of the conversation. They don't, and it's not just about seeing it, they don't see their opportunity to weigh in, to say, well, wait, I think that there's a different way to do it because what it does, it makes it seem like, well, if all the powerful folks already have it figured out and say that this is the way it is, then certainly little old me can't bring my differing opinion to the table, And I think that that is dangerous in this moment when... Institutions writ large are losing public trust, that if there is any institution, any building, any center of convening and power that needs to have trust, it's the local government and City Hall in this moment where we live in a state house and a federal government that seems anti-people. The
Juravich: The idea of the Columbus way was kind of invented by your mentor, Mayor Michael Coleman. And when I interviewed him recently, he said that the idea of The Columbus Way kind of came out of a speech he gave back on like September 11th, after what happened on September 11th. And he was referring to like the Columbus Way of like, joining together. And I think I'm not putting words in his mouth, because I can't remember exactly what he said. But it's something like it kind of got out of hand. I don't know. Do you feel like the columbus way got out a hand?
Hardin: I think that, like I said, I think it lost its way. I think folks got so good at just doing those partnerships that it started to shield us from the real work of actually bringing more people to the table. I call a group of us the Columbus 500 where you think that there's diversity because there's that one person that will say this thing and that one that represents this community. And it in back when we were a city of maybe six, seven, 800,000 people that worked. But there are so many more amazing people coming from all over, not just the state now, but the country and the world that are here in Columbus who are, we're not a part of that old Columbus 500. We're not.
Juravich: What's the 500?
Hardin: I just say the folks that go to the receptions, go to dinners, the folks you bump into.
Juravich: There's like 500 of them. I just I just made up.
Hardin: I just made up a number, but I'm saying it's way too small for a city of a million people to actually have a voice and a seat at the table. This is about expanding those opportunities for everyone to be a part of the solutions that we need to have. I mean, we are a big city now. We have big city problems and we need big, bold solutions. And I don't believe that every answer to every problem that we have is on a desk a city hall or even at the. Uh... On a desk at the partnership or somewhere i think that they're out in communities and neighborhoods throughout the city and we have to uh... Be very uh... Uh... Intentional about making bring bringing more folks in
Juravich: You pick to make your announcement that you're running for mayor on the first day of school for the Columbus City Schools. There are a lot of people who blame the city, the tax abatements. They blame them for Columbus City School's money troubles. What do you do to fix that?
Hardin: Well, one, I mean, so Thursday was the first day of school, 47,000 of our babies started school in an under-supported and under-performing either public school, Columbus City Schools, or a failing charter school. And I think for far too long, we have allowed for the district to handle those challenges and we went over here and ran the city. Somehow convincing ourselves that our fates are not already inextricably connected. And so for me, as I think about where we go from here, and I used to think that parents didn't know that the city was not, you know, running the school district. In my conversations with residents, they don't care. They think that those are silly jurisdictional excuses for why we are not more intimately engaged. I mean, and they want to know if anybody will stand up. And I think that that does include. How we what is that? What does our support look like for the schools and this is when it comes to tax abatements You know Housing is certainly one of our top issues and crises. We have to build more affordable housing. We have use the tools that are in front of us right now to build that affordable housing, but in a time when the state each year, in the last two years has taken $50 million out of the Columbus City School District because they don't believe in public education, because they want to funnel it to unregulated charter schools, we have to look afresh at how we are building. Housing we can't rob Peter to pay Paul if Peter is our school district and what that means to us We have to use the tools that we have the table right now with abatements, but we should be looking in exploring What are those other tools? I've been talking to developers and say well, you know You know There are real gaps in funding and we have to come to the table as a city to encourage more affordable housing With some sort of resource to help gap fund and buy down affordability in housing but some of the pre Development cost some of the underground utilities that that go into a building affordable housing Maybe we switch to using bond dollars there to
Juravich: So so tax abatements are still on the table, but you want it to be associated with building affordable housing.
Hardin: For sure. Well, we have to use all tools to build affordable housing, but we have to make sure, especially in a time when our city needs those dollars as soon as possible because they are being pulled out, we have to explore other ways too. I would look at other ways to build affordable housing just not just relying on tax abatements. And I think that we have be critical and ask the question and study. Later this fall, council will roll out a study around economic development to see what those other tools are. We can't throw away the tool that we've been using until we know that we have other ones there, but we certainly are, everything should be on the table, especially when it comes to Columbus City Schools.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 WOSU News. We're talking with Columbus City Council President and now candidate for mayor, Shannon Hardin. You kind of glazed over this, but do you want the city to take over or help run Columbus City Schools?
Hardin: Well, I think there are a lot of things that we can do before we even get to that kind of conversation. I think that when so many of our babies are going to under performing in under supported schools, we don't take anything off the table. I think we need big bold ideas, but I think before we can even get there, one of the things we can right away is align our neighborhood planning with their school planning. So many of the conversations with Columbus City schools that have frustrated so many parents is. The conversation has to be about closing schools because they were under-enrolled. I want to work with the district and to see how we can align both of our priorities around building up neighborhoods so that we can talk about how we fill schools. One of the things that I think about right now when so many of our nonprofits are being slashed and they're funding, the City of Columbus funds millions of dollars to organizations that work with young people. What if we didn't have to have the overhead of buildings because they were physically located in schools that had the space right now? That is one way to do that.
Juravich: So utilize some of the Columbus City school buildings for nonprofits.
Hardin: For sure while there are still students in there and make the product itself better so that parents will want to walk their kids to their neighborhood school versus either bussing them or taking them to, like I said, an underperforming charter school. And this is not to pick on folks who have sent their kids to charter schools because one parent told me, and this was me as a Democrat, this was an indictment, I have an F-rated neighborhood school. And then I take my child out of that and put it in this charter school. And yeah, that wasn't, you know, what didn't turn out the best, but I didn't have a choice. Like I'm trying to find a choice and then you demonize me as a Democrat because I sent my kid to a charter school, we need to give our parents good choices and understand that everyone, when you, I just dropped my son off this morning at Columbus City Schools for his first day of kindergarten.
Juravich: Yeah, how'd you handle that?
Hardin: You know, I'm still dealing with that right now. He's much more of an extrovert than me So he was already trying to make
Juravich: You're running for mayor you're not an extrovert
Hardin: I love people, but I love people.
Juravich: Okay, yeah, I get it, you're an introverted extrovert.
Hardin: I see.
Juravich: Or extroverted introvert something like yeah something like that okay well anyway congrats on getting your kid to kindergarten successfully um you said you want to make education a top priority but what about all the people in the city who don't have kids in schools they want lower property taxes they want sidewalks and bike lanes they want more housing there's a lot to be done. I mean, how do you how do you pick pick a priority besides schools?
Hardin: Well, I think you picked the priority. I had a mentor that said running a city is too hard not to do the hardest thing. The hardest thing right now, the biggest crisis that we have right now was that, like I said, 47,000 of our young people are in a school district that we all know has to be better. And why that impacts all of us, yes, these babies are the right now and they deserve good schools, parents deserve. To know that they can live within the city and have a good school option. We, yes, when I talk about education being my top priority, that also means that we need to find a way to finally fund and expand a good early childhood education. And so those are right now. Those are right now issues for parents.
Juravich: Do you feel like Mayor Ginther has ignored Columbus City Schools?
Hardin: I think that a lot of us have ignored Columbus City Schools because we said it was theirs. It was the school boards and the superintendent's responsibility and we kinda say, well we'll help on the periphery. You know, you call us when you need us. Instead of being bold, being saying, no, no, every day, every I will get up and make sure that being a better partner, supporter, and truthfully, in this environment where the state is coming after this district every day we will be a defender. And of this district and of all public schools to make sure that we do work together to improve them so I do think that that is a Market shift in how we have operated as a city and and I think that is what parents are looking I mean they're looking for anybody to fight for for their their kids and To answer your question though around. How does that impact folks who maybe don't have kids? Yeah This is the future workforce one And, you know, we created, I created the Columbus Promise that sends all of our kids to, from Columbus City Schools to Columbus State and then now on to the Ohio State University for free. But we know that the first years of the Columbus promise, we were spending so much time doing remedial work to catch our young people up, to make sure that they were ready for the credential and thus ready for their job. Also, you now, Columbus is a, a city that needs people to be in the city, want to be the city. One of the main reasons when folks either move here or decide where to live, it's based on the school district. If we really want Columbus to be that city that is vibrant, that literally pulls folks in, that is really the epicenter of growth and of vibrancy, then we gotta have a school district that really is worth, you can't have a great city without great schools.
Juravich: So you want to convince all the non-kid people to care.
Hardin: About the schools in the future. Even some of the things that we saw this summer around safety in our young people. The more, when folks have access to good education, to the best education, to have, when they know that their best days are ahead of them and they know that they are invested in and supported, it changes all aspects of their life. And I think that that would definitely impact the rest of the city.
Juravich: We only have a couple minutes left. I interviewed Mayor Michael Coleman back in July. He declined to say who he would endorse in a race for mayor because you had not entered the race yet. He said it was complete speculation. But now you're in the race. So have you talked with Mayor Coleman about this move about you joining the race for mayor?
Hardin: Well, the mayor is certainly a mentor of mine and his counsel on many things are important to me. But Coleman led this city 16 years ago. And the city that he fought for to represent in 1999 is a very different city than it is today. And so I still listen to, I think that he is the greatest mayor that we've had in our city in a. Yeah, I'll say I'll just leave it there. Greatest mayor we've had in our city and his and I will work very hard to earn his support. But I'll work very hard to earn the support of all the residents of the city of Columbus. Are you expecting?
Juravich: Are you expecting an endorsement from Mayor Coleman?
Hardin: Expecting is really strong. I don't expect support from anyone. I really do want to earn that support. I want to convince people with my Ideas and my vision for the city that You know that this is the right time for a change I want you to give Columbus heck I want and give the mayor a choice Mayor Coleman a choice of do we still do things the way that we've always done them or do we? Go in a different direction and I think that that is the choice that all residents will have this coming for it.
Juravich: Are you expecting anyone else to enter the race, or do you think it'll be just between you and Mayor Gunther?
Hardin: I'm not sure and I'm, and I am not really convinced about, I'm not really focused on who I'm running against. I'm really focused on what I'm running for and that's, that's the future of Columbus. I'm really looking forward to over the next, uh, whatever we
Juravich: It's a while.
Hardin: 250 some days to the primary and 400 some to roll out some really big, bold ideas for how we improve public education, how we continue to build more housing in the city of Columbus, how we seriously tackle our homelessness crises that we're in. I mean, we got to get serious. We got to be real. We can't keep passing the buck and blaming the other side like this is unacceptable Over the last 12 years, unhoused homelessness has tripled. Tripled and last three in the last three years City Council has had to double funding each year To just to meet what the shelter system was asking for to hold steady This is a big crisis and we've all seen it, but we haven't had the leadership to solve it and those are the type of things that we want to Own
Juravich: Truthfully, you're the leadership to solve it in the mayor's office not as the city council president
Hardin: No, yeah, because you will need to convene more people. Council has done as much as we could. We received, even just this last budget, we received a budget that funded the shelter system by half of what they asked for. When they knew, when we all knew that that was just to hold us steady. So council, in this most challenging budget that I've seen since the Great Recession, we doubled that funding. And yet still there is still a gap community-wide. I believe that that's a space for the mayor's, the mayor to take leadership and say, you know, this is what the city can do, county this, what can you do, private sector what can you, do and this is our goal and this, is how we're going to meet it. That's the kind of leadership that we need in this moment.
Juravich: We're gonna have to leave it there, we're out of time. We've been talking with Columbus City Council President and new candidate for mayor, Shannon Hardin. Thanks for your time today.
Hardin: Thank you so much, Amy.
Juravich: Coming up, WOSU News Director and longtime journalist Mark Ferenchik will weigh in on what's likely to be inexpensive and potentially contentious matchup between Mayor Ginther and Council President Shannon Hardin. That is when All Sides continues on 89.7 WOSU News.
You're listening to All Sides, I'm your host Amy Juravich. This morning we're talking politics. But City of Columbus politics first. We'll get to state politics in the next segment. We just heard from Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin, who is now Columbus mayoral candidate Shannon Hardin. After much speculation and dropping of hints, he finally made it official last week, deciding to challenge Mayor Andrew Ginther, who was running to win a fourth term. Joining us now to talk about this all is WOSU's news director and long-time journalist, Mark Ferenchik. Welcome back to All Sides, Mark. Thanks Amy. So, you've watched many city races unfold over the years, but now here we have two strong, well-known Democrats going head-to-head in what promises to most likely be an expensive race for mayor. How do you think they're going to differentiate themselves?
Mark Ferenchik: Well, that's a good question. Again, the Columbus way has been brought up already quite a bit. That's the way of doing business here in Columbus, and Shannon Hardin has expressed some concerns, at least as of now, about doing business behind closed doors. And should that be the way that things are going? We'll see how they can differentiate each other, because they both have been immersed in city politics in the city's political culture for many, many years. How are they gonna differentiate themselves on the campaign trail? What issues are they going to present that they're going to be pushing? And again, Shannon Hardin, obviously he's running as the challenger, but he really can't run as an outsider, certainly. He's been part of the political culture for years. He grew up in City Hall, as you said. It's very close to Mike Coleman. We'll see where Mike Coleman falls with all of this during the campaign, which will be very interesting too. And we'll also see who the business community, quite frankly, sides with too, in terms of political contributions. It's gonna be very interesting. Right now, Mayor Gimp, there has about a million seven in his campaign.
Juravich: Yeah, $1.7 million, yeah.
Ferenchik: Yeah, and Shannon has about four hundred thousand so
Juravich: Significantly less, but he just got started, I would say.
Ferenchik: So who's going to side with who, what issues are going to come to play that we don't even know about in the next year or so that come to the forefront and it's going to be an interesting, interesting debate. Again, there are all sorts of issues, development, policing, flock cameras, which we're going to be discussing tomorrow on your show, Yep. All sorts of different things. So we'll see.
Juravich: Here's some audio of Hardin taking a swipe at the hallmark phrase that loved by city leaders, Ginther and others. Let's listen.
Hardin: And I believe the way we've always done things is part of what is keeping us from doing better. Seems the Columbus way has lost its way.
Juravich: Now, Hardin has been in some of those meetings, I'm sure, the Columbus Way type meetings, where all of the negotiations happen behind the scenes and then they present a united front, except maybe the deal with the soccer, with the women's soccer team. I feel like though, he's been in on a lot of these Columbus Way discussions. So what do you make of the fact that he's taking issue with this, the Columbus way?
Ferenchik: Again, I think people in the community certainly have been concerned about the Columbus way of doing things for many, many years. And he's heard this and the mayor's heard this and others have heard this over the years. There's an economic divide in the city. Some people are prospering. Many, many people are not, though. Again, there was a study done 10 years ago that economic segregation in Columbus and Austin, those are the two biggest economically segregated cities in the country. So a lot of people see all these. Deals that are going on, whether it involves sports teams, business development, tax abatements certainly are an issue, and a lot of residents are saying, what's in it for me? I'm not benefiting by any of this, and they, I would think a lot people feel that public officials are not on their side because they don't see their lives getting any better while people with connections, they see things happening for them. Hmm
Juravich: Mayor Andrew Ginther had a press conference at the exact same time that Hardin announced that he was running for mayor. The Mayor Ginther's press conference was to talk about flooding around the city. Let's listen.
Andrew Ginther: Today is not a day for politics. Today, we just had a tornado come through this community. We have record flooding. We're activating the flood wall. We need to be focused on others, serving others, serving our neighbors, looking out for our neighbors. Not talking about ourselves.
Juravich: Do you think the fact that he had the the flood wall press conference and talked about tornadoes and flooding at the exact same time as Hardin's announcement was just a coincidence?
Ferenchik: Well, it could have had a press conference at noon, could have held at one. Again, there was a lot going on last week in terms of flooding. So the fact that it happened at the same time is interesting. It may be a coincidence.
Juravich: But it's interesting.
Ferenchik: It's interesting to say the least. Yes. It's interesting again that Shannon Harlan still picked Thursday to do this press conference when all these weather issues were still happening.
Juravich: He said he still picked it to do with because of all the weather issues because he wanted to make the announcement on the first day of schools for the city of Columbus because he seems to be really leaning in. He really wants to fix the schools.
Ferenchik: Right. And I thought I think that's a very interesting issue, too, that, again, he seems to want the mayor's office to become more involved. I don't know if, again you had discussed with him and we had written about and reported last week about, again the city of Cleveland, the mayor office has run the school system up there since 1998. Does he want to go that far? He seemed like he's not there yet totally, but it seems like He certainly wants to become more involved in Dealing with the schools, talking with the school, working with the schools on many issues. I again, I think he's probably heard from people as why isn't the city more involved with the problems with the school?
Juravich: They've been very hands-off, yeah.
Ferenchik: Yeah, that's correct. But again, it's the school right now. It's the the school district needs to handle its own issues. How much should the city be involved in running the school district? It'll and that'll be an interesting debate if that's continues to be an issue.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 WOSU News. I'm Amy Juravich. We're talking city politics. A competitive race for mayor is taking shape and we're talking with WOSU's news director, Mark Ferenchik. So, Ginther sent out a press release following Hardin's announcement Thursday, welcoming him to the race and saying, quote, a healthy democracy is built on people stepping forward to serve and giving voters a choice. In this release, he also touted his accomplishments as mayor, affordable housing. Fastest growing wages reducing violent crime. We invited Mayor Ginther to join us on all sides and we look forward to working out a good date for that interview in the near future. But I wanted to talk to you Mark about the competitiveness of this race because I read in the Columbus Dispatch that a mayoral contest has not been decided by fewer than 18 percentage points since 1991.
Ferenchik: Right it's been a long time. It's a long time. And that's why it'll be very interesting to see what happens with this race. Again the first year I would came back to Columbus working for the dispatch the 1999 election between Michael Coleman and Dorothy Teether.
Juravich: Oh, so you weren't you weren t here in the 91 race. Okay, got it.
Ferenchik: But still, that was still 60-40, the mayor had 60% of the vote. Joe Motil, back in 2023, got a third of the votes, which actually was not too bad considering the establishment he was facing in that election. So we're going to have a real competitive race, and hopefully, again, both candidates we'll be talking about major issues, having good debates. Uh... Talking about issues that haven't been brought up before uh... Whether it's economic, whether it is development uh...whether it's who's contributing to to what race uh... The the influence that the business community has here in city politics and what happens in the city of columbus and that's what people here, residents of the city columbas voters need to hear more about
Juravich: Yeah, in the last election, you mentioned retired construction safety professional, longtime neighborhood advocate Joe Motil. He ran against Ginther. Ginther won with 63% of the vote. Ginther has not faced a powerful challenger since probably 2015. He ran again Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott. Motil might take exception for me not calling him a powerful challenge, but it's just who has the money, the influence, the name recognition, that kind of thing. So are we finally at the point when does Shannon Hardin. And Andy Ginther have similar name recognition in this city.
Ferenchik: Oh, for sure. Yeah, they definitely do. And again, that's the the the good thing about this race is that it always has been you have to wait your turn to run for mayor. And Shannon Hardin's not waiting for his turn. That's he thinks the time is right.
Juravich: He was supposed to wait and let
Ferenchik: That's that's
Juravich: That's our do one more term.
Ferenchik: That's been the Columbus way, right.
Juravich: You wait your turn.
Ferenchik: You wait your turn.
Juravich: Ginther waited his turn.
Ferenchik: Yeah, he's not shanahan's not waiting his turn and that's why it'll be This has been going on in other cities for many many years now. It's finally happening here in the city of Columbus and again, it's I it's good for the city because it'll Be a very hard-fought race again, hopefully many issues will be brought up debated well and People have their say voters will have a good say as to who's gonna run the city in 2027, in that election.
Juravich: Yeah, so, and just to, for our listeners, it's a non-partisan race, so if one more person enters, there will be a primary, correct? But if not, then the two of them will just face off in November.
Ferenchik: Correct, correct. And will somebody decide to, again, throw their hat in the ring to make it a competitive primary? And we'll have to wait and see for that too. Yeah.
Juravich: Well, before we run out of time, there's another issue in city politics going on and it's the makeup of Columbus City Council. Voters in November will have a chance to change city council representation. A group of citizens got enough signatures to put an issue on the ballot. They want the nine members of council to be elected by votes in their district, not based on city-wide voting. And this is expected to be on the ballots after a vote by city council tonight, is that correct? Okay. And then, but then there's a second proposal that came up. Tell me that about that.
Ferenchik: Right. So Rob Doran's is going to put up put in a proposal too. So people are going to have voters here in Columbus will have two separate issues to vote on with the Columbus City Council where this one by the Columbus city council would have again nine district representatives and four at-large Rob Doran
Juravich: So Rob Dorans and company, I'm not saying it's just him, Rob Doran's and company wants to add four at large seats.
Ferenchik: Correct, so it would be 13 council members total. And that would supposedly be a compromise because the way people vote for council now.
Juravich: Not the Columbus way, but the way not the Columbus.
Ferenchik: But yeah, so right now, if you again, there are nine district representatives, but the entire city gets to vote on each district's representation. So it's still is basically an at large system. This would have true district representation also, but still keeping for at large council people.
Juravich: But adding those four seats, so we'll go from nine city council people to 13.
Ferenchik: 13 correct, but the city has.
Juravich: But the city has to vote and say yes to that.
Ferenchik: Correct, right, but they're gonna, again, so city council is gonna be discussing this tonight, but you might have two separate issues on the November ballot as to what your council should look like.
Juravich: Okay. And this is this November, and the mayor's race we're talking about is next November.
Ferenchik: In November of 2017.
Juravich: Just to clarify.
Ferenchik: Just to clarify, right.
Juravich: Time is a construct, but we want to make sure. But we want to make sure.
Ferenchik: There's a lot going on. There's lot going.
Juravich: There's a lot going on. We have been talking about changes, potential changes in Columbus City politics with OSU News Director Mark Ferenchik. Thank you so much for your time, Mark. Thanks Amy. And coming up, an abbreviated version of our weekly Reporter Roundtable, we're going to discuss some state House issues and the upcoming November election, along with data centers. That is when All Sides continues on 89.7 WOSU News.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. Now we're switching to our regular reporter round table and focusing on news from the Ohio State House. Joining us this week, we have Megan Henry, reporter for the Ohio Capitol Journal. Welcome back to the show, Megan. Thanks for having me. And Shane Stegmiller, reporter for Hannah News Service. Welcome back, Shane.
Shane Stegmiller: Good morning.
Juravich: So Shane, we've been talking here on the round table about data centers a lot. It comes up every week. And now the issue is playing out in the November election. Residents are upset about these structures coming to their communities. They're upset about the millions in tax breaks they're receiving from the state. Non-disclosure agreements keep them under wraps. But now there's a private memo from the National Republican Senate Commission, which raises concerns about the political cost of data centers. Shane, can you tell us about this memo? Because it's a warning. In the race between Senator Houston and former Senator Sherrod Brown. Tell me about this memo.
Stegmiller: So this memo came out late last week. It's from the National Republican Senate Committee. And that's the campaign arm of basically the US Senate's Republican caucus. And it's a private memo they sent to data center companies and Axios actually was the first one to report on this. And it provides a warning. It says, it uses the Ohio US Senate race between US Senator John Husted and former US Senator Sherrod Brown. As an example of where the damage is being done. What it says is that on most of the issue that the race is like really close, their internal polling is showing this race is really close. But what their data is saying, when they point out like shared Brown's record in that, they feel like they've got a great case to win this race easily. But they're warning that Houston's kind of has an anchor around his neck and that anchor is data centers. And one of the things they are pointing at is that Sherrod Brown went early on the air with ads attacking Houston on data centers. Many of us have probably seen these ads on TV over and over again. You have a little Pac-Man eating like little squares of energy and saying, this is because data centers and John Houston's one of people responsible for it. Another ad called John Houston, the face of data centers So Sherrod Brown went really hard on this issue really early. And according to the National Senate Republicans, it's helping. So they're firing a warning shot. They're saying, you guys need to get a better message out there because otherwise, not only is John Huse going to lose, other candidates that you might support might lose. And I'll see you in the next one. Beyond that, candidates are just gonna run away from this and see it as a toxic issue, and you're not gonna get any support out of Washington at all.
Juravich: Are they kind of advising Houston's campaign and other Republican campaigns to like just figure out how to talk about data centers better or to completely denounce them, do you know?
Stegmiller: They're advising the data center industry that you need to learn how to talk about data centers better. They're telling the data industry, you guys have done a terrible job of selling yourselves to the public. The public hates you and it's weighing down our candidates.
Juravich: Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, Megan, you had a story about data centers and you wrote about the next governor So either Republican Vivek Ramaswamy or Democrat Amy Acton will appoint five members of the Public Utilities Commission Tell me about that because I mean everyone is worried about the utilities when it comes to these data centers And who's paying their fair share? So I guess getting to a point five members is a big deal, right?
Megan Henry: Yes, those five members will be able to set utility rates and the parameters for data centers. Residents across Ohio have seen their utility bills skyrocket, and that's kind of how all this debate around data centers kind of started of, you know, why are my prices going up? Yes, it's been a very hot summer, but there has to be something more to this. And so that's where a lot of the frustration around data center has kind of stemmed from. And so. Yes, at the end of July and early August, both candidates, Amy Acton and Ramasamy, put out their plans. They differ, not surprisingly, but Amy Actin said that she would support a conditional moratorium on data centers if, quote, requirements on costs, union labor, transparencies, environmental standards, community benefit agreements, and development rates are not met. Innovation Ohio, a progressive policy advocacy organization, said that Acton has a strong data center proposal and Ramaswami's plan is threefold. His plan says that if a data center is built in your community, you'll want to pay for your home's electricity, you will pay lower property taxes, and the data center will be required to abide by all air, water, and quality standards, so. Uh, lots of lofty things, but they're not a lot of specifics, which is what innovation Ohio criticized his plan over.
Juravich: Yeah. And Shane, do you feel like, um, either Rama Swami or Acton are getting it right? And just in thinking about that Senate memo, right? That's yelling at the data centers to say, do a better job. Um, Rama Swami coming out and saying, well, if you live nearby, we'll give you free electricity. That sounds good. I don't know if he can actually do that, but it sounds good, right.
Stegmiller: It sounds good and it tells you this can those plans came out well before this memo came out. So it shows you that there were hearing from voters when they're going out there because they both have put out their own plans on how I'm trying to deal with this. I wanted to swing back to the U.S. Senate race just real quick. Sarah Donaldson from State House News Bureau a regular guest on the show. She also tweeted out when this memo came out that Houston himself had told her. Recently, that big tech had been doing a terrible job about talking about the value and the virtue of data centers. So she was pointing out that, hey, even he's kind of trying to change his tone a little bit. So he's already kind of getting the warning signs of this as well.
Juravich: Yeah, and when you say the virtue and value of data centers, I guess they are being villainized, but what they do is they allow us to do more fancy things on our phones. They allow all of this AI to be happening. So like, is that what the memo is getting at, that AI needs to sell themselves better? Like if you like using chat GPT, then you need to like data centers.
Stegmiller: Yeah, I mean, their basic premise is that you guys have done a terrible job, you know, you need to let data centers know what you do that helps out people, you know, and you also, you know, they kind of, they said if voters perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio and they kind lay out, you know, some different things that, you know. But it comes down to you need a better marketing campaign. Yeah.
Henry: And yeah, Megan, go ahead. Oh, I was going to say that a lot of data centers have been kind of shrouded in secretly intentionally. And so folks in communities often don't realize that there's a data center that's going to be built until they start seeing it literally being built from the ground up.
Juravich: Yeah, and Megan in your story that you wrote about the POCO. I just wanted to clarify the Public Utilities Commission I said that the the governor's candidates will get to appoint five new members But it's it's not that they get to pick them just because they're governor. There's like terms and people's terms expire. Is that right? Yes Okay, so there's yeah, so basically throughout their time as governor They'll get to a point new members of the Public utilities Commission and these people set the rates and really have a lot of power when it comes to utilities. If you want to talk about something that people don't know anything about, the PUCO would be another example, right, Megan?
Henry: Yes, I definitely, I only know a little bit, but there's so much, so much to know.
Juravich: Yeah, you know, a little bit a little bit to be dangerous. You're listening to a reporter roundtable from All Sides on 89.7 WOSU News. We're talking with Shane Stegmiller, reporter for Hanna News Service and Megan Henry, reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal. Shane, I wanted to ask you about some Ohio Supreme Court rulings that you wrote about. There were two cases from last week worth mentioning. One involved reproductive rights and justices declined to take up a lawsuit from a Trumbull County common pleas judge. He said that the state's reproductive rights amendment took away his authority with minor seeking abortions. So first of all, it's unusual for a judge to take a lawsuit to the Supreme Court, right?
Stegmiller: It is, but this is also Republican judge in a county that's been trending more Republican. He brought this issue to this. He bought it directly to the Supreme Court earlier this year. And his argument was that the ballot initiative that was passed by voters back in twenty, twenty, three, it didn't fully explained. He actually went to Franklin Rose, the secretary of state over. I think basically the way the issue was framed on the ballot saying it didn't point out that it takes away from his perspective, this thing called judicial bypass, whereas if you're a minor and you're seeking an abortion under current law, you have to have your parents permission. If you don't want to go around that, you'd have to get a court to approve it. He's saying that the amendment took away that court's ability to have oversight over this. Uh... The supreme court it basically prompted they just kind of dismissed it quietly it was a unanimous decision but they didn't put any ruling out on it they didn't like explain why they dismissed it or anything like that
Juravich: Okay, so it just goes away. So, okay.
Stegmiller: It just goes away. And then- Now, there's also a separate lawsuit that kind of makes a similar case- well, it's attacking this amendment. It's brought by a couple state lawmakers, Levi Dean and Jennifer Gross. It's been filed in Butler County, so it's actually starting on the lower courts and will probably, maybe at some point, work its way up to the Supreme Court.
Juravich: Another Supreme Court case that you wrote about dismissed a lawsuit that raised questions about GOP candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswami's citizenship. I hadn't heard about this, but it's been long established she was born in Cincinnati. So why did this case exist?
Stegmiller: So It's kind of an interesting lawsuit because it's brought by the former mayor of East Cleveland and who used to be a Democrat. I think he actually ran as a Republican against Chantelle Brown in one of the previous cycles. The case he tried to make is that, and again, this is another lawsuit that was brought against Frank Larrose, the Secretary of State. And he's arguing that voters a couple of years ago, you may recall past you know, an amendment that to the constitution that you have to be a citizen to vote in Ohio. And they were he was arguing that the Secretary of State did not do the proper checks to make sure that Rama Swami was a citizen. Not that Rama Swamy isn't a citizen, but that they just didn't even go through the process of making sure that he's a citizen before they certified into the ballot.
Juravich: Hmm. So how did the Supreme Court just dismiss the lawsuit?
Stegmiller: And that was another thing where they just basically punted it was a unanimous decision, and they didn't, they didn't explain why they did it. You know, I had been arguing in his filings that that the mayor Eric Brewer didn't have standing to bring the lawsuit. And just kind of other technical reasons.
Juravich: Yeah, well, did anyone check if the guy who filed the lawsuit, did anyone check to see if he was a citizen before he was put on the
Stegmiller: Well, I think he almost kind of made it makes the case in the thing. I mean, he singles out Rama Swami. But yeah, I actually made the case that they didn't do this for any of the candidates, but Rama Swami was the one that he singled out.
Juravich: Well, Megan, we only have a couple minutes left, but I wanted to get to your story, speaking of Ramaswami. You had a story that he has spent a lot of money leasing private jets to travel around the state. Is this unusual for a campaign to fly around Ohio to do events?
Henry: It's unusual for a candidate from Ohio running for a statewide office to be flying around on a private jet to campaign events that has not really been seen before. I talked to a, well, first off, let me backtrack. So Ramaswamy has spent at least nearly $700,000 leasing a private jet since the start of his campaign, according to campaign finance records. And I talked to a political analyst and he said that that's very unusual and Ohio is a very drivable state. This could be this would be something you would see maybe in like California or Texas, a very large state, but the fact that you can drive border to border in about three hours, he said, makes Ohio makes this very strange.
Juravich: Was that political analyst basically saying that it could be considered a waste of money or?
Henry: He didn't go as far as to say that, he just said it's a quote, bad look.
Juravich: For him. Okay. So what did Ramaswami say about why he had why he flies around the state instead of driving?
Henry: He did not, his campaign did not respond to multiple attempts, questions that I sent him. But it's unsurprised, I mean, he's a billionaire. He has the jets. So it turns a two hour car ride from Cleveland, from Columbus to Cleveland to like a 30 minute jet. So this is much faster. So I imagine that's all part of it.
Juravich: And Acton's campaign is clapping back. She posted a photo of her car. I guess it needed a new tire or something. So tell me what Acton campaign's saying.
Henry: Yes, well they've been all along saying how Acton drives a Jeep, and she's proud to drive a car made in America. And so, yes, as you were describing, I think Shane also saw it over the weekend. If you want to speak to it as well, Shane.
Stegmiller: It was, you know, if you see no jeeps, they have a spare tire on the back. They have a tire cover. So she, you, you posted a picture of her Jeep with a, you know, somebody had painted the tire cover and the story that kind of came out was the Republican party took that photo and they like altered it. And they, they changed the license plate to say some, you know, take a shot at her.
Juravich: We're only have 10 seconds, so we'll have to talk about this next week. Shane Stegmiller and Megan Henry, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. This is All Sides on 89.7 WOSU News.
