Governor's Names On Highway Signs Update For 2022 Ohio Gubernatorial Primary Election

  

Over the years, I've always shook my head every time I drive into Ohio from Pennsylvania on I-80.  You see, driving into Pennsylvania, one gets greeted by a pleasant welcome to Pennsylvania sign, which has a motto of pursuing your happiness or something.  Then when I drive back into Ohio, the Ohio sign tells me whom the governor and lieutenant governor are.

I don't care.  Neither does any other motorist, I suspect.  It's just a waste of taxpayer money that provides free advertising for career politicians and appeals to their egos.  There's no reason for Ohio taxpayers to pay thousands of dollars for that.  Yet they do.  When last I checked, it cost $25,000 or so to do this nonsense (and that's not counting all the little mayors who emulate this practice and stick their names on the welcome signs for their cities--that also should be ended).  You can read an earlier post on the subject here (it also has links to earlier posts):  https://www.wredfright.com/2020/05/governors-names-on-highway-signs-update.html.  

Since it's another gubernatorial election year here in Ohio, I reached out to the candidates to see how they stood on the issue.  The results are dismal as usual, suggesting that Ohio will continue to be badly led whomever wins.  If candidates ignore voters at the time when they are most in need of voters, one knows they'll be ignoring the citizens while in office.  I had one candidate respond, and it was just the classic "Good point.  Let me think about that."  But, hey, that's light years ahead of everyone else.  For this election, I just focused on the Democratic and Republican candidates since the independent candidates can be dealt with in the summer or fall as the general election comes up (the deadline for them to register isn't even until the day before the primary election and none of the minor parties seem to be having a contest).  And, along those lines, why does the public have to pay for what are essentially intraparty elections?  The parties should pay for those elections on their own and not the taxpayers.  This article from last year has an interesting look at the issue:  https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/party-primaries-must-go/618428/.  The writer's solution is wrong, however.  One can dispense with the primary election entirely.  There's no reason for taxpayers to pay for dragging out the electoral process. 

So, first the Dems.  These cats essentially have no hope in Ohio in 2022, so they're running maybe to build name recognition for a Congressional seat down the road maybe or hoping the Repub nominee will run such a bad campaign that they can squeak in.  

First, there's John Cranley.  This dude at least had an email for contact on his website.  He didn't respond, of course, but that puts him ahead of his opponent, Nan Whaley, whom I had to contact via a YouTube comment.  Nan clearly doesn't care to hear from voters, so on that basis I have to hope that Cranley wins.  Given that Whaley's video only had 921 views on YouTube after being up for a month, you'd think she'd be excited to get any comment on it (personally, I'd be stoked about 921 views on one of my videos, but I'm not running for governor).  Both seem to be running terrible campaigns anyway.  I'm currently registered as a Democrat, and I don't think I've received a single piece of mail from either candidate.  Way to turn out the vote, guys!

That's fine.  I'll likely be registering as a Republican this time just to vote against DeWine, the current governor (I'm really an independent but if the parties are going to run their primary elections on the public dime, then they'll have to put up with people like me popping in and having my say on them), who combines the worst of blue and red since he panics about the virus just like the Dems and then has to prove how Repub he is by making women bury their abortion fetuses.  DeWine's name is up on the signs, so I didn't bother contacting him, assuming he is not going to be in favor of losing his taxpayer funded campaign signs.  Unfortunately, my guess is that DeWine will win again since he has so many primary opponents that the vote against him will be split and in 2022 it is unlikely for a Dem to win statewide in Ohio (or anywhere, given Biden's unpopularity).  So I contacted his three opponents.  Only Joe Blystone's campaign responded.  Even with the classic stall response, he still stands out as the best since he, you know, actually responded to a voter.  Jim Renacci probably has the best chance of unseating DeWine, but the tanned guy who looks like a used car salesman even had the wrong election date on the email he sent me (he threw me on his fundraising email list instead of responding to my question).  I replied to let them know to fix the date, but they didn't respond to that either.  Good luck, dude!  You'll need it.  In 2018, Cordray, who ended up being the Democratic nominee, also had simple dumb typo type stuff plaguing him (for example, the email address he had listed on his website was wrong) and ended up losing, so making elementary mistakes is usually a good way to lose.  The last Republican candidate, Ron Hood, also didn't respond.  I'm not even sure why he's in the race.  He appears to just be someone who likes to run for public office.  He's not even likely to be enough of a factor to split the vote.  Like the Dems, maybe he's just trying to improve his statewide recognition, so he can run for auditor down the road or something.

So from the primary perspective, things look grim for getting rid of those dang names on the highway signs.  Maybe Blystone will pull off a miracle and then pull off a bigger miracle by pulling off those signs.  Anyway, I'll try to check in with the candidates on the general election later this year, but if you want to help, then you can contact these boneheads as well (or even better your state rep. or city council person to band this practice in your state or city or, even better, both) and let them know we're tired of paying for inflating the egos of politicians.  Also, in the meantime, you know, I can't specifically encourage anyone to do the dangerous and illegal action of say replacing either DeWine's or Husted's name with that of Satan Tortilla (pictured above) or something, but I sure would have a smile on my face if next time I drive into Ohio on I-80, some graffiti artist had done just that.

Do you fantasize about pooping on the heads of egotistical politicians?  If so, you may want to seek some mental health help, or, better yet, read my latest novel, Fast Guy Slows Down, in which a character does just that!

Oh, and here's some soundtrack music for when you're asking the politicians to stop wasting out money:

Yeast? · Bloomsday