- [Announcer] Production and distribution of CityClub forums and Ideastream Public Media are made possible by PNC and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland Inc. (upbeat music) (audience chattering) (gong rings) (audience chattering) - Good afternoon and welcome to The City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

I thought I'd pause for an applause of anybody wanted.

No, okay.

Yeah (laughs) (audience applauds) Just felt natural there.

It's Friday, January 14th and I'm Andy Chow, Journalist and Producer at the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau and a moderator for today's forum 2022, the year ahead in politics, which is the Peter DiLeone Endowed Forum on Local Politics.

Now we may not have a presidential race or mayoral race here in Cleveland, but this is still a significant political year.

As usual, 2022 we'll bring the statewide contest; the Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, for example.

But also Ohio has an open seat, Bob, you know this, open seat with a formidable roster of primary contenders, including a political newcomers, celebrity author and firebrand former state treasurer.

The GOP's incumbent governor faces an insurgent primary effort to his right and new district boundaries will change the dynamics in 15 congressional races.

Although if you're following breaking news right now, that's still up in the air, as well as the state legislative seats, but this has all happened... (audience applauds) But this is all happening with relatively new state leadership in both major political parties, Ohio GOP chairman, Robert Paduchik took over leadership of the state party in February of 2021.

Having previously served as former president, Donald Trump's Ohio campaign manager in 2016 and co-chair of the Republican National Committee from 2017 to 2019.

And Elizabeth Walters was elected chair of the Ohio Democratic Party in January of 2021.

President and at-large member of Summit County Council.

Ms. Walters was raised in Northeast Ohio.

Was the party's previous executive director and is the first woman to serve as chair.

(audience applauds) And both are joining us here today.

So members and friends of the City Club of Cleveland, please join me in welcoming Bob Paduchik and Liz Walters.

(audience applauds) Really wanted to hit the gong again, but I won't.

(audience laughing) - You get to at the end.

- Yeah, I know.

I only have two, so I'm really reserving my energy for it.

(audience laughing) All right.

So like we just set the stage.

It's a big year in politics.

There's a lot going on when it comes to different races happening around Ohio.

But before we dive too deeply into one specific race, I just wanted to ask you overall, Liz, I'll start with you.

When it comes to the people running for elected office, what is the message your party is trying to convey to voters?

- The Democrats are focused on the issues that matter most to Ohio's working families from every office you're seeing from our national leadership to our rising generation of leaders here in Ohio, we are the ones pushing forward the policies that are making the biggest impact in communities.

We are the ones delivering money into people's pocket backs to help them get through this pandemic and we're on their side.

- Bob, what's the message your party wants to convey to voters.

So I think it's important to look at it when you look at an election cycle that the party has less influence on itself than the candidates.

'cause what you're trying to do and I've been a practitioner in campaigns for a long time, and to me, it's always about the candidates and the candidates message.

So from a party's perspective, we wanna support our candidates in getting their messages out.

And I think Liz referred to it a little bit in her statement, is that in a lot of ways, even though we're looking at mostly state candidates on the ballot this year, it's gonna be a federalized election.

The issues of the things that are happening in Washington, D.C. failures, by the Biden-⁠Harris Administration and the Democrats in Congress that have given us a record level of inflation is gonna have a huge impact on how people determine who's gonna lead folks here in the state of Ohio.

- Liz, will federal issues play a big role in the Ohio statewide races.

- I think that we are seeing across the board, that the nature of politics is changing.

There's, to Bob's point, like the rise of social media and the way people consume their information.

I mean, they take in lots of information.

But I think at the national level, what we're seeing is that Democrats are putting their money where their mouth is and they're supporting policies that are supporting working families, but obstructionism from the other party is making that difficult.

And so I think there is an important discussion to be had there and that'll play into it on all levels of the electorate.

- Bob, you mentioned when it comes to creating a game plan, you kind of go with what the candidates want.

Right now, your party, and Liz, on your side too, you have a lot of candidates going on.

Especially if you look at something like the U.S. Senate race for the going for the Republican primary, how do you deal with all sorts of different candidates personalities coming into the race fighting for that nomination?

- Well, an open Senate seat is a once in a lifetime opportunity, much like an open Congressional seat is.

And so we in Ohio are blessed with a great firm team and bench of candidates.

And because we have so many election victories across the state of Ohio, there's a lot of interest in taking the opportunity to become Ohio's next United States Senator.

And so I feel great about all of the candidates we have.

It's our role as a party at times to make recommendations on endorsements.

And sometimes we don't, it's not something I decide as chairman, it's something my committee decides.

And we'll see how we go over the next couple of weeks with the filing deadline on February 2nd, we'll have a better idea of who in this race actually running.

And then, I think decisions will be made on that.

- So, let's start with Liz.

When it comes to endorsements, how is your party handling endorsements for these different races?

- So just like Bob, we have a committee and we have a process spelled out in our bylaws and we're gonna follow those bylaws.

So the rules are spelled out and communicated to the committee, communicated to the candidates.

Everyone is given the right to appear.

And then we'll see how the vote goes.

- You have bylaws and committees and everything, but Bob, you have somebody like Governor Mike DeWine is sitting incumbent Governor, it's almost feels a little unusual to not be endorsing somebody like that.

Is your party gonna endorse somebody like Governor Mike DeWine in his race?

- Well, we just recently, in fact, on January 10th, Monday, previously this week, we have our endorsement and review committee sent out applicate or invitations to candidates for the five executive offices and for the state legislative offices to request an endorsement from the Ohio Republican Party.

And I would be remiss if I got ahead of the committee and what they might decide on that.

We have a meeting on February 4th.

And so if the Endorsement Policy Review Committee makes a recommendation, that issue will be discussed there at the fourth meeting on February.

- As party chair, do you see it as an opportunity?

Do you see, well, if one candidate were endorsed over another candidate, maybe it sets you up better in the general election?

- Well, there's a couple of things.

Each of the 66 members of our committee are elected in even years.

So they run in a Republican primary election, they're voted, they take office after that election, and then they elect the chairman.

So there are elected representatives of the Republican Party at the state Senate level.

One, male and one female, each of Ohio's 33 Senate districts.

And so there's a grassroots aspect of their endorsement because they're accountable to voters, but there's also benefits for a candidate to get that endorsement.

The mail enticer that allows you to do direct mail at a cheaper rate, and there are voters that care what the state central committee of either party has to say about the candidates and they consider that.

And sometimes it helps them make their decision.

- Liz, is there an urge sometimes to maybe wanna jump in and not really put the fingers on the scale a little bit, but to maybe weigh in a little bit to see if you're a candidate who might have a better shot in the general election get the nomination?

- I think that particularly in the Democratic Party with the process we've laid out I have no doubt that the committee will make the right choice for the party.

And that's really the role, I think, of where we come out of this.

Our job as party chairs or at least the tack we're taking, is my job is to build roads that candidates drive their cars on.

Whoever that candidate may be, for whatever race it is, whether it is for a mayor's race, or a presidential race.

And so we're focusing on building the strongest, biggest, most effective state party apparatus that we can for whoever the nominee will be.

- You're both fairly new to this job, both took over in 2021.

Liz, like you just said, you have sort of this roadmap, this game plan, how's it going so far?

- Well, today's my one-year anniversary.

So thank you, Andy, for having this lovely launching for me.

- Hey, Liz, it's the years not the millage.

- I know it was a dog years, late years.

I don't know, but I think it is, you know, I feel so energized by where or how Ohio Democrats are.

Whether it is the energy of our activists at the grassroots level, the party is in the strongest financial position we've been in decades.

We're financially healthy.

And we are building at a rate that I wasn't sure would be possible on my first day as chair, in terms of growing our imprint on grassroots organizing an online mobilization that I'm so encouraged by.

And I think we're seeing an early engagement of activists at rates we've never seen before.

And so as this trend continues, I am so encouraged by both our ticket that we have even though there are some primaries playing out, it is young, it is dynamic, it is very talented and it's gonna just keep us moving forward in that direction.

- I feel great about our prospects.

There are three things that are essential to winning elections, and that is candidates.

We've got great candidates, incumbents running for reelection, and they've got a great story to tell.

The governor's done a very good job on dealing with COVID.

And there's the aspect of creating and bringing new jobs and industries here to Ohio.

We've landed Peloton, we're on the verge of landing Intel, probably the largest investment in the state of Ohio since Honda came here and Jim Rhodes got that.

So we feel great about the candidates, there're issues, I think Washington D.C. is doing us a huge favor.

The top two issues on people's minds right now are inflation, which has 7%.

Haven't seen that since 1982, and response to the COVID crisis.

When Joe Biden campaigned, he said he was gonna come in and he was gonna take down the virus, he was gonna fix everything and we're still having trouble getting tests.

It's like the toilet paper line in Moscow, in the 1980s to get a COVID test.

It's astonishing that there wasn't a better plan towards dealing with this, but when those are the top two issues and our candidates are running against those issues, that puts us in a really good spot.

And then of course, the resources, our candidates are well-funded on their own accord, but the state party's very well-funded and we will have the best, get out the vote ground game ever seen in the state of Ohio in the selection cycle.

- Liz, do you think that the Biden Administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic is gonna be a big issue in the race?

- I think voters are right to be astonished by kind of the way that Governor DeWine started this pandemic as a very strong leader and has kind of abandoned that effort.

Unfortunately, I think that there is a lot of stories to tell, including about a $60 million bribery scheme that we still don't have answers on involving our utility companies.

So I think that as the year plays out, we're gonna have a lot of opportunities to discuss these big important issues on voters' minds which is, first and foremost, accountability for their leaders.

- Speaking of endorsements, we talked about how the party is handling different endorsements, but something that we're all kind of keeping an eye on, especially on the Republican side running for nomination is if former president, Donald Trump is going to weigh in especially on the U.S. Senate race.

Bob, as you run the Ohio Republican Party, what is it like to sort of plan out the future with that possible endorsement coming from former president, Trump?

- Well, I don't know that it really has an impact on what the state party does.

The president's endorsement is very strong for Republican candidates in a primary.

And we've seen instances where it's swayed races, Mike Kerry, open congressional seat in Ohio 15, received the president's endorsement, survived a very crowded primary field and won the general special election.

I talked to the president, I'm not gonna share those conversations.

He will make a decision if he wants to endorse in this race and it will have an impact.

- Liz, what are your thoughts on the fact that the race has been, especially on the Senate race, has been sort of focused on President Trump's endorsement, possible endorsement, and is your party planning on any possible endorsement from high profile people, maybe former president, Barack Obama or current president, Joe Biden for any of the people running on the Democratic side?

- Yeah, I think I can't speak to what I think Bob laid out, the outlook there for his own primary race.

I think on our side, we're just excited to have this really great set of candidates who are talking about issues that matter most to voters.

And at the end of the day, the only endorsement that matters is that of the Ohio voter and what they decide to do in November of this year.

And that's what we're gonna focus on fighting on every day.

- When it comes to the governor's race, we have people who have announced for governor, auditor... Not auditor, excuse me.

For the Democratic side, we have somebody who... Two mayors who have former mayors running for the Governor's race, Secretary Of state, Attorney General, but that seems to be some empty slots missing on the ticket, maybe not.

Where are the Democrats when it comes to fulfilling that slate?

- We have a full slate.

- We do have a full slate.

- We do, but announcements are special moments for candidates.

They get to have that moment to get the press coverage, to raise some money and we're not gonna steal their thunder, but we have petition circulating for all four down-ballot offices.

So we expect that within the next two and three weeks that you'll see those come out respectively.

- Comparing it to other years.

It is fairly late to be announcing.

Do you see that as putting the party behind in any way?

- Not at all.

I think, again, the party as an apparatus, has been focused on the work going on on a year now.

We're focused on building the infrastructure that our candidates need to be successful, and our candidates are gonna have a compelling story to tell and be talking everyday to Ohio families about why they're on their side.

And that's what we'll be helping them to do with this strong structure that we've built around the state.

- Bob, you have- - No, I agree with Liz on this.

I think that in a lot of ways, there's this idea that the political parties hold this role, that they don't necessarily do.

We're there to help win elections.

And that means if you're gonna do a good job, that means you follow the lead of your candidates.

You give them the support that they need to get the job done.

You don't dictate those things to it.

And that's one of the reasons why I think is, Liz, for Ohio Democrats, is a much better chairman than her predecessor.

That's honest truth.

It might have something to do with the fact that we're both from Akron, which is not Cleveland.

- That city in Ohio.

Which is not Cleveland, but it is Northeast Ohio.

- Yeah.

I honestly, I didn't know how that was gonna play in this crowd, but- (all laughing) I think it'll be okay.

- Hey, a lifetime of politics started in Summit County, this kind of shadow of Cleveland always kind of descends on it.

- Listen.

That's true.

- And in the past couple of big statewide races, whether it was for the presidential race in 2016, the governor's race in 2018, again, the presidential race in 2020, polls always seem to be a big issue, and then polls are not a big issue.

They seem to be a really good indicator what's gonna happen, and then we find out, no, they weren't.

So going into this election in November, how are you looking at a poll?

How are you approaching the idea of collecting poll and data?

- Would you want me to start?

- Liz, go ahead.

- Listen, we are gonna use a bunch of different methods to learn about voters.

There's no one thing that is gonna actually give you the map, right?

You can't just do one poll and say, this is it.

And follow it like a printed out guide.

We use polling, we use focus groups, and then the most important data we get is conversations with voters on the ground.

That is really what tells us whether we're on the right path or not.

And whether we're in the right neighborhoods with the right message or not.

And so with the strong grassroots infrastructure, that's the exact kind of work you can do with a party and that's what we'll be focused on building up.

- Bob?

- Yeah, I think that's right.

I think, looking at a poll is sort of a lazy way to do analysis.

They're very limited.

I have to understand what you can get out of them.

They're very helpful sometimes to get an idea on what issues are important, what issues are driving an electorate.

But I always like in polls, when I explained this to candidates, it's like being in the rocket loans, field house here with a BIC lighter, and all the lights are off you.

You're trying to get an idea of what the entire room looks like.

And all you're good is this little picture.

And so it's easy to draw mistakes and conclusions, but you have to understand the limitations of any information you get.

One of the things that we do in the Republican National Committee, has done a great job of this starting in 2004, is we do a lot of micro-targeting and data analysis and 100s of millions of dollars that have been invested in this as one of the reasons why the RNC has remained so relevant over election cycles is that data is invaluable for us modeling the actual electorate.

We look at what we expect the electorate to be not based on one poll or a set of polls or anything like that.

And it's really an advantageous tool for us here in the state of Ohio and we use it a lot.

- Speaking of electorate we were coming off of the 2020 election going into the next statewide races here in November.

Where are your voters?

So Bob, Liz, when it comes to where are you targeting, Liz, I'll start with you, sometimes when we think of the Democrats, we think of maybe targeting the urban areas more than maybe other parts of Ohio, where are you looking for votes and how are you getting out to vote statewide?

- This is a great question.

And I have the risk of going.

I think Bob and I share something in that we're a little bit of practitioner nerds and could go into the weeds and talk on about this for hours.

But I think that on the Democratic side and in the municipal elections of 2021, Ohio Democrats had the best election night in the country.

'Cause we're starting to learn some very valuable lessons about data and where our opportunities for growth are.

And we're seeing this rising generation of leaders who are really inspiring connecting with their community, not least of which is here with us today, mayor.

And so we're thrilled by that.

And it's really kind of pointing us in a direction of, to kind of test and verify every time we go.

And so whether that are the gains we made in places like Gahanna or Bay Village or Aurora, whether communities outside those urban cores, but then also really connecting with our base voters and making sure that we never take a vote for granted.

There is no such thing as a given vote in this state.

Ohio voters are smart, they're savvy and they're busy and they're overwhelmed.

And so you've got to do the work to connect with them and show them who's on their side in every election, in every race, in every community.

And that's exactly what we're working to do.

- For us, there's been a shift in the electorate in Ohio, you really saw a stark contrast on it in the 2016 election.

I think it was a confluence of two different things happening.

One is the Democratic Party has abandoned working class voters and some ex-urban and rural counties in Ohio.

It used to be...

The first presidential election I worked on George W. Bush in 2000.

Democrats would win Lucas County, all the counties across the great Lake Erie, down the Eastern border and down the Ohio River.

This inverted C was sort of the Democratic playbook on winning presidential election in Ohio.

And what has happened since that is in 2016, Donald Trump took 80 of 88 counties and in 2020 took 81 of 88 counties.

And the reason for that is he had come and campaigned in Ohio on a conservative working class message.

Issues that weren't traditionally Republican when it comes to trade and dealing with China and their monetary policy and being aggressive and getting rid of NAFTA.

It's something Northeast Ohio politicians had talked about for decades and nobody ever really did anything about it.

We did something about it.

And because of that, you have seen a shift in the coalition here in Ohio and counties like Lorain, Ashtabula, Trumbull, Portage, and Belmont where we went to win county commissioner races, every elected county official in Belmont County is a Republican, except I think the county engineer and he's switching this year.

So hopefully I didn't make any news and upset him or anything, but the point on this is this dynamic of what's happened.

And one of the things Democrats are gonna have to do is figure out how to get back to those voters.

But that's where our target is and we've seen that change.

I mean, one of the largest contributors to the Republican Senate caucus is the building trades unions.

Think about that for a minute.

What was it?

In 2014 where Senate Bill 5 was put in the place?

- '11.

- 2011.

You look at it now and you see this working class conservative Republican Party, which for me was the Republican Party I always wanted.

I grew up in Akron, Ohio.

My dad worked for Seiberling Tire and Rubber, and there was always parts of the Republican Party that just weren't like felt that comfortable in.

A lot of that's changed.

And so our candidates are looking at that, our candidates consider that, our elected officials consider that as they gather is that, hey, there is a labor constituency in the Republican Party.

And we're very pleased with that.

- Liz, do you agree with that assessment?

what's what's your...?

I'm guessing you have a counterargument to that.

- I'm as also someone who my grandfather worked for Firestone Tire.

Like the notion that the working class has left the Democratic Party is just false.

And for us that is a big nerd that we can reach across all sectors.

Yes, there are still Democrats in the trades, and there are still Democrats in our public sector unions, at the end of the day, time after time, we have seen that when it really comes time to judge what party and what candidates are on the side of working people, the votes, the policies, all of the work that happens is getting done by the Democratic Party.

And it is oftentimes being obstructed by the Republican Party.

- So how are you going- - Officials, sorry.

- So how are you gonna do that?

So it's, I mean, with what Bob just laid out here and proven by the election in 2020, it seemed like those parts that Infor did see is really moving towards maybe a more of a red state.

So how do you get those voters back?

- Listen, what's funny is I see some of my team over here on the table, laughing, 'cause we talked about the inverted C a lot in our own building.

That is true.

When you look at that map and it used to be the top and down to the bottom, but then the last time you really saw that map was also the election cycle before we took Hamilton County.

And then one have now taken almost every county wide elected seat in that region.

So, electorates are dynamic.

You never get the same electorate two times.

And there has been a continuous geographic and Demographic realignment of the state over the last 20 years that frankly, their party's grappled was better than mine.

And so how we move forward is really being clear-eyed about where we go to fight for votes.

But also the truth about Ohio is the answer to that question, is both ends.

There is no such thing as not competing in all 88 counties and expecting to get a statewide win.

It's about what is your win in that county look like?

How many votes do you need in each place to really put together that full map.

And so that's what, like, under the look ahead for us, is what we're focused on.

- And I agree with Liz on that, you have to look at it 88-county strategy.

And one of the challenges for us are the seven counties that went for Joe Biden.

And so when I became chairman, we launched an urban county initiative.

And part of that is taking a fresh look at things and getting a new start.

One of the most challenging counties we have is Cuyahoga and chair, I mean, Alyssa Stickney is here with us today, and she's doing a fantastic job.

But it's not something that's gonna change overnight.

And a lot of these dynamics, I mean, I talk about 2016 like it was yesterday, six years ago.

And so it is a lot to deal with and I'm sure that Liz and her folks look at it the same way we do.

It's all a matter of triage.

What do you have time for?

What do you have resources for?

How can you put things in the right way?

Because again, as practitioners, which we both are, it's about winning for our candidates.

You don't see us on social media all the time promoting ourselves, hey, this is what I had for breakfast today.

Would not be very interesting.

- Funny, I had a tweet this morning about what I had for breakfast, Bob, so thanks for that.

(all laughing) - I just totally ruined the Republican relationship with the media.

(all laughing) - So we've talked a lot and for good reason, we've talked a lot about how federal issues are gonna play a role in these elections.

But these are gonna be statewide offices, the governor auditor, treasurer, secretary of state, and speaking from experience as a statehouse government reporter, there are a lot of people in Ohio who don't understand what's going on at the Statehouse.

How are you gonna be connecting with voters for that, help them understand why they should care about statewide issues.

Liz, you mentioned things like the HB 6 scandal that's happening right now, what is your message to voters when it specifically comes to statewide issues?

- Yeah, I mean, listen, it's a matter of dollars and cents.

HB 6 is still costing Ohio voters $232,000 a month and it can be repealed and we can have accountability for how that even came into being in the first place.

And so we're gonna be asking a lot of questions about what did happen, how do we find accountability and transparency in that?

And where's the move to actually bring some justice back for Ohio voters on that issue.

And I think as you look across the full state, we're really encouraged by the fact that the Ohio Supreme Court did their job.

And we may actually have fair districts in the state for the first time in a long time.

And that's a big part, I think, of the path forward for all our parties.

It's not just about Democrat versus Republican here, the maps that we have that would actually be fair districts still have a Republican majority.

And so I think that's an important part of the work ahead, is letting this process play out over the next, I think now they're 10 days and then 30 days to ensure that there's a honest debate with Ohio voters about the issues instead of just gerrymandering as in business as usual.

- So the interesting thing about redistricting is Democrats don't have a lines problem, they have a geography problem.

Because Democrats are concentrated in urban counties.

And you look at the counties that....

I talked about Donald Trump.

It wasn't just a Donald Trump phenomenon.

Those are counties that Mike DeWine won.

And when you look at that and you see that trend and this isn't something that's just happening here.

There's a book written by a journalist from Austin called, "The Big Sort."

And it was written in 2009 to talk to about Republicans and Democrats are self-selecting geographically.

And that has increased by factors.

And so when you look at this situation, we talk about fair district and it reminds me of my two teenage daughters.

'Cause each of them with different curfews has different idea of what's fair, and what's not fair.

And so when we sit in here and we talk politically about what's fair, there's a big difference of opinion on it.

And the fact of the matter is if you're going to try to get two maps that the Democrats keep talking about you're gonna have the things like the mistake on the lake, that that's the only way it can happen.

So if Ohio voters whose understanding of gerrymandering, when they talked about this issue was you didn't want these crazy districts that were going all over the place.

It's really hard for the Democrats to get to the numbers that they want or would live with that aren't like crazy geographical lines.

And that's just a fact.

- But Bob- (audience clapping) - But with that, the Ohio Supreme Court on the state legislative maps did decide that the Ohio Redistricting Commission does need to go back, does that change your game plan when it comes to these Statehouse races?

- Well, here's the thing with this.

It will be what it will be.

I mean, I don't make the rules of how this is going.

We didn't participate in the redistricting process.

I think it is disappointing that the court took 90 days to make a decision.

I mean, I know there are a lot of Democrats in the room that think it was very self-evident what the court decided.

Well, if that was the case, they didn't need to run the clock down and take 90 days and leave the commission 10 days to solve the problem.

I didn't read the decision, so I don't know what's in it.

But what I do know is I can look at a process where they could have taken oral arguments in October, could have dealt with this thing in maybe November, maybe early December, they didn't.

They waited until mid January, they gave folks 10 days to solve it, and it is a crisis.

Now it's probably a more of a challenge for Democrats filing for the state house than for Republicans, because the robust caucus that we have in our house and our Senate caucus and the state parties, ability, the field staff, we have 15 field staff there.

So we can go out and get those signatures in five days or whatever we need to do to meet those requirements.

So it's gonna be tougher on the Democrats.

And I think it's a disservice to the candidates.

I think it's a disservice to the parties, and more importantly, I think it's a disservice to the voters to drag this out as long as the court did and responsibility for that, I think absolutely has to fall on the chief justice.

- Liz.

Yeah, Liz.

- I mean, I wish the Redistricting Commission would have done their job when they should have in the first place too.

I think that's really the story here.

They were the first ones to miss deadlines, the first ones to not follow the rules that were, by the way, overwhelmingly supported by Ohio voters in 2015 and 2018.

The voters have made themselves clear and all that matters now is that we are abiding by that process that the Ohio voters supported, which is what the court has asked them to do.

And we could have done it the first time, the right way, they didn't.

And so what we see now is the opportunity to do it right.

I think, and it's Bob's point, you know it is a disservice to the candidates.

That's tough, but just like the Republican caucus in this on the House and the Senate side, we're standing by ready to go to with maps and staff and petitions, and we're all gonna get where we need to be.

- We're gonna move to audience questions here in just one bit.

But before that, I wanted to make sure I got this question in.

As the leaders of both of your parties, do you feel confident in accepting the results of the November elections no matter what happens?

- Well, I'll go first on that.

We do a great job here in Ohio with elections, I worked at the Summit County Board of Elections.

I was a janitor at one time, and then an Elections Clerk certifying the election results.

And we've had a proud tradition of doing a great job with elections.

What concerns me right now is Democrats in Washington, D.C. are talking about taking that away.

Democrats want to federalize the elections.

So they're talking about legislation right now.

I think they call it voting rights bill, which is almost an Orwellian description of what they're trying to do, but they want to take the ability of the state of Ohio to govern its own elections and replace it with a federal system that it gives advantages to Democrats.

So if we wanna talk about fair, the most unfair thing right now is the election legislation that the Democrats are pushing in Washington, D.C. because it will take away our ability in Ohio to run fair and free and free of drama elections.

(audience applauds) - But are you worried about the results of that?

Are you ready to accept the results of it no matter what the results are?

- Yeah, of course.

- Yes - In Ohio, of course.

- Okay.

Yeah, Liz?

- I think that by and large elections across this country, the instances of fraud are not even a thing.

Ohio election history in this country has been something that we should be proud of in terms of the results being reflecting the will of the voters.

I do think though that we have an obligation in this state and across the country to grapple with the disenfranchisement, particularly black and brown people in our urban communities and across the country.

And we should do everything we can to make registering to vote and casting your ballot.

Secure, yes, but also easier and not as exclusionary as it has been.

And I think when we talk about voting rights in this country, and we talk about voting rights in this state, if we don't have a meaningful conversation about that, we are falling far short of the vision of what a free democracy looks like.

(audience applauds) - Which would be absolutely great if it was give and take, but it's a Democrats, all or nothing bill, that they're talking about in Washington D.C. right now.

They want to dismantle the filibuster to pass this legislation.

Fortunately, they're not even gonna have the votes to be able to do that.

And by doing that, they're simple things like voter ID, that 75% of Americans agree with, are gonna be part of that.

What they're doing is very, very dangerous ladies and gentlemen, and it really jeopardizes democracy.

- We're gonna leave it at that unless Liz, you have one final thought- - Go on.

- Okay, we'll leave it there.

So we're gonna move on to audience Q&A.

We welcome questions from everyone.

City Club members, guests, students, or those of you joining us via live stream or the radio broadcast on 90.3 Ideasstream Public Media.

If you'd like to tweet a question, please tweet it @thecityclub.

You can also text them at 330-541-5794.

That's 330-541-5794.

And our staff will try to work it into the program.

So can we have our first question?

(audience chattering) - My name is Meryl Johnson.

I'm a member of the State Board of Education.

At the beginning, I can't pronounce your last name, can I just say, Bob?

- Just call me, Bob.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

That's fine.

- Thank you.

Bob, you made a statement that President Biden said he was gonna take down COVID.

And a number of headlines in the last few months have come out saying, "Pro-Trump counties now have far higher covert death rates.

Over 91% Democrats vaccinated while only 60% Republicans.

U.S. COVID deaths get even redder.

Risk of dying from COVID, 50% higher in red states."

So my question is how can you get the Republicans to help President Biden take down COVID?

- Well, it's interesting when Joe Biden ran for president, he talked about healing the nation and bringing Republicans and Democrats together.

When he took office, the first thing he did was he eliminated dozens of Trump executive orders.

He's done nothing to persuade Republicans.

He doesn't take any effort at all to reach across the aisle.

And so those Ohioans that voted for Joe Biden, thinking that they were gonna get a calmer, gentler, less volatile partisan politics back and forth and a leader that would be a moderate have to be disappointed today.

And we're seeing that in President Biden's approval rating, it hit a low of 33, the lowest it's ever been.

And I can't remember anyone besides Jimmy Carter, maybe that said it that low.

- Liz, does President Biden need to do more to work with Republicans, or what?

- Yeah, listen.

I think, at the end of the day, pandemic's becoming, like a partisan issue is an absolute, like, mind bending thing that we are living through.

And the reality is, is that President Biden has followed the advice of scientists of doctors and are trying to lead the country forward to be healthy, safe, and more importantly, to protect our economy and to protect our kids.

And I think that is really where when we look at partnership, if the president is leading from the space of, this is what the science tells us, for anyone to infer otherwise like the radicalization of that is just something that we can't like, you have to have partnership on that.

You have to have a kind of a shared belief that the best thing to do is follow science.

And we're just not there.

- And we have one president and it's his job to lead and do that.

And he's failing spectacularly at it.

- All right.

- How about a practical political question?

- Sure.

- Yeah.

- Mail-in voting.

Do you believe, and this is for both of you, that increased mail-in voting would benefit or would hurt your party's chances in the upcoming elections.

And what if anything would you like to see done with the Ohio regulations as to sending out requests for ballots, which at one time we did at no cost to the individual, what change would you like to see in the Ohio laws relating to solicitation of mail-in ballots?

- This is a great question.

I think there's a couple ways to answer that and I'll try not to wander on too long on this one.

I think that looking across the country at states that have the highest participation rate.

States like Oregon, which has, I think a universal, like, almost 90% participation rate in elections are 100% only mail-in elections.

That would be a big change for Ohio.

I don't think we're ready for something that big.

Anytime you make a big electoral change, you have to do a lot of education, you have to do a lot of work to help people figure out how this works, make sure you build the systems.

But I think strengthening and lifting up the opportunity for Ohioans to vote by mail as part of the other choices to cast their ballot, whether that's early in person or in on election day at a polling location is really important.

Particularly as we navigate the end of a pandemic, like, God willing we're not talking about this in November, please God, of this year.

But people should be able to make the best choice for them on how they want to make their voice heard whether that is again through those many options.

So it means having viable, safe, and low or no cost options to vote by mail are really important.

I think it is the state should pay for the cost of mail-in applications and the cost of mail-in ballots.

No one should be charged a poll tax to vote in the state.

- Bob, Ohio's done it before, should they get back to sending out ballot- - Well, he here's the issue with it.

If it's something... And we've seen this in the City of Columbus and it's something where the urban counties send this out at county expense, and it's a government paid-for Democrat get-out the vote drive.

If you accept the fact that the urban counties are more democratic than other parts of Ohio, which is true, if you're gonna do something, the 14th Amendment requires you to do it.

And if one county you needed to do it in all 88 counties.

- But so Secretary of State, Jon Husted ended up doing it.

And then the Current Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, a Republican, pushed for something like that, but then was blocked by Republican legislators.

So does the Republican Party- - Well, but there's a...

It wasn't blocked.

They chose not to spend the money.

(audience laughing) So well, now I think it's funny.

Well, I mean, let's have a practical question here.

What should the government drive people to the polls?

Should the government bring the polls to people's house?

As somebody that manages a household budget with my wife, there are certain things we can do and certain things we can't do.

Government's the same way.

Except if you're a Democrat, government could pay for everything.

But from a practical standpoint, it's not fiscally responsible.

- Thank you.

My question is about, and it's for Chairman Paduchik.

My question has to do with the HB 6 scandal and the staggering ethical implications of that fix.

My question is, how hurtful is the HB 6 scandal to your candidates in 2022, especially since we're likely to have a federal trial on this issue during the year.

Thank you.

- I don't think it's gonna have an impact at all.

And the reason is it didn't have an impact in 2020 when this issue first broke months away from the election.

I don't think it's gonna have an impact this election, mainly because the people responsible are no longer in power.

So the thing about issues in an election, it's not for a state party or candidates necessarily to decide what those issues should be.

A lot of times, it's what those issues are important to the voters.

I just don't see it being a factor in 2022.

- Let's just disagree with that one, but I'm sure we'll battle that out.

(audience laughing) - I'm putting my money on inflation and the federal government's COVID response.

- So looking at the Republican Senate elections, a lot of the Republican candidates, for instance, Josh Mandel and Bernie Moreno have been using racial hate speech, like calling Mexicans, gang bangers or Muslim Ohioans, terrorists.

And the Republican Party clearly uses racial propaganda to seek to divide Ohio voters.

So my question is for both the chairs, as one for the Democratic chair, how do you plan to fight hate speech?

And for the Republican chair, do disagree that the Republican Party uses it?

And if we're being truthful, how do you seek to stop using hate speech in your party?

(audience applauds) - Thanks for the question and a special thanks to all the young people here today and engaging.

I think that... (audience applauds) Listen, I think the most important thing for us as a party is to support and put forward candidates who represent the best of our values, and that is what we are doing.

And that's the most important thing we can do as a party to really push back against those ideas, to push back against that hateful rhetoric, is to make sure that our candidates, the people that we are running the things that we stand for, don't align with that in any way.

And so that's what we're gonna be focused on.

And obviously when we see those moments, it's also incumbent upon us as a party to call it out and to encourage our candidates, to be forceful advocates for bringing more people in for being inclusive, for being a welcoming party.

And that's what we, I think, I have a proud track record of doing.

- I respectfully disagree with the premise.

I think that anyone that uses truly hate language isn't electable in Ohio.

And so I don't believe that that your characterization is accurate respectfully.

- Yeah but the rhetoric has been...

There have been statements made that, whether you want to carry- - By both sides of the aisle.

And I think that... Well, hold on a second, I think if somebody says something in a campaign and then everyone agrees that it is something that is hateful or racist, the most detrimental thing a candidate can do is make a racist statement.

And if that is made, then they pay for it at the polls.

- Is it, as leaders of the party, is it the party leaders job to step in when something does go too far?

- Well, I think in a lot of instances, the voter step in.

- Yeah.

- I mean, my job is to win elections.

My job isn't to, I don't know, I guess I'm not from Silicon Valley, so I'm not Facebook or Twitter where we censor people and take people off platforms and things like that.

That's not my job.

My job is to win elections.

- All right.

We have a question here that was texted to us.

Do either of you see a Republican or Democratic candidate for governor running an independent campaign, if they don't get the nomination.

- There was that specifically for governor?

- It was, in this question, yes they ask?

- I don't believe that it's legal.

- The sore loser law.

- There is a law that prohibits you for running twice for the same in the same year.

- You can't.

- It's not, yeah.

- If you run for the Democratic or Republican primary and then lose that nomination, you can't then jump in.

So let's take that part away.

Are you at all worried about somebody who's not currently running for the nomination to maybe enter as an independent candidate?

Anybody on anybody's radar?

- I think in politics, you're always like shocked, but not surprised when stuff like that happens.

(audience laughing) So, I mean, it's politics, anything's possible.

And I think that independent candidates have never really had traction in the state, but who knows?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Bobby, you've got so many people on the U.S Senate track already entered the race.

I can't imagine somebody who's or hasn't jumped in maybe running as an independent- - I don't know.

I hear it's a pretty good job.

So maybe yeah, who can say?

- Yep.

- One of the populations that's being devastated right now is the rural population of Ohio.

There's a book called, "The Hospital" by Bryan Ohio in Northwest Ohio.

That basically talks about rural folks not having affordable healthcare and meaningful jobs.

And as a result, the communities that were once fairly affluent are being devastated and are dying basically.

And so, and I think there's a lot of anger among those folks that they're not being noticed by either party.

And so I wanted to know what each party is thinking about in terms of our rural population here in Ohio and how to address those issues.

- Thanks for that question.

I think that in what you're highlighting is true across.

There's two different kinds of rural topographies in Ohio.

There's like the rural Northwest Flatlands, and then there's rural Appalachia.

And you're seeing that in both of those communities, it's also the places where we've seen the most jobs leave.

It's also places being hit hardest by the opiate epidemic per capita.

And I think voters have a right to be angry.

And all of those, like the departure of hospitals, the closing of schools, the consolidation of cities has all happened under state Republican leadership.

And they're gonna call the question, but for us as a party, I think the most important thing we can do is show up.

You can't win a vote you don't ask for.

And so we have to be present in those communities and organizing in rural spaces and in ways that connect with the community, their identity and what their values and their needs are.

And so we're already out on the ground across rural Ohio, trying to have those conversations and hear back from them about what those things on their mind are.

And so whether it's fighting for access to broadband, cleaning up septic systems across Appalachia, like these are all critical, but bread and butter issues that the party and our candidates are focused on.

- And Liz, from a Republican perspective on, take one issue with broadband, for example, it's the general assembly just passed a bill to take broadband out to a lot of these communities.

And also we, for Republicans, we don't really have a problem with the rural vote.

I mean, the issue for us, this isn't gonna be 75% turnout or 78% turnout.

Some of those counties we had over 80% turnout.

So I feel pretty comfortable from my standpoint.

I mean, I'm not a policy person, so I don't write legislation or anything.

- Yes.

I'd like to ask about redistricting.

First, I was on the mailing list and computer lists for Jon Husted, when he separated his a redistricting campaign.

I got on that because on Jennifer Brunner's congressional redistricting, I was wondering would the Redistricting Commission be willing to have someone like Ohio State hosts the computer populations and breakdowns and have a public submission of different people's idea of how to redistrict the state?

And I would like both parties to speak why they support it or don't support it.

Thank you.

- I think the commission... Well, first of all, it's really important that we clarify that neither Bob or I have any influence or control over the commission and intentionally staying very far- - Thank God.

- I know.

- I think, but you know, the commission, there was a public submission process and there were very viable data-driven maps submitted to the commission.

Why they did not adopt those, I can't speak to.

I think they have a chance here to get it right.

I think what we are waiting to see, because there's still a little bit of debate about what 10 days really means, if it's 10 business days or includes the weekends, and then we're waiting on the governor to reconstitute the commission.

He has to call it.

And then the legislature has to discuss allocating resources to potentially hire mappers or bring in data consultants to have that conversation.

So ball's in the court of the governor and the legislature.

- And make no mistake.

It's a mess.

The decision on the state legislative districts was dropped two days ago.

And then apparently as we're sitting here, I don't have my phone with me.

Staff takes it away from me sometimes for good reason.

Apparently the decision has been made on the congressional district.

So that's a lot to dump on a commission with very short period of time.

A commission that has to reconstitute itself with different leadership.

You may have different membership on the committee, so it's on the commission, not the committee.

So it's hard to say what's gonna happen.

I think the disaster could have been avoided by more responsible action by the chief justice and the court.

- Hi, thank you so much for being here today.

My name is Christina.

I'm a senior at Laurel School.

You alluded to the voting rights act a minute ago.

You alluded to the Freedom to vote Act, I think it's called.

There's provisions in that such as like reducing the role of money in politics that have garnered, bipartisan support, the speaker calls it big dark special interest money.

If Democrats are successful in sort of forcing through this legislation and changing the rules of the game, how is that provision in particular going to affect each of your parties and future elections?

- Man, high school student question.

That's pretty impressive.

(audience applauds) Sure.

well, first of all, it's impressive.

Impressive question.

I think the biggest struggle for parties is that to your question about the dark money interests, they're usually not running their money through us.

That isn't.

It is outside spending that we don't control, we don't influence them, we often don't know about.

From my perspective, and I'm saying this as an individual and a leader of my party, it would be great for those rules to change because they play an outsized role in elections and often distract and deter voters from making choices based on the issues in front of them that are most important.

And like, you all know in Ohio, especially, you turn on your TV six months out from an election, and it is 20 minutes of show, and then 10 minutes of political commercials.

Nine out of 10 of those are not paid for by a candidate or a political committee, they are paid for by outside interests.

And so in terms of the bill itself, it'd be anxious to see some reform in that area overall, but can't speak to like how it really impact the party specifically.

- Yeah.

- As an institution.

- Yeah.

I mean, there's been conversations about outside spendings, Supreme Court's weighed on it.

It's a free speech issue.

I'm not sure of the legislation, because it's been changing.

So what we're talking, what used to be HR one, then was Senate one, is now the legislation are dealing with, and you're better informed on it than I am.

I would say that I don't know what the constitutionality of it would be based on the Supreme Court's earlier rulings.

- Today at the City Club, we have been listening to a conversation about the year ahead in Ohio politics.

We have been joined by Bob Paduchik, Chair of the Ohio Republican Party and Liz Walters, Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party.

Today's forum is the Peter DiLeone forum on Local Politics.

An attorney and labor expert and former City Club President, Mr. DiLeone was a member of the city club for 68 years.

In 1987, Mr. DiLeone became the first person to be inducted into the City Club Hall of Fame while still living.

His daughter, Paulette Novak, remains active with the City Club, and is joining us today via livestream, so hello.

We are grateful for the family's continued support of free speech and democracy.

We also would like to welcome guests at tables, hosted by a Cuyahoga County Community College, Hawken School, Laurel School, the Ohio Democratic Party, OhioGuidestone, Oswald Companies, and the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County.

Thank you all for being here today.

And on Friday, January 21st, we will be welcoming back Dr. Karen Mapp, Senior Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

She will be talking about the powerful impact on effective family school partnerships on students, parents, and teachers.

This form is sold out.

so you can still join the live stream at cityclub.org or tune in at 90.3 Ideasstream Public Media.

And that brings us to the end of today's forum.

Thank you so much, Bob and Liz.

Thank you to the members, friends of the City Club.

I'm Andy Chow, and this forum is now adjourned.

(audience applauds) - Hit your gong then.

(gong rings) (audience applauds) - [Announcer] For information on upcoming speakers or for podcasts of the City Club, go to cityclub.org.

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