in the abortion Rights Campaign words matter [music] Welcome to Columbus on the record the biggest issue on the November ballot will be the abortion rights amendment so it is appropriate the ballot board made it issue number one the board also voted to use the term unborn child instead of fetus in the ballot language the move Drew protests from Democrats speaking of language Republicans who oppose abortion rights are struggling with their messaging faced with polling that shows a clear majority of Ohioans and Americans favor legal abortion with restrictions some opponents are trying to soften their pre-dobbs tone this week Ohio right to life removed its communications director after she continued to call abortion murder and Evil on social media during those first to the ballot language it was a bit of a shrewd last minute change by substituting unborn child for fetus in the language Democrats are mad are they going to can they do anything about it well they can sue and I expect they probably will sue um I think that you know we talked with Mike gonadakis the president of Ohio right to life after the ballot board meeting and asked him about the use of unborn child instead of fetus and he said well that's because the Ohio Revised Code has the use of unborn child all the way through it but you got to remember why is that the case it's because Republicans have passed a lot of legislation using that language Brian does is this a shrewd move does it really matter at this point what are what ultimately matters is yes and no uh this is obviously someone tested it and decided unborn child plays better than fetus um I do think it'll be towns in court it might be overturned um I think that you know the games that go on at the state house right now are intense uh the only way that the no vote side of this issue one this new issue one wins is if people are confused between the August 8th no on one and the odd and the November yes on one or they pick apart little holes and try to make it seem extreme a bigger issue for them is what are they going to do internally because they have a lot of people who are pretty rabid they don't win unless they have moderate tone Mike they did also change sort of the headline of the of the question on the ballot and they instead of using Reproductive Rights they put abortion right in the headline which actually is more clear because that's basically what this is I mean it does guarantee abortion rights many abortion Reproductive Rights but it's primarily about abortion well that's true Mike and I uh said before I think this thing will will pass whether you call it yes or no I guess it's yes now yeah um but you know the the the people that are opposed to it they're using it I agree with Brian they think unborn child sounds better than fetus I suppose that's true but the other side put fetus in because they don't want unborn child so everybody's going to play their political things I don't think anybody will get confused with issue this issue one with the past issue one there will be so much uh advertising and so forth I think most people will just be glad when election day is over yeah Joe in this when this election comes it's an odd year election so you don't have the sort of more casual folks who only come out every four years for a presidential election and those folks tend to read the Amendments because maybe they didn't know much about them they might look at the language this election is not going to be like that the voters will come out on this election are going to be they know what they're voting on yeah and you know what I'm looking for is to see which voters are showing up because I think with the marijuana initiated statute on the ballot I I think that could attract some young voters and if you get a lot of young voters into the polls I mean I think the general thought is that they would skew to vote for the amendment while they're there um so we'll we'll have to see how that plays out but I think that that this is going to be an election that's going to be much more interesting than a typical off-year election Brian rotherberg I this whole issue one possible confusion I Googled yes on one today right of course it's all about yes on issue one to raise the threshold to 60 yeah how long does it take for Google to catch up that issue one is not the issue one anymore well it's it's advertising driven and this is if this is the only national issue that's out there so that's going to write itself and it's it's going to work itself out but there's some work to do on the yes side of this because of that I do want to get back into this issue with spokespeople I've noticed since I came back last year there are a lot of spokespeople that have gotten into trouble over texting and twittering their own personal opinions and you know I've been a spokesperson for 35 years at the State national level if I work for an entity I keep my personal opinion to myself I speak for the entity I don't get it I really don't and um I I think it on in this case it really is causing a rift in the right to life movement but Mike in this case Ohio right to life is has been opposed to abortion since it began it's Ohio right to life in pre-dobbs before the politicians and the voters got involved when Roe was this law of the land you could say whatever you wanted because you could just blame the Supreme Court for the situation we're in but now you've got to win votes so what was permissible a year ago calling it murder is not permissible anymore right well that's right and uh I think when they overruled the case the people who were most affected by other than people on each side that really have the reviews are the states because I don't think they wanted anything like this they leave they won't admit it but just leave it like it is and and when the Supreme Court said wait a minute this is an issue for each state to decide I don't think there are a lot of happy people with that because I'm not talking particularly on a political realm they did not want to face to face and have to go thumbs up or thumbs down yeah you know it's the Republicans I don't think that they actually a lot of them really wanted to be tackling this the way that they're having to tackle it because as you said it's going to be the people who are on the far right with the people on the right there's going to be some dissension among the anti-abortion crew as to who once what we're all already seeing signs that there's some legislation that could have been put out there that maybe didn't get put out there because of uh you know a battle between the folks who are anti-abortion so this really kind of brings together a set of circumstances that they didn't really anticipate and also abortion is such a huge issue for Republicans it drives people to the polls if if that's taken off the table what's the big issue that brings them to the polls then yeah looking at the word ban because this 15-week abortion ban has been floated by members of Congress it came up in the presidential debate the GOP debate this week some on the on the right who oppose abortion rights say that might be a compromise to have a 15-week ban those on the left say we don't want a 15-week ban 93 of all abortions according to the CDC happened before week 13. so a week 15 ban is basically legalizing 93 of abortions in this country right correct but here's the problem there are a lot of late-term abortions have to do with health of the mother health of the fetus things like that and when you have these political decisions that go into that they affect the life of the mother the life of the child especially as you get deeper into that seven percent yeah and so I think that's where the concern is and you as you might know there's an argument even within the right to life movement over whether it's acceptable to allow a doctor to make these decisions or whether you should ban that now polling shows that even those people that that are opposed to abortion an overwhelming amount of them support letting a physician make this decision so it's a real problem for the right to Lifestyle but that's been the law of the land for since the road decision there's always been an exception in the last two trimesters for the life and health of the mother even Ohio's quote late term abortion ban has that exception in it so that's really no different right like I think it is right and I thought the new legislation basically proposed Sid pretty much the same thing that they protect that and I I think it's anybody who's opposed to that I think has got a real real problem it's the same thing uh you know we've had when we had the the rape situation and uh and so forth who could possibly say that that shouldn't should not be an exception so I yeah I I think it's going to be I agree with Brian and Joe too about what's going to happen in this matter and I think it uh issue one will pass easily you know the thing is it's this uh the the band that you just mentioned the six-week abortion ban is on hold in Hamilton County for a very specific reason the judge said it was too vague and uh countless women came in and testified on that case saying they were close to death and they couldn't get an abortion because the doctors were afraid to perform one because it was so vague so I mean even if you have these exceptions that we're talking about those exceptions may not be exercised depending on if a doctor feels comfortable using them okay the ballot board chose not to word Smith the language of the Cannabis legalization question they held back from replacing the word marijuana with something like I don't know the devil's lettuce regardless of the wording another group came out this week in opposition to Legal realizing weed for adults the Ohio Association of Health Commissioners says legalization would create serious new risk for children's health and make workplaces and highways less safe Governor dewine this week said he opposes it because today's marijuana is more potent and will tell legalizing it will tell young kids it's okay to use it supporters of legalization argue the law would require testing of marijuana and they point to studies that show youth usage has not changed in states that have legalized it Mike Miller you have seen this debate as a as a prosecutor and as an attorney for for decades with groups like public health officials coming out and police officers coming out against this will that change public opinion at all we'll have will they have sway well you're going to have again that there's people in the middle that are going to give a lot of thought there's going to be people right and left they're going to pay no they're just going to vote what you how you would think they would vote but yeah I think it will have some effect whether it's enough to defeat it I have no idea I it's things like I one thing that bothers me about this just a term it's always bothered me not not this because it's on the ballot what in the heck is recreational drug I mean I I like to call it I call it marijuana for fun marijuana for fun that might be uh I just um the whole thing and and it's on this it's on the ballot the main reason in my judgment it's on about it so a bunch of people can make an awful lot of money that's what it's there for now some people in my lifetime and doing this for so many years have said marijuana is a gateway to Other Drugs whether it is or not I don't know I don't suppose anybody really does know I think it is a gateway for some people and not to others and we've got so many drugs floating around now I mean how many deaths from Fentanyl and all that I just can't see why we need another one but I I guess it's the times it's probably going to happen Joe the argument is that it'll create it'll increase tax revenue because there's a 10 tax on the sales and also they claim that yeah the marijuana may be more potent but it's also more regulated it's tested in Labs sure that's what supporters say yeah and there is some truth to that because if you go to some of the other states that have legal marijuana you will see that they actually have people who who check that marijuana to make sure that it is what it what it pretends to be but the thing is that you know we've got to remember too that the marijuana you get on the street is often laced with fentanyl so it's not exactly safe marijuana that you're getting off the street if there is something called safe marijuana and I think the other thing we've got to remember is that people in Ohio uh you know 2015 they last considered this they knocked down that marijuana ballot measure but people in Ohio have been going to some of these places where marijuana has been legalized and they've seen it in action so the preconceived ideas that were there a decade ago may not be there now is that enough of a message everyone else is doing it Michigan's doing it Ohio should do it as you know I did a sojourn up to Michigan when that happened and I I don't think that they got any Dumber I hate to tell Ohio State fans but you know um look you know it it's I it was hardly a blip that I noticed they popped up all over the place in different areas especially along the border with Ohio I will tell you this uh one of the biggest problems in that industry which I think gets into law enforcement isn't the drug itself it's the fact that it's on a scheduled list and you can only use cash and it's a cash only business and that's a problem and it needs to be taken care of at the federal level okay our next topic supporters of redistricting reform have to rewrite their petition language and collect more signatures attorney general Dave Yost rejected the first draft of the petition saying it had omissions and misstatements that would mislead signers Governor dewine said this week he thinks the current system does not work for Ohio he says the governor should not be on the redistricting commission as he is he says legislators should not be on the commission but the governor said he did not support the 15-member bipartisan independent commission that is proposed in this amendment Brian rotherbury to the rejection of the initial language how big of our snag is it for the folks who want to get this on the ballot next year well they'll rework the language it's it's nothing new I don't think that's the big issue I think the big issue is uh folks comments like that from Governor dewine I thought that he made comments indicating he clearly was in support on the legislature of redistricting in that case but when it came to Congressional lines I'm not so sure he's in the same place because he's getting pressure from Washington um no politicians should not be in charge of it it's going to make both sides very uncomfortable I will tell you that I saw this in Michigan Safe seats like the kildee seat in Flint is now a tough race people are going to have to run legislators had to run legislature is now Democratic but very narrowly but but that's not necessarily bad for voters yeah like Joyce Beatty's seat in Columbus likely will become significantly more competitive if an independent group draws it the petition language there were some it's a long petition so lawyers are always going to find something in there right to say if this isn't quite right oh I think so yeah on any issue you're going to have could Davio's run off the clock is that possible because they can't go to court eventually and say Hey you know let's stop and let's let's accept this petition right well you know it's not supposed to be on the ballot until what November of 24. so we have a long long time I don't think there's any any problem the person said he'll go out and get another thousand signatures whatever it can easily be done this is just a blip and uh beginning and you know how it ends up I don't know but I I don't think what Yost has done is going to have any major effect in the long run Governor dwandis as he softened his stance or is he just saying I'm tired of dealing with this because they're beating back in September again to rewrite the Congressional Maps I think part of them probably is tired of dealing with this so if you remember back when he was involved in redistricting before things were kind of haphazard and I remember he he and even to some extent secretary Larose were a little bit miffed at one point about the way that things had transpired and it seemed like a lot was done in secret behind closed doors and it was kind of like okay here you you have to rubber stamp this so maybe he is a little tired of it is it a signal perhaps Mike that you know before this gets on the ballot maybe we can take another crack at a compromise they tried it with the current system it didn't work maybe they could take another stab at it before it goes on the ballot and have a little bit more control in the hands of elected leaders Mike I think that's very difficult simply because in my experience whoever is in charge is going to do things their way and I as we've talked about a number of times here I don't know how long ago it would Brian probably knows 20 years ago they had it all worked out the Democrats pulled out right at the end because they thought we're going to win the election well we're not interested in really fair stuff we want to win the election then it'll turn our way and I think the Republicans do the same thing now so how are you ever going to you know get people actually to come together and do the right thing it's just very difficult the argument Brian is that if it is a truly independent commission 15 members it is bipartisan equal number of Democrats maybe one more of the Party In Charge whoever's in charge picked by a judge some of them at random that's too distant from the elected officials rule but but the problem here really has to do with computerization and what's happened so years ago when I started here you had to have a pencil and a piece of paper and database maybe because we had computers starting now you can draw right around to the person almost you have all those records it's just too easy right now to draw it in a way that you can dominate a state because of electronics and so the only way to do this is to put it out of the hands of the politicians it really is Joe the redistrative commission will meet starting next month again they'll reconvene because of the court rulings any idea what they're going to do are they just going to take the maps they already have and hope a new Ohio Supreme Court says they're okay I think that's the initial idea that that some people would like to push that you know Maureen O'Connor is no longer sitting on that so that makes a change in the court and this court is more likely to be in favor of these Maps so I think there's a you know but there's still a push for some changes just to kind of say hey we we tried we made a good faith effort so we'll see Republicans did they're up to four seats for the Democrats in the Congressional Maps they may want to pull that Democrat seat back right right they could Tinker or Tinker around the edges I think that you know Amelia Sykes surprised them with her win because she's the only African-American congresswoman with a predominantly white District that actually won pretty handily and I think they're gunning for in fact USA Today said today she's the one race in Ohio that they're gunning for um but you know psych's name is a tough name and he's you know her father is sitting on that board too so yeah all right our last topic Ohio state has a new president Ted Carter now president of the University of Nebraska will start in January the Board of Trustees chose him this week to replace Christina Johnson Ted Carter is a military man he went to the Naval Academy he was a flight officer in the Navy flying more than 100 combat missions he served as president of the naval war college and then was superintendent of the U.S Naval Academy and when asked about legislation at the State House aimed at universities he had this to say well first of all our campus should be a place where everybody's welcome everybody's voice is heard having worn the cloth of our nation for 38 years as a Navy officer you can imagine how I feel about supporting the Constitution of the United States in the First Amendment so that's where I come from I've also been leading at multiple campuses throughout my life and what you'll find about me is I do it in an apolitical manner I know my Lane I am not a legislator I do not write state laws I follow them Mike Miller is it possible to run a large University especially a large Public University and avoid politics you know if anybody can do it I I think it's this President I I've just tremendously impressed with his background uh I mean it's not not to knock academics I'm all in favor of it but here's a guy this this what he's done with his past life to me is just incredible I think he's a tremendously exciting man and I think he's going to do great and I I think he can avoid Politics as he said in Nebraska he said it's a very conservative state but I stayed in the middle I told him what I thought I was able to do what I believe was right for the University and so on and he thinks he can do it here and frankly I do too uh you know we've never had a few schools have a president with a background like this and I think it's intriguing and I really welcome it Joey he doesn't have an advanced degrees but in all those years in the Navy he was a vice admiral he's got a tremendous resume but a lot of folks on campuses they want that PhD next to their president's name yeah that's true but not having an advanced degree is something that a lot of other folks think is a good thing because a lot of people if you hear them come testify at the State House on various higher education bills they're kind of sick of Academia telling them what to do you know that's their perception of the situation at least so uh you know not having an advanced degree might work for him and and he does have a whole lot of life experience he says he doesn't make the laws he follows the law there's a thing in between when you try to influence the lawmaking yeah Brian well he didn't say he's not going to get involved in that Vice Admirals do know a little bit about that look he's got an impressive background I agree with you but you know the previous president was chased out let's face it I don't know if people want to say it out loud but because they felt she was too Progressive uh he's used to a unicameral legislature this is a Duke camera do a camera Legislature House and Senate is going to be a lot more difficult to manage and the the present legislature wants to Tinker I know he wants to follow the law but and and just follow it but he's going to be stuck in some very difficult situations I'm afraid with the current makeup of the legislature unless of course redistricting passes and we have more sanity in the state house and people let Educators educate do you think he was they picked up vice admiral retired vice admiral with 125 combat missions to perhaps I don't know if the word intimidate the lawmakers is the right word or the Board of Trustees you know let me do my job I know what I'm doing well I don't think it's necessarily to intimidate Mike I just think that they were taken with this wonderful background and uh you know he seemed to stand out far I guess he wanted to turn it down initially yeah and then they talked to him into going back and now he's pretty excited about being here and I I but I don't think he's going to intimidate anybody not intimidate but just he's he's probably he just said he's a straight shooter so he's got an impressive resume and he does although his football record has to improve there was talk to Joe that um the only person they would hire this time around was an Insider somebody from Ohio somebody who the legislature's already legislators already knew the Board of Trustees already knew it didn't happen yeah it didn't happen I think the bigger question is how is he going to ride that line between the lawmakers and also the big money people who fund Ohio State who have a lot of say in what goes on here in the community you know it's like you've got diverging interests here from all sides okay we shall say that Ohio State seems to go they went from uh Karen Holbrook to Gordon gee very different personalities and from Gordon gee to Michael Drake very different personalities now they've gone from Christina Johnson who was unabashedly liberal to apolitical retired military guy so they it's like a pendulum for Ohio State anyway let's get to our final off the Record parting shots and Brian rotherberg you're up first well you guys took part of mine I I know that Amelia Sykes is going to be a key race uh anyways I don't think they're they're either not going to touch the map or they're just going to Tinker with it my guess is they might just reverse their decision at the Supreme Court and keep the map all right Michael well I think the Gene Smith leaving as the athletic director of Ohio State I look for him to have a replacement before the end of the football year I just I think they're going to do that I don't have no idea who it'll be but it's going to be a very interesting procedure all right and Joe Ingles I think voters need to be really watching don't wait till November to make decisions be watching what's happening right now with these issues because I have a feeling there's going to be a whole lot of confusion among everything you know whether it's the abortion Amendment whether it's the pot of amendment or the pot initiative there will be confusion so get on it now homework where you can avoid all the tv ads and maybe if you vote early you can avoid getting the mailers in Europe that's true in the mailbox in these divided times we pick on them but public officials have a tough job they're off they often face unfair and personal attacks just for doing their jobs in September two women who fought those battles will join us for a special all sides live event former Ohio Health director Amy Acton and former Supreme Court chief justice Maureen O'Connor will discuss the high price of Public Service it is Tuesday September 12 at 6 pm at wosu's headquarters on the OSU campus tickets available at wosu.org events should be interesting that is Columbus on the record for this week continue the conversation on Facebook and watch us anytime at wosu.org for our current panel I'm Mike Thompson have a good week [music]