- The Republican primary for US Senate will go down to the wire.

State House.

Primary battles could shape the future of the legislature, and a lawmaker proposes another bill aimed at red light.

Cameras ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to Ideas.

I'm Glenn Forbes in for Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for joining us.

The Ohio Primary will conclude on Tuesday and the contest between Bernie Marino, Matt Dolan, and Frank LaRose for the Republican nomination for US Senate is very close, a long running power struggle with the Ohio House Republican Party is playing out on ballot statewide.

After five years, Cuyahoga County agrees to a settlement in a class action lawsuit over what former inmates have described as deplorable conditions at the county jail.

And an Ohio lawmaker proposes a new bill to go after the money generated by red light and automated speed cameras.

Joining me for the round table idea stream, deputy editor for News, Stephanie Linsky and Akron Kent reporter Anna Huntsman in Columbus State House News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to round table.

The Ohio primary is just days away.

The biggest race in Ohio is the Republican nomination for US Senate businessman, Bernie Marino, state Senator Matt Dolan, and Ohio Secretary of State, Frank LaRose are involved in a very tight race and it's an expensive one too.

Karen, I wanted to start with Matt Dolan.

We've seen some lead changes.

The latest poll out shows Dolan on top by a small margin, but I should note undecided is actually in the lead currently at 32%.

But is is Dolan surge a bit of a surprise, Karen, when you think about the last GOP Senate primary, he finished behind eventual senator JD Vance.

He also finished a bit behind Josh Mandel.

So this, I guess, a more favorable field for Matt Dolan.

What's your take here?

- Yeah, this is kind of similar to what we saw in 2022 in May where Dolan seemed to be lagging toward the bottom of that seven way pack and then surged at the end to come in third.

This is, I think, in many ways a reflection of how much money is being spent in this campaign.

You've got both Dolan and Marino spending an awful lot of money, and a lot of money is being spent on their behalfs by outside groups.

And I think that that's starting to show in the way that the lead has been bouncing back and forth.

And the lead has actually moved since polling started happening in November.

I mean, LaRose, Marino and Dolan have all led at one point.

So this race is very tight, but that 32% undecided just really surprises me with all the money that's being spent.

I mean like $32 million spent on TV, cable and other ads.

And yet there's still 32% a third of voters who say that they may not vote.

Now this poll, the Emerson College poll, did note that while this, this 32% was undecided, these were registered voters, not likely voters.

So there's a possibility that these people are just simply not gonna vote because they haven't made up their mind.

They don't know who to pick - The influence potentially of Democrats and Independents, not only at, you know, and, and the ballots, Karen for the actual election, but this whole idea that this Democratic PAC is supporting Bernie Marino because they think she Brown has the better chance to beat Bernie Marino.

That was the big story yesterday.

Sarah Donaldson, your colleague reported on that.

I mean, what to make of that?

Again, it is, some of this is is politics as usual, but this seems a little more, I guess, pointed if, if that's the word.

- Well, and it's a, a last minute thing in a race that's tight.

So that's kind of interesting.

And you've got some Republicans who are accusing the Pac that's connected to Senate, Democrats, us Senate, Democrats and, and Chuck Schumer, the senate leader, saying that this is meddling.

This is, this is the last minute attempt to try to get your fingers in this vote.

But it's not a huge surprise.

I mean, it, spending in this race has been all over the place in terms of pro candidates and against candidates.

And so I, I'm not surprised to see Democrats rising to this because I mean, certainly if you're an incumbent, you, you wanna face the, the candidate you that you think you can beat.

And if you're, if you're a challenger, you wanna face the candidate you think you can beat.

So it's not a huge surprise.

This is going to be a very contested Senate seat because Democrats wanna keep it and Republicans think they can take it away from Sherrod Brown - On the endorsements.

We've heard about the Trump bump and, and things like that, and Bernie Moreno may have benefited from that previously, the DeWine and Portman endorsement of, of Dolan.

In your mind, Karen, is that part of the thing that helped, you know, part of the reason that that propelled Dolan to the top?

And and ultimately how do you see these endorsements playing out in, in the race?

Do they have a big impact?

- I'm not sure that endorsements mean anything to the average person.

I mean, I think it is interesting to see the split there between DeWine and Portman going in the Dolan direction.

And that is not the direction that former President Trump and Senator JD Vance have gone in terms of they have endorsed Bernie Marino for a while.

It seemed like Marino was really the one that was gaining the momentum when it came to endorsements.

But these last two, DeWine and Portman are a big deal.

I mean, you could look back and say, Hey, DeWine, he had a, a, a difficult primary in 2022.

There were two candidates that ran to his right and DeWine didn't.

He, he, he didn't have a huge win over those two, but he, he won a landslide later in 2022.

So he still has some popularity and some gravitas with Republican voters.

And I think that there is a se we're seeing in polls that there is a segment of the Republican base that is very frustrated with former President Trump and, and wants to move on from him.

- A long running struggle within the Ohio Republican party is playing out on ballots statewide in the form of primary challenges.

It all stems from a bitter battle over the Ohio House speakership won by Jason Stevens.

Karen, we've talked at length on the show about the split in the Republican party over the speakership Republicans who backed Speaker Stevens over Derrick Marin.

They're seeing some of these challenges.

Of course, - Yeah.

And that was not unexpected at all.

I think there's, there were 22 Republican incumbents who joined the 32 Democrats in the house to vote for Jason Stevens for speaker on the floor, even though the caucus had agreed to vote for Derek Marin in a vote in the caucus a couple weeks before that.

And so that group of 22, the Ohio Democrat or Ohio Republican Party has referred to them as the Blue 22.

And there's been some pretty bitter campaigning going on where you've got about 11 of those 22 who are facing primary challenges and, and some of them have gotten pretty pretty bitter.

Like I said, I mean you've got Americans for Prosperity, which is a group that has a lot of money that's getting involved in these races.

Senate President Matt Huffman, he's term limited in the Senate.

He's running unopposed for the house and it's expected that if he and Jason Stevens both win, he'll challenge Stevens for speaker and apparently some of his money and support is going to the candidates who are opposing those who voted for Stevens.

So the power struggle is real here.

And it's, it's been an underlying really theme going on for the last year and what three months on how little legislation is moving forward because there is this struggle and the, the supporters of Marin had tried to get control over the House Republican caucuses campaign account, which has about $3 million in it so that they could boost their candidates over the Stevens candidates.

They weren't able to do that.

A Franklin County judge said Stevens and his people retain control of that, but there's still a lot of money in this race, from what I understand in all these races.

- Anna, the one you've been following here locally, incumbent Gale Pav, Liga Challenger, Heidi Workman Howard, these issues playing out in that - Race.

Yeah, there's actually quite a few locally that are all part of this.

You mentioned Gail Pav Liga, she's seeking her third term.

She represents Portage County.

She was surprised that the Ohio Republican Party didn't endorse her as they declined to endorse many of these quote blue 22 candidates.

She was one of the representatives who did not, who voted for Stevens.

I also wanted to point out though, a kind of an interesting part here is that representative, former representative Bob Young, was also part of the 22 Republicans.

He's in Green Township, he resigned last year.

He was later convicted of domestic violence for hitting his wife.

So his seat is open, and this has been kind of going on for some time.

Stevens did not take the nomination from the Summit County Republican Party to fill the seat.

So that seat has been open for months.

And the underlying idea here is that it's because he maybe wasn't sure that Jack Daniels the nominee would eventually vote for him again for reelection.

So Jack Daniels is running, Mary Stormer is his challenger.

Both of them told me that they would most likely vote with the Republican caucus, but that they make their own decisions in the caucus.

So I just wanted to point that one out because I've kind of followed that one intensely here.

But yes, it's Pav Liga and Heidi Workman is her challenger.

She's calling herself a grassroots organizer here saying that she more so aligns with conservative values.

Another one locally here is in Medina incumbent Sharon Ray facing a challenge from Gary Fox.

Now, Sharon Ray didn't back Stevens, but she is close to him, and so the Republican party didn't endorse her either.

So it's just kind of interesting.

- Yeah, that's kind of strict.

Go ahead, Karen.

I wanted to ask you a little bit about that.

Yeah, - Sure.

I mean, some of these races too, there's individual races that are really interesting.

You've got Sarah Caruthers, who's in the southwest Ohio area and southwest Ohio outside of Cincinnati's is pretty red.

So she was a Steven supporter.

She's facing a pastor named Diane Mullens, who's made some really inflammatory remarks about L-G-B-T-Q people and, and really brought her religion.

She's pastor of a church, brought her religion into this campaign.

And so that's a really interesting race.

You also have in that same area in the Senate, which gets away from the speaker drama in the house.

But it's still kind of connected because like I said, Matt Hoffman is possibly gonna run for speaker if he and Jason Stevens are both elected.

There's this race between incumbent George Lang and former state lawmaker, Candace Keller, who if you follow state politics at all, you've probably heard of her.

She was one of the architects of the six week abortion ban.

She runs a so-called Crisis Pregnancy Center.

And that race has gotten really ugly and crazy with, I mean, voicemails being exchanged and all sorts of things that have just really been very interesting to watch.

- Well, Karen, and, and just like everything else, right?

I mean this, this comes down to, to power and money, right?

I mean, you, you talk about control of the purse strings, right?

The Ohio House Republicans Alliance, and also there's potentially coming out of this a pitch speaker speakership challenge between Speaker Stevens and current senate president Matt Huffman.

So again, money and power, Karen.

- Oh, absolutely.

And this is the kind of thing that does happen when you have super majorities because especially when you get into a situation where you've got primary challenges, primaries tend to bring out voters on the extreme, both the left and the right.

And so you end up with candidates who could potentially be on those extremes and, and trying uc candidates really kind of going in those extreme areas to try to get those voters and then hoping if they win, they can pull it back toward the center.

But this is the kind of thing that you're gonna see when you've got a lot of people in one party who are kind of jockeying for position and power.

And I'll be interested to see on that note, when you look forward to 2026, when all of the Republicans who are in the statewide executive offices, governor, attorney, general auditor, secretary of state treasurer, when they start figuring out what they're gonna run for next, and it could be the same kind of thing where you've got real ugliness going on because people are jockeying for positions and, and trying to take them when it's their party that's really in charge.

They're just trying to move up in their party.

- Cuyahoga County has settled a class action lawsuit filed in 2018 over conditions at the county jail, which former inmates have called quote deplorable Stephanie, this lawsuit settlement.

Its focused on changing procedures and conditions at the jail.

And again, that has been the theme for these last six years.

- Yes.

In fact, they held the lead plaintiff, it was, it was a class action lawsuit filed in 2018.

They had a press conference earlier this week with the lead plaintiff, and she talked about how that was really what motivated her, that she really wanted to see, to cha see change.

She's worried that that people could be badly injured or died or die there.

And so the, the settlement itself didn't include a monetary award for the plaintiffs.

It did include $175,000 payment for I think, attorney's fees.

But really what the plaintiffs were looking for was improved conditions for the people who were being held in that, in that jail.

- You know, staffing has been a big issue as well.

There was a, a problem with, with the medical care previously, they brought in Metro Health to help there.

And of course, anytime you talk about the prison system, really anytime you talk about anything, but especially when you talk about the prison system, there's a concern over the amount of, you know, corrections officers, you know, ratios and things like that.

How does this address staffing in the jails?

Well, - Part of this, we, we, you were just talking about that report, part of this settlement was a, a report that came out, whether it was made public to us just recently as part of the settlement.

But ha has been available to the county officials since I think a couple of years, maybe about two years.

And in there it talked about the design of the jail, the way that it's run and how you know, it, it just isn't it because of the way it's set up, it requires more people to run it.

It's inefficient.

And so, you know, the jail itself needs more people to keep it staffed in a, in a safe way.

- What about some of those transparency issues that, that you mentioned?

How will the public be informed about the progress on this?

What's the monitoring like here?

- Yeah, so they're gonna, they're gonna hire a, a monitor who's going to make reports twice a yearly reports.

And those are gonna be public to talk about the progress that they're making as they, as they improve conditions in the jail.

They're also going to start with some in inspections that are within 180 days.

Those reports are also gonna be made public.

And the attorney, the lead attorney on this case talks about transparency is being a way to, you know, hold people accountable for really making the changes that need to happen in the jail.

The, the lead plaintiff herself talked during that press conference about, you know, how they've been promising change, but you know, the community members just don't see it.

And so they're hoping that transparency itself will, you know, force changes for people being held.

- As I mentioned, this has been ongoing for a while.

There's talk about, you know, the medical care, the, the food that was sometimes used to withhold punishment for, for, you know, withheld inmates, accusing them of withholding food for punishment and things like that.

Let's talk a little bit more about some of the progress that has been made.

Again, there's this idea that we could potentially, there's a site in Garfield Heights that Cuyahoga County would build a new jail there, but my understanding is this is more about treatment, you know, that facility would help, but this is more about the treatment of, of the inmates and kind of how they're being handled.

- Yeah, there has been some, we, we think Matt, our reporter, Matt Richmond has been following this for some time, and he, he, through his reporting and then some of the things that were said in the press conferences and so on forth, he's, he thinks that one of the criteria, for example, is that inmates, whenever they're coming in be screened for medical problems.

And he says, you know, that, that that was one of the requirements and that appears to have been something that's already been taken care of and put into and, and put into practice.

So in terms of those sorts of conditions and those sorts of improvements, the county does appear to have started along the path of, of improving things.

- Any response from the plaintiffs in, in this lawsuit afterward?

- The plaintiffs?

Yeah.

- And just response to the settlement?

Yeah.

- Oh, certainly.

I mean, the, the plaintiff, you know, she, she talked during that press release about, you know, being pleased, you know, that, that they agreed to, to make improvements, but also sort of took a wait and see kind of position.

She said that, you know, there have been promises previously that things are gonna get better there and, and, you know, she just hasn't seen it.

And, and to be fair, she was in jail for about eight months, I believe, and in that time, 11 people died.

And so she's, she's talking about some, some pretty concerning conditions.

And so she, her skepticism, I suppose is, is warranted.

- We want to get back to some State house issues.

State representative Tom Patton, a Strongsville Republican proposing a bill that would go after companies that run red light and speed cameras for cities.

This has been a long time project of his Patton says the company, some of which are based outside the US bring in millions a year.

Karen Kassler, what are some of the proposals in this new bill?

- Well, the bill basically would say that every camera has to be licensed and calibrated.

And that's a way then that the state could keep track of just how many cameras there are.

And also that these companies would need to send out tickets within 72 hours.

Patton is a longtime opponent of traffic cameras.

He introduced seven traffic cameras, bills in 2022.

None of them passed, but they would've done things like banning cameras for communities that don't have a fire department or, or EMS banning cameras for communities that have less than 200 residents setting the maximum number of tickets issued at twice the population of the communities, as some communities are sending out far more tickets than even the residents who live there.

He's been pushing against tilting against traffic cameras for a long time.

So this, he says, is a way to keep an idea of how many traffic cameras there are out there.

And there's money that he says is gonna go from these companies, many of which are overseas to license these cameras.

There's a hundred thousand dollars license fee, $5,000 a month for calibration.

That money would go to the Ohio Department of Public Safety that would manage those things.

So this is just, it's an effort he says to go after the companies that he says are taking the money away from communities and not necessarily the communities themselves that are operating cameras.

- Right.

And create a little more, you know, revenue for the state.

And as you said, for some of these safety programs.

Go ahead.

But real quick, do we have any data on whether the cameras have improved safety?

- Well, and and that's the struggle over this, and this is a truly bipartisan issue because you've got republicans and Democrats on both sides of this.

Cities have largely said cameras that we've run have improved safety on the streets and at major intersections where they've been posted and opponents have said, no, this is just a cash grab because when you move the cameras, this, the, the, the intersections aren't any safer.

And so this back and forth has been going on for, I mean, at least a decade now.

And some communities have done traffic camera programs and then stopped doing them.

Cleveland actually put it before voters, and they rejected the camera program.

And other communities are now even considering starting camera programs because there's a lot of money potentially here.

And the question of whether it really does improve safety is a legitimate one.

So thi this is, but state lawmakers have really wanted to get into this and, and set regulations that they say would be fair.

There was one big one that came through and was upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court that said that the state can actually withhold the money that it sends to communities by the same amount that the community raises through traffic cameras.

- Karen, counting down to the eclipse and to the guardian's home opener.

You bet.

On April 8th.

It's still amazing to me that these two things are on the same day, but I'm sure Well, and we have - Heard, I, I think it's a sign, I think it's a sign of how great the guardians are gonna be this year, that everything's just, I'm hoping, I'm hoping I, - Despite the four injuries to pitchers that they announced yesterday, maybe we'll get into that.

No, I - Know it's a dark - Future a little bit later too.

Now interestingly, I mean this Eclipse Prep has, has been something else.

Earlier this week we had representatives from the Highway Patrol Emergency Management, and the Ohio Department of Transportation giving a briefing on the public safety plan for the eclipse.

Anna, we'll start with you.

The biggest concern appears to be the, the traffic.

Right now what they're saying is people are gonna trickle in before the eclipse on April 8th, but then after it's over, everybody's gonna leave town.

Yes.

And that could be a, a problem, as I should mention, that the Women's Final Four is gonna be here as well.

I - Wanted to point that out too.

Yeah, - Yeah.

It's just, it's kind gonna be kind of a crazy time in Cleveland.

But Anna, the message here for people, plan ahead and make sure you're, you're, you're gassed up your vehicle and all that stuff because not only are there gonna be a bunch of people here, you know, before the eclipse, but then April 8th after it ends, just kind of the amount of people that will be leaving the area.

- Yeah, you basically said it.

Glad I'm just teasing.

Yeah, they're basically saying, I - I stole your thunder.

- You stole my thunder.

No, I'm sorry, just teasing.

No, I'm just totally teasing.

Yeah, they're saying to come early and stay late.

They're hoping that people will kind of stagger their travel and so that there won't be this huge, you know, rush to get out of, out of the northeast Ohio area.

All of Ohio actually on April 8th.

And businesses, and museums and science centers are really trying to take advantage of the fact that we are anticipating having so many people coming to the area.

You've seen Eclipse watch parties, there's all kinds of events going on.

So for people here locally that actually live in this area and aren't traveling, they might be heading out to one of those events.

And for those people, health, health officials, emergency officials are saying, stay home, watch it at home, because you're just gonna be adding to that expected congestion.

- They're talking about potentially hundreds of thousands of, of visitors coming into the area.

And, and here at Idea Stream we've been doing a lot of reporting on the demand for hotels and Airbnb rentals, Anna?

- Correct.

And so I will say that there are, as far as we know, still hotel rooms and Airbnb rooms available at this point, but there's been a huge demand and they are scarce and because of that, the prices are really expensive at this point.

So yeah, there's a huge demand for hotels.

Airbnb is preparing, I, I did a story, they actually came out with a report last, last week or two weeks ago, showing the top cities that people are traveling to based on their data.

And Cleveland is actually in the top five in the us.

People are wanting to come here to watch the eclipse and, and Airbnb owners are telling me that it, sometimes people want a house to stay in or they want, you know, a place where you can, it's not just a hotel, it's a, it's a home base for all the travel that's going on.

- I think one of the key messages from the emergency folks in that press conference was, if you happen to be driving around, do not stop your car at the side of the road on the side, especially on the side of the highway and get out to watch the eclipse.

That is always a danger.

- Can you imagine if there's somebody out there that doesn't know anything about the eclipse and then is driving and pulls over because they notice what's happening?

Yeah, that would be kind of terrifying.

So that's, they're, that's something they're saying.

Do not try to pull over and watch the eclipse from the side of the road.

That is a hazard.

So something to keep in mind out there.

- Now we mentioned the home opener for the guardians and the, the cynic that I am, Stephanie, no, the cynic that I am, we had that discussion earlier this week, but I, I've seen snow, right?

Guardians openers have been snowed out before.

We - Have April birthdays, Glen, this, yes, like we have had many birthdays with snow.

We, - We know this.

So I mean there is the potential that there could be cloud cover people could be jockeying for the best viewing spot.

The weather is a big factor in this, obviously.

- Yeah.

And in a another emergency management press conference that happened back in February, they had a meteor meteorologist there who said that even if there is full cloud coverage, which is possible in Ohio in April, usually it's partly cloudy at this time of year, you will still see something.

It's still gonna get really dark, darker than it is with the cloud coverage, but we won't be able to see that.

The moon passing over the sun or sun passing over the moon.

I don't really know which one it is.

I don't know how science works, but we'll still be able to see I'm just a journalist guy now.

I'm just teasing.

But you'll still be able to see it get dark.

But yeah, absolutely.

That's another factor too.

The other thing is that you have some towns that you're, that are in the path of totality and then the next town over isn't.

So you actually will get a better view if you are in the other town.

So you could see people just going right up, up until the time to get the best view.

- Monday on the Sound of Ideas on 89 7 WKSU, we'll discuss the settlement of a class action lawsuit over conditions at the Cuyahoga County Jail.

We'll be joined by Idea Stream's Criminal justice reporter Matt Richmond.

If you enjoy keeping up on the week's news, be sure to check out our Idea Stream News quiz on our website, idea stream.org/quiz.

I'm Glenn Forbes in for Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for watching.