Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutuel, providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at med mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP.

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More at Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online.

At OHEA.org.

A cancelation from the candidate for governor who we plan to talk to this week.

But a debate between the US Senate candidates goes off as scheduled.

We'll look back on that and more.

This weekend, the state of Ohio welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

We start the show with a programing note for the last five weeks, we've been talking to the major party candidates for the five statewide executive offices.

We began with the candidates for treasurer on September 9th with incumbent Republican Robert Sprague and Democratic challenger Scott Scherzer.

Then September 16th, auditor with Republican incumbent Keith Faber and Democratic opponent Taylor Sapp, ington, on September 23rd, it was the candidates for attorney general.

Republican incumbent Dave Yost and Democratic challenger Jeffrey Crossman.

And on September 30th, the contenders for secretary of State incumbent Republican Franklin Rose and Democratic challenger Chelsey Clark.

I reserved full episodes of the show for the candidates for governor.

Last week, Democrat Nan Whaley was here This week, Republican incumbent Mike DeWine was set to join me for an extended conversation.

I was informed Thursday morning that he had a conflict that his campaign would try to reschedule the interview.

We hope that can happen before Election Day, which is a little over three weeks away.

Though early voting is underway in Ohio as of Wednesday.

You can see all of our conversation with the candidates on our Web site, State Newstalk.

This week was also supposed to be the week that the Ohio Debate Commission would host a match up between the candidates for governor and U.S. Senate Both of those debates were scrapped.

The Democratic candidates agreed, but the Republican candidates did not, claiming they were concerned about the past partizan activities of the commission's executive director before the commission was formed.

Though, all seven Republican candidates for U.S. Senate did participate in a debate organized by the Ohio Debate Commission in March, which I moderated.

There are no debates between Mike DeWine and Nan Whaley in the U.S. Senate race.

Republican J.D.

Vance and Democrat Tim Ryan did agree to two debates hosted by commercial TV outlets.

The first of those happened Monday in Cleveland.

Political observers have noted both Vance and Ryan have been sounding the same themes in this campaign as they chase voters in a state that picked Donald Trump in 20, 16 and 20, 20.

And in this first debate, they even dressed the same both in blue suits white shirts and red ties.

Polls show most voters say the economy and inflation are their top issue.

So it was the first question in the debate.

Vance said federal spending is the problem.

Simultaneously, they borrowed and spent trillions of dollars that we just don't have, and that's thrown fuel on the flier fire of the inflation problem.

And at the same time, they've completely gone to war against America's energy sector.

And you can't do both of those things at the same time.

They're each bad ideas.

But when you do both of them at the same time, you're going to get record inflation, which is exactly what you expect to get.

Ryan said he supported the billions of dollars in spending in the infrastructure law and the CHIPS Act, both of which were bipartisan, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which was not.

But Ryan stopped short of defending President Biden when asked if he is at fault for record high inflation Well, I think everybody's to blame.

I mean, we're coming out of a pandemic.

It's a problem.

The question is we're going to sit around for another ten years and point fingers.

What I've been proposing is a significant tax cut for working people and small businesses, put money in people's pockets.

We can sit there and argue about why it is a global phenomenon right now.

We need to cut taxes for working people.

Ryan and Vance did agree on keeping China tariffs in place.

They agreed that Taiwan should be defended and a strong response in Ukraine was needed.

But neither was specific on what that would be.

But on social issues, they split sharply.

Ryan said he wants a federal law guaranteeing the right to abortion.

While Vance said what he called a national standard, such as a ban after 15 weeks would be using his word fine.

Ryan supports a federal bill to codify marriage equality, which has passed the House but has stalled in the Senate for lack of Republican support.

Vance said while same sex marriage is the law of the land, he is opposed to the Respect for Marriage Act.

And the problem with this legislation is it's going to unleash a wave of litigation against our churches, our religious organizations, our mosques, our synagogues, everything.

That's why I don't think it's a great idea.

While Vance said he would not apply a litmus test to potential us Supreme Court Justice nominees, Ryan said he would.

I will have a litmus test on Roe v Wade.

I'll have a litmus test on the same sex marriage.

I'll have a litmus test on birth control.

We cannot keep going down this road of taking away rights.

Vance hit it Ryan as a career politician, saying his record shows he hasn't done much in his 20 years in Congress.

Ryan confirmed that he doesn't want Biden to run again in 2024 and mentioned his support for some of former President Trump's policies.

The candidates were also asked about an issue that's gaining in the polls voters concerns about threats to democracy.

I think it's extremism that we saw during the insurrection and you could see that JD didn't answer it.

He did raise money for the insurrectionists.

He's all in with those people who are the election deniers who call into question the most fundamental act.

We have the foundation of this country.

He's called into question the presidential election.

That's a threat to our democracy and running around with people who want to ban books and get the government in our bedroom and in our doctor's offices.

But I tell you what, I think politically is, is a huge threat to our democracy.

And that's guys that don't have the guts to stand up to their own party.

Now, I've run against Nancy Pelosi I have taken on Bernie Sanders.

I have opposed Joe Biden on numerous pieces of legislation that he wants to try to promote and push.

And I've agreed with Donald Trump on trade and renegotiating NAFTA.

Being firmer on China, Defense, General Mattis being secretary of defense and all the rest and I think the problem is when you have guys like J.D.

Vance who can't stand up to anybody, like just a few weeks ago in Youngstown on the stage Donald Trump said to J.D.

Vance, all you do is kiss my ass to get my support.

He said that that's bad because that means J.D.

Vance is going to do whatever he wants.

Mitch McConnell's given I'm 40 million.

He's going to do what he wants.

And Peter Thiel gave him a 15 nine.

He's going to do what he wants.

And here's the thing that's most troubling about this lack of courage is that after Trump took J.D.

Vance's dignity from him on the stage in Youngstown, J.D.

Vance got back up on stage and said, Start shaking his hand.

Take a picture saying, Hey, aren't we having a great time here tonight?

I don't know anybody I grew up with.

I don't know anybody I went to high school with.

That would allow somebody to take their dignity like that and then get back up on stage.

We need leaders who have courage to take on their own party.

And I've proven that.

And he was called an ass kisser by the former president.

The question is the biggest threat to democracy?

Sure.

If you would like to answer that first and then you can respond to some of his accusations so I will answer the question calling, because I think it's important for the voters for us to actually answer the questions.

But first of all, I'm not going to take lectures on dignity and self-respect from a guy caught on video kissing up to Chuck Schumer and begging him for a promotion to his next job.

That's the kind of guy that Tim Ryan is now.

He just said, it's so funny, we're even close to Halloween and Tim Ryan is put on a costume where he pretends to be a reasonable moderate.

But in fact, he's he said he stands up to his own party.

The last two Congresses.

Tim, you voted for Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.

100%.

You consistently toe the party line on every single issue.

I wish that you were the reasonable moderate you said you were, because then Youngstown may not lost 50,000 manufacturing jobs during or during your 20 years on the threat to democracy, Colleen.

So you just accused me of being an election in.

I are this is a term that Democrats throw around Here's the thing I've said about the 2020 election and it really implicates big tech.

I think we have great elections in the state of Ohio and the courage of everybody even you're going to vote for this guy to get out there and vote by November the eighth.

But here's the thing.

We know because Facebook has told us that the leadership of the FBI approached Facebook and told them to censor information that was negative about Joe Biden, about Hunter Biden's corrupt business dealings.

You cannot have a multinational corporation that's in bed with the communist Chinese that's censoring information in about one of America's political parties and doing it in a way that interferes with people's knowledge and ultimately people's votes.

That's a threat to democracy.

Big tech has way too much power and it benefits the Democrats.

Thank you, Mr. Bass.

We do want to follow up with you.

You are it's come up here.

You're endorsed by and you've been campaigning with former President Donald Trump.

He is facing multiple criminal investigations.

Is there anything the former president has done that concerns you?

I mean, is there anything he's done that's concerned me?

Why don't we let the criminal investigations actually play out?

Because I was alive during 20, 16 to 20, 20.

And what I saw was consistently rumors that finally Donald Trump was going to be indicted, that he was going to be accused of something legitimately criminal.

Of course, Tim Ryan, despite his commercials, voted to impeach him twice.

I have seen nothing that suggests that President United States should be thrown in prison.

And most importantly here, if you're going to make accusations like this, the attorney general, United States, Merrick Garland, one of the most political actors in the history of American justice.

If you want to go after a former president like a possible future president or at least a future political candidate, you've got to tell the American people why we have really corrupt leadership at at the Department of Justice.

And that's a problem.

Congressman Ryan, in a nationwide address, President Biden called the MAGA Republicans the threat to American democracy.

Was he right?

Those people who stormed the Capitol are a threat to the democracy.

Those people who say that the election was fraudulent are a threat to our democracy.

If we lose the foundational element of this country, our vote, our elections, then we lose everything and we got very close to that on January six when people wanted to to kill Mike Pence and overthrow the peaceful transition.

This is not some throwaway line and that's what I want people in Ohio to understand.

This is the crowd that JD is running around with, the election deniers, the extremists, That's not Ohio.

That's not Rob Portman.

That's not George Voinovich.

That's not Sherrod Brown.

Right.

That's that's that's not for us.

He's running with an extreme element here that's very, very dangerous.

First of all, Rob Portman endorsed me, of course.

And I find it interesting how Preoccupy Pai, you are with this.

At a time when people can't afford groceries, people can't afford to walk down the street safely.

Let's focus on the significant issues right now.

Ten candidates As a reminder, Vance, who was backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, has said that, quote, There were certainly people voting illegally on a large scale basis.

A false statement that has no basis in fact.

And Vance has also said he thinks it's probably true that Trump won by a larger margin than the eight point victory reported in Ohio.

That is, again, a claim that has no evidence behind it.

But both candidates did say clearly that they will accept the results of the 20, 22 election.

The second and last debate between Ryan and Vance is set for Monday in Youngstown.

As we said, the show was supposed to be an interview with Republican incumbent Governor Mike DeWine.

But since there was a scheduling conflict and he's not able to join us, I now have the opportunity to talk to the State House News Bureau team, Andy Channel and Joe Ingles, about not only the election, but some other things.

So thank you both for being here.

I appreciate it.

Thanks for having us.

So early voting started this week.

The secretary of State's office reports that absentee ballot applications received to date reflect a 4.4% increase over the previous gubernatorial statewide election year in 2018.

Let me ask you both, are you getting the sense that there is a lot more interest in this year's election?

Any idea why or why not?

Andy, let's start with you.

I think it's just kind of hard to tell because we haven't had things like debates, because it's been such a low key campaign season as we've seen with things like Governor DeWine refusing to talk to the media, refusing to do debates, really refusing to go out on the campaign trail and hold a traditional campaign.

It's hard to really hear from voters when there aren't events going on out there from the Republican side, but at least from the Democratic side, when you go to the daily events and hear from her and her campaign, it does seem like there are a lot of people who are activated and motivated to get out there and vote.

And I think when we do look at early voting statistics, it does seem to be maybe Democrats who sometimes might be the very first ones to request a ballot.

So maybe that's a reflection of that as well, Joe.

Well, you know, I talked with League of Women Voters director Jim Miller, and she told me she said that there has been an uptick in interest over the summer months and people who want to go vote in their registering to vote.

Now, as you mentioned, it was 4.4%, 4%.

So 4%, you figure that's not a tremendous amount of voters So, you know, it doesn't mean anything in the scheme of things.

But if there's a close race, it could mean a lot.

So why those voters are coming out, what they're interested in, we don't know.

But it seems like it's been the past couple of months, three months that that's happened.

And indeed, these even year elections that are not presidential actions, the turnout is much less than during presidential election years.

But this is interesting to see yet again, to your point is right on about.

Democrats tend to request the early ballots get out there first.

They have a huge hill to climb in terms of.

475,000 more people voted for Donald Trump in Ohio.

Than voted for Joe Biden in 2020 so there's a lot of support for Republican candidates at least there was in 2020 and the last couple of election cycles for the statewide races Republicans have won.

Let me ask you Andy brought this up Joe the idea of a lack of debate specifically in the governor's race.

Why is this such a big deal Is it only a big deal to us?

Well, that's a big question.

I wonder if it is a big deal to voters because right now we're not hearing a lot of voters who are sounding off about it.

We're hearing a lot of partizan folks who are not happy or they are happy and think there's no reason to debate.

But the voters themselves are not sounding off in large numbers.

And so maybe it isn't a big deal to voters.

But I'll tell you, it should matter, because if you have a debate, that is the time when questions can be asked about things that are not scripted and where candidates have to speak their mind and be put on the line with issues that they might not want to address.

For example, if there was a debate with Governor DeWine, some of the things that could be putting him on the hot seat would be his involvement with HB six, a bill he signed into law.

He worked with the principals.

You know, his people at least worked, we know from court documents worked with the principals involved in that law, signed it into law.

We find out that there's problems.

You know, there's a scandal.

There's FBI charges brought against the former speaker of the House, a former Republican Party had all this.

So there is a tie between Governor DeWine and that legislation that would come out in a debate.

Another thing that would come out possibly in a debate is his stance on abortion.

He'd have to drill down exactly where he stands on that.

Now, he's told right to life groups that he'd go as far as he could to outlaw abortion.

But what exactly does that mean?

I'd like to know and I don't know.

I assume voters might want to know.

And then what about his gun reform plan that could come up in a debate if there was one?

And, you know, he basically had a 17 point gun reform plan that Ohio lawmakers the majority of whom are in his own party, they would not embrace it.

They would not pass it, but they did pass measures that make guns more accessible.

And Governor DeWine signed those into law.

So I think those are three things, for example, that would come up in a debate that he doesn't have to talk about.

If he doesn't have a debate I think I think there's also a polarization issue here, too, where if you just let your campaign just spout out 32nd ads or messages on Twitter, but you don't actually meet the other candidate face to face, shake hands and have a thoughtful conversation about something, then how do you then whoever wins this election go on to represent all of Ohio and not just the people who voted for them?

It just becomes more of a polarizing climate if you don't even meet and try to present your views to the whole state in one event.

We're still hoping to have him on this show to ask him.

Some of those questions are.

Andy, I want to ask you about a forum that was supposed to happen between the two candidates for chief justice who are Democratic Justice, Jennifer Brunner and Republican Justice Sharon Kennedy that look like it was going to happen.

Then it got called off.

That could have been a really important moment because while judicial candidates can't really talk about cases that are kind of come before them, like candidates for other offices can talk about issues that they're concerned about.

The three Republicans who are all on that ballot.

Sharon Kennedy, Pat DeWine and Pat Fisher have all filled out candidate surveys in which they state that they believe that life begins at fertilization, which is a big deal when you talk about the abortion ban that could be coming before them in a matter of months or maybe even a year.

And here's why that chief justice forum could have been so interesting is that, yes, you do have candidates who, of course, have their personal opinions on certain issues like abortion.

But then the questions that could have come out of that forum could have been.

How do you go about being a justice?

How do you go about in the judicial process addressing these issues?

If you have certain elements that come up, if you have certain challenges to a law, be cut based on its constitutionality, how do you as a justice approach those issues, even if you have your personal views on one side?

How do you approach that?

And it's not just abortion.

It was things on home rule.

It was things on bail, things on being partizan from the bench.

There are all sorts of issues that could have been taken care of.

And again, I think the Chief Justice Forum is especially interesting because they're not necessarily supposed to talk about their personal views.

They're supposed to talk about how they would approach this.

And there are so many different issues that are coming down the pipeline about to reach the Ohio Supreme Court that they could have talked about.

And we've done forums like this.

The Ohio Debate Commission sponsored a forum in 2020 that I anchored with Curtiss Jackson from Spectrum News where we had the four candidates talking about exactly these kinds of wide ranging concepts rather than specific issues that the candidates might face as justices on the court.

But Andy, let me ask you, too, about you spent a day on the campaign trail with each of the candidates for US Senate, first Tim Ryan and then J.D.

Vance.

What did you learn from those two days when you were out campaigning, watching them campaign Well, they definitely have different approaches.

So first with Tim Ryan, I was able to follow him along the campaign trail.

First he started in Toledo, then went to Lima, then ended in Dayton and is a very interesting sort of diverse mix of regions where, sure, Toledo tends to vote Democratic.

But when you when you're in Lima, that's a pretty red area, a pretty conservative area for the most part.

And then he ended up in Dayton to talk to a group of black voters.

And so there is sort of this diverse approach to the topics that he was talking about.

He talked about issues that affect black voters.

He talked about urban gardening.

He talked about different community issues where community would run into red tape when it comes to federal law.

And then he talked about substance use abuse and the opioid crisis.

And from that standpoint, there were sort of like smaller pools of people along the way, but several stops when I followed J.D.

Vance, it was much more of a here's a big stop with a lot of people in one place to be kind of more of a pep rally situation.

And what I was really interested to find out with J.D.

Vance's that he was sort of treated like a celebrity.

I think sometimes we forget because this campaign has been going on so long that he is the author of a bestselling book.

There are a lot of people in Ohio who really liked that book and became a movie.

It became a movie with Glenn Close, and he and people would take their books and get it signed.

So he has sort of the celebrity status that I think was a pool for people.

And so when you talk to people about the issues, they really seem to be gravitating towards each of their personalities.

Tim Ryan's personality, J.D.

Vance's personality.

I think the special side note with the J.D.

Vance side of things is that when I was at a rally that was featuring former President Donald Trump, when I talked to people about why they supported J.D.

Vance, they weren't necessarily saying, I'm here because I love J.D.

Vance.

They were saying, I'm here because I am a big supporter of the former president.

And if the former president endorses J.D.

Vance, then I do, too.

So there's sort of that caveat to that situation.

Well, because we've spent so much time on our conversations, the candidate series, we haven't been able to talk about some of the other issues that have been happening in the state, but we've all been covering those.

And I want to talk about an announcement this week from Honda that you both were covering $3.5 billion plan to make batteries for electric vehicles in Fayette County and $700 million to retool three existing Honda manufacturing plants when the announcement of the plant was made, though, there was very little information about what the state has in terms of the stake that it's offered up to Honda.

So, Andy, I want to ask you, what do we know about what Ohio is offering to Honda to get this plant and to help with the retooling of these facilities?

So what we've learned now after the announcement was made is that the state plans to give Honda or to authorize Honda a $71 million job creation tax credit for the plant based on this new battery plant and based on this new EV hub that they want to create.

And I think what it was interesting is when the announcement was coming out, we we were both we were all able to ask these Honda officials to say, okay, what is in it for Honda?

What is the state doing?

And they say, oh, we're still in negotiations.

We're still talking about that.

But if we're going to make this big announcement, you probably have something coming.

And of course, a day later, they announced that the state wants to do this job tax credit.

The other thing that the state is planning on doing is working with the legislature to pass an $85 million infrastructure upgrade for water, sewer and transportation.

And Joe, you are from Fayette County.

So this story really does hit home in a big way for you.

You're working on a story about that for a later show.

But what are your preliminary impressions from people that you've talked to about this project?

This is no doubt big news for Fayette County.

If you were from there, like I was in the seventies, they had much more industrial base.

They had jobs.

You go downtown and there would be all kinds of shops and restaurants and it would be bustling.

There was just there just seemed to be more happening.

And in recent years, you've seen some of these big employers pull out of there and it's really hurt the community.

So getting these jobs that Honda will bring, which will be good paying jobs with benefits These are life changing opportunities for local folks down there.

Not only that, Fayette County is somewhere that has been underestimated for a very long time.

And I'm not saying that because I'm biased, but maybe I am a little low.

But but if you look at Fayette County, it pulls from Dayton, it can pull from Columbus, it can pull from Cincinnati.

So if someone wants to take a job at Honda in Fayette County, they don't necessarily have to move to Jeffersonville, watching the courthouse or something like that.

They could live in a southern part of Columbus you know, in a part of a city where they could get to it quicker.

And I think that's in the back of the minds of the Honda folks, because when they were talking about proximity and where they were going to get their workforce, they brought that up.

And again, we are still hoping to bring you an extended conversation with Republican incumbent Governor Mike DeWine to complete our conversations with the candidates series.

You can see last week's interview with Democratic candidate for governor, Nan Whaley, and the others in the series at our Web site, State Newstalk.

That's it for this week.

For my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please follow us on the show on Facebook and Twitter.

And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutuel, providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at med mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Now with eight locations across the country, Porter Right is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

More at Puerto Right dot com and from the Ohio Education Association representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org.