Former President Donald Trump proves to be the kingmaker in the Ohio Republican Party.

Akron has laid out a school redistricting plan and may soon ask taxpayers for more money.

And philanthropist Mackenzie Scott continues to share her wealth, benefiting a number of Ohioans.

Nonprofit ideas is next.

Welcome to ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Ohio voters made clear in the primary this week that former President Donald Trump's ability to sway the state Republican Party is strong.

His endorsement helped propel political newcomer Bernie Moreno to a win in a three way U.S. Senate primary race.

He got more votes than both of his opponents combined.

Akron School Board has approved a redistricting plan that will change where many students attend class.

It's a response to declining and shifting population and the district superintendent says it's time to ask taxpayers for more money.

A number of Ohio organizations and some in northeast Ohio will benefit from the largesse of philanthropist Mackenzie Scott, who is doling out another $640 million of her fortune.

Meanwhile, an anonymous donor ponied up a much smaller fortune $35,000 to help a group of Cleveland Metropolitan School students make a trip to Greece.

And the federal government, an activist filed suit against a Toledo area, Campbell's soup plant, accusing it of polluting Lake Erie.

Joining me to talk about those stories and more in Studio Ideastream, associate producer for Newscast Josh Boose and reporter Gabriel Kramer.

And in Columbus, Statehouse News bureau chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to roundtable.

Backed by former President Trump, businessman Bernie Moreno, a political newcomer trounced state Senator Matt Dolan and Secretary of State Frank LaRosa in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

Moreno will take on incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown this fall.

just how much does it mean that Marino got 50% of the vote in the Republican primary?

Well, yeah, When you look at the sheer numbers, I mean, it was just over half a million voters who chose Marino, 1.9 million Republican votes were cast in this primary, 22% voter turnout, which is it's low.

It's very low.

And primary turnouts have been in that range over the last couple of cycles.

And so, sure, you could ask the question of is, is this the choice of all Republicans when the turnout was as low as it was?

But these are the numbers and this is the reality here.

He did get more votes than Matt Dolan and Frank LaRose, his opponents, and certainly he surged at the end.

I think there was a thought that it was going to be a closer race than it was, but it turned out to he just ran away with it.

Well, let me talk about that a little bit.

A thought.

Well, the thought comes from polling and the reason that all that money was spent at the end where Matt Dolan thought, you know, I might actually have a chance here was because polling said so.

Polls were big time wrong.

Should we?

Are they worthless now?

Well, there was one poll that was big time wrong and that was the Emerson poll, which has been right before.

And it was about a week or so out from the vote.

And it is it showed the Dolan was actually close and or Dolan was actually in the lead at that point.

That was a poll, though, of registered voters, not likely voters.

And it was also a poll done before.

Some key moments here before the Trump rally in Dayton, the Saturday before the election, before Governor Mike DeWine came out and endorsed Matt Dolan before some big things that happened toward the end.

There was a big ad buy at the end by a political action committee that's aligned with U.S. Senate Democrats.

They spent $2.7 million on ads that really talked about how Marino was too conservative from Ohio because he was endorsed by Trump.

That may have actually helped him with it was with voters in Ohio.

I have to tell you, I thought that was his ad when I saw it.

It's that he it had him with Trump and it said he's Trump's guy.

And I thought, well, that's exactly what he's saying.

So thanks, I guess.

Yeah.

And I think the goal of trying to get that message out there to try to reach those voters who are concerned about Trump, it may have backfired, but who knows?

I mean, there was an argument that the Democrats in this political action committee, duty and country, did this because they see Marino as the easiest person to take on Sherrod Brown.

They will have the easiest chance of beating him.

And so that now they've got what they want.

In a sense, this is this is the matchup they have going into the fall.

We had endorsements for Dolan from Senator Rob Portman and Governor Mike DeWine.

There was a time in this state where if you had DeWine and Portman and you were a Republican, you were in good graces, like you had a really great chance.

It mattered not because Donald Trump backed Bernie Moreno.

What does this say about the Republican Party and the established what we would consider now the old guard?

Well, when you look at what DeWine and Portman did in their last elections, you see that they're still very popular.

I mean, and you have to go back to 2016 for Portman's last election, but he won with 58% of the vote, 21 points more than Ted Strickland, who was his Democratic opponent, who had been governor.

And then DeWine won in 2022 with 62%, 25% of the points, rather, 25 points ahead of his Democratic rival, Nan Whaley.

He won all but three counties in Ohio.

He was in a landslide.

In 2022, DeWine lost.

So I don't know that it's fair to say that they're non factors anymore.

Certainly it looks like in this race.

But primary voters are on both sides.

The most extreme.

They're the furthest they're the most passionate about the positions they hold.

And so they tend to be the further left in the the further right.

And so that's certainly the further right voters in Ohio's Republican Party are going to be aligned with Trump.

And that's what we saw here.

Yeah, I think you're making my point.

My point and my point is that they were both very popular.

They won their elections by Ladd's landslides.

They're established names.

They've been in in power for a very long time.

And they gave their endorsement to somebody and it didn't move the needle.

In fact, the person they got, they gave endorsement to got lapped.

Yeah.

And I now, DeWine has since endorsed Bernie Moreno, as has Frank Rose.

So you're seeing Republicans definitely coming on board with Moreno and really presenting what they're calling a unity ticket, in a sense.

But I think it's too late to completely count out or too early, rather, to completely count out the old guard Republicans, though, when you start pitting them against the Trump Republicans.

Obviously, Trump has a very strong hold in Ohio.

He's won Ohio twice.

There's no reason to expect that he won't win Ohio this year just because of the way that the trending has been.

But that all comes down to turnout.

So where does Frank LaRose go from here?

That's a really good question.

I don't know.

I mean, certainly he's the secretary of state for the next couple of years.

So he does have that job.

And that's going to be an issue in the next couple of years where all of them go.

I mean, you've got Frank Lro's, Dave Yost, who's the attorney general, Robert Sprague who's the treasurer, Keith Faber who's the auditor.

All of those folks are term limited.

And so they're all going to have to find somewhere else to go.

Dave Yost, There's thought that he's going to run for governor, but who knows?

Could, frankly, Rose run for another office?

Maybe.

Will he go home to Akron?

Maybe.

That's a really good question.

Maybe all of them will run for governor.

That'll be fun.

That.

That if.

Why not?

I mean, you know that that's it is the the problem that you have when you have one party that is in control of so many offices that eventually there's a big group of people who all want to run for the same thing or want to run for the top thing.

And you have to try to figure out who's going to be the one.

Josh, let's talk about on the Democratic side, President Joe Biden, not real popular among some Democrats now.

And there were protest votes in the primary cycle.

They held true in Ohio, as they have in other states.

You know, protest votes, too.

They usually are at about 7% when we're talking about elections.

Ohio does not have uncommitted voters, but other candidates certainly.

And 13% went to Dean Phillips.

He's a congressman from Minnesota instead of President Biden.

You know, the big question, why protests?

Obviously, there are a lot of reasons right now, especially not good for Democrats as we head into the general election in November, the war between Israel and Hamas right now, the inflation in the economy and the Democrats there, their inability to talk about the differences between what they're seeing maybe in the bubble in Washington and what's going on in other parts around the country.

Plus the age of Biden, certainly not just the age of Biden, but also the age of president.

Former President Trump, too.

Can I add one thing on that to the protest vote idea?

No, please.

There were Nikki Haley who dropped out of the race before Ohioans voted, and yet there were still 161,000 Republicans in Ohio who voted for Nikki Haley.

Obviously, that's a protest vote right there.

And certainly people can point to that and say, well, that shows that there is is a subset of Republican voters who are concerned about Trump, who don't like him for whatever reason.

And that's that's at least something that's still out there.

I think it's something to note.

Let's talk a little bit about voter turnout and the challenge to engage voters.

We have a note from Darrell who notes that Democrats wanted to run against a Trump candidate.

Trump is the man that they say is a threat to democracy.

So is it any wonder that independent voters are fed up with the entire party process?

And will this hurt turnout among independents in the general election?

Think about that, Gavin, and also about young voters.

I mean, Josh and I were talking to voters on the primary election Day, and we were struggling to find people not just to talk to us, but to get in and out of the polls.

I went to a polling location on the east side of Cleveland, and in the first 90 minutes of the polls being open, only one person turned out to vote that day.

So, you know, the people we were talking to were saying things like, I didn't know that there was an election until my buddy texted me yesterday.

So I think there is a big just disinterest in what's happening, what's going on.

And if we look at turnout numbers, at least for Kyle County, I dug into some Cuyahoga County numbers over the last couple of years, a couple of primaries.

Voter turnout in Carroll County on Tuesday was less than 21% in 2016 2020.

It was just under 23%.

And you kind of think, okay, those are similar numbers.

But in 2016 or 2020, it was a confusing time.

People weren't sure where to go or when to vote.

There were COVID 19 restrictions.

It was the first time in my time voting in a primary where I had to drop my belt off at the Board of Elections, and that's not usually allowed on a primary day.

So, you know, there's no there was excuses in 2020.

There's no excuses now where people are just disinterest.

Yeah, I think there's no excitement whatsoever.

I was talking to people in Lorain County and it was the same old people that I've seen time after time coming out saying, you know what, I'm here to do my my civic duty and good for them.

They were very happy to be there, but there was no excitement.

I asked people, you know, are you excited about a candidate?

Is there a certain issue that brought you out today and that was not the case?

Karen, There will be millions and millions of dollars to goose excitement for November.

And we now have, you know, the big headlining matchup of Biden versus Trump.

Do we expect to see excitement?

I think you're can expect to see lots of money.

This is on track to be the most expensive U.S. Senate race in Ohio history.

And, you know, when you look at the the turnout being so low, 22% in the unofficial turnout, I mean, you primaries don't turn out a lot of voters in Ohio in 2022, only about 21% turned out in 2016, about 44% turned out.

Now, it doesn't help that in presidential years, Ohio moves its primary from May to March.

The whole point of that was to try to have Ohio play a role in choosing the presidential candidate, which it did not this time around.

But I think the the interest in keeping that Senate seat or winning that Senate seat, depending on your point of view, is going to mean a lot of money coming into Ohio from national groups, a lot of money that's going to be raised by Sherrod Brown and Bernie Moreno.

Sherrod Brown already has a lot of money that he's sitting on.

Whether the presidential race will be a factor or not in Ohio really probably won't be.

But certainly that Senate race is going to be a big deal.

Yeah, it's going to be interesting to cover it.

Sherrod Brown, who you said is sitting on a lot of money and has talked about Bernie Moreno and how he's not good for America and he's out for himself.

And then we have Moreno on election night saying that they're going to beat that old commie.

Yeah.

Well, yeah.

And Sherrod Brown was out the gate with his push back on anything that Moreno was saying.

I mean, he was on the national networks that night of the next day talking about Bernie Moreno as his opponent.

And Ohio Democrats have been pretty aggressive, really sending the message that whoever emerged from this campaign was going to emerge with a lot of baggage.

And so I think Democrats intend to use the baggage that they see Moreno carries.

The Akron Board of Education approved a long awaited redistricting plan this week.

It calls for changing the geographic boundaries for student attendance, the closing of some schools and new school construction.

Massive amounts of change.

Gabe The plan addresses a couple of factors impacting Akron schools over decades, including declining and shifting population.

So while the district is hoping to is planning to close some schools while rebuilding some, the plan altogether is to make the schools more dense so that there's more more students at one school.

And that helps with enrollment numbers, but also helps with operating costs.

So you have fewer buildings to heat and put AC in and, you know, have, you know, the staff.

So that's you know, those two things are big things that the district wants to address.

Yeah, they're trying to make sure, like you said, you don't have a bunch of buildings half full.

You have fewer buildings full.

They also, in doing this, Josh, are looking to expand pre-K offerings, making it universal in Akron.

Yeah because you'd think of they're trying to make these cuts, they're trying to save money.

Why would they expand this?

And the goal really, they say, is to get more families into the district starting early instead of those private schools.

So they're going to expand or at least have the proposal to expand to full days and half day classes instead of just half days.

So a different approach, maybe starting earlier with families and see if that makes a difference and gets more people in the district, they're going to need more money.

And the superintendent and the chief financial officer have recommended the board ask for a levy for taxpayers, a combined bond and operating levy, a 1.3 mil bond would be used to build North High School to rebuild North High School, and a new 7.6 mill levy would fund operations.

And we've got a comment here from Nancy.

She says, Why would anyone vote for the tax levy when the administration just got called out by the union during contract negotiations?

And then she also said they want to silence the parents during board meetings.

And she's noting that there's a lot of unrest from folks there about that, a lot of reasons not to support a levy.

It's an interesting time.

Josh, the board would still have to approve this and the numbers may change, but bottom line is the district is in deficit spending right now.

Yeah, they say they're going to have a negative cash balance in four years if a levy is not approved, according to the financial officer Steven Thompson there.

But before any talk of a levy here, this is the other aspect that I think has people frustrated.

Akron has already said, look, we're going to need to make $15 million in cuts this year before we even get to the point about a levy.

So, yeah, I mean, a lot of people are just kind of throwing their arms up saying, wait a second here, what's going on?

They wants it's going to be interesting to watch as all this plays out as they decide just what they need.

This is what this levy will be.

Yeah, and it's never easy to get a levy passed game.

We've seen here in Cleveland, Akron is contending not just with these other factors financially, but the loss of pandemic relief money.

Yeah, and it's something Josh mentioned, you know, $15 million at the school needs to make in cuts in order to keep things going.

And like a lot of institutions are probably doing, those people are utilizing this pandemic relief, not planning for how to, you know, keep that in a budget down the line.

And that's something we've seen, you know, city councils around the region saying, well, these are good ideas and we want to use this pandemic relief for some cool new idea.

But how can we sustain this?

So for schools to or the district to utilize this funding and not plan for what happens when it's gone is a little foolish.

Our Connor Morris, our education reporter, will be all over that story as it continues to develop and whether they do put the levy on the ballot and and then more about what the money is needed for.

So do stay tuned for that here on WKSU.

The Ohio Lottery this week floated the idea of allowing Mega millions and other lottery tickets to be purchased on the phone instead of just from a retailer.

Lawmakers have asked a special committee to create a report on gaming in Ohio.

So, Kiran, right now I can pick up my phone.

I don't.

But you could pick up the phone and use any of a number of sports betting apps and bet on what's going on with the March Madness.

The is basically saying they want in on that.

Yeah.

Because they are operating and regulated the kiosks that are used for sports betting and they certainly don't get the kind of traffic that the apps do.

I mean seriously like you just said, you could just take your phone out and do it right now.

Not recommending that anyone do that just for the record, but these kind of things make the lottery feel like they are losing the opportunity to get some more funding that they would get from that.

And also, they're competing the Ohio lottery as a lottery tickets, Mega millions, this kind of stuff is competing against all those apps.

And so there's a thought about going into some way of I lottery so that you could buy lottery tickets from your phone instead of going to a retailer.

Lawmakers, gambling companies, proponents see potential profits here and they did when they talked about bringing sports betting here as well.

But opponents see the potential for more gambling addictions for financial trouble and also for shenanigans.

I know that the coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, J.B. Bickerstaff, said that gamblers had gotten his personal number, had called and threatened him, talked about he knows where his children are, his family are basically I don't know what that means.

They lose the game or something like that, but a lot of these worries may be materializing.

Yeah, I know there's a lot of concern about how sports betting is affecting not only professional sports, but also college sports.

The state has banned ban and has state has banned bets on individual player performance.

These are player proposition bets.

But and that's because players were actually reporting that they were getting threatened on social media and getting some really nasty messages.

Yeah, you better miss that shot right mismatching your gear else and also in there's a this is a commission that's looking at what's next for gambling in Ohio and the testimony from the Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services Agency which deals with prevention and problem gaming and gambling, says, you know, now gambling is available 24 hours a day and they've seen a 55% increase in calls to their helpline with a total of 9500 calls that that's just people who are calling, reaching out for help.

And there's a real concern that there there are people who are getting into sports gambling, especially younger men.

That's where the the target is.

That's where the area is that maybe shouldn't be in it.

You're a younger man, Gabe.

I like to think so.

Anyway, younger than us, there's it's completely sports betting has completely changed the way that people analyze the game, the way that people watch the game.

I mean, I can't go to a game without one of my buddies turning my phone and saying, I'm going to make I'm going hit this parlay, I'm going to bet on this.

Well, that's a couple of bucks.

I mean, I was literally watch the Super Bowl and my buddy was making bets on whether the ball would go left or to the right side of the field.

So, you know, it's really changed the way that people consume these things.

I wonder if the lottery would create games that were a little more like that rather than just numbers.

Yes.

Like, oh, hey, I have to wait until 8:00 or whatever.

Time to guess how long rush hour traffic is in Columbus right now, you know?

Yeah.

Over an hour or under.

That would be.

We're going to get calls, Mike.

That's a good I mean, even imagine just being able to pull out your phone and say, is the next spin going to be red or black?

I mean, that would be, you know, a very different change for a game that used to be casual.

It certainly sounds dangerous.

Yeah.

And certainly for those who have gambling addiction, even though there's a number there, if it's so easy that it's in your in your pocket and whether it's sports or other things, it's certainly something that people need to be thinking about and concerned about.

The federal government and environmental groups have sued the Campbell Soup Company, accusing the company of dumping pollutants into Lake Erie, which, if true, is bad, Campbell's has a plant in Napoleon on the Miami River near Toledo.

So when we talk about pollution, if not, we were joking about this in the morning news, meaning it's not like they're dumping cream of mushroom soup into the lake, but we talk about stuff that's increasing the possibility of algal blooms.

Yeah, that's right.

We're talking about wastewater.

You know, millions of gallons of wastewater since 2018.

And this is high levels of phosphorus, which does contribute to those harmful algae blooms.

So, yeah, look, though, the plaintiffs here, the federal government, these environmental groups, they want changes, they want fines and penalties and but they want permanent changes.

And Campbell's immediately came out and said, look, we take this very seriously.

We want to continue to take action.

Essentially what they're going to need to do is build a new wastewater treatment facility or program, if you will, to make sure they're complying with all these environmental regulations.

I'm still laughing about the cream of mushroom soup.

Yeah, All right, great.

But luckily, it's not that what it is, though, is nasty.

And they're talking about wanting to have better wastewater treatment.

The company says it's going to be doing that.

This lawsuit might well compel that.

All right.

We're going to have to take a quick break, though.

First, some reaction from Lucy who's listening.

She says she says, Are we surprised about the Lake Erie pollution issue when a few years ago the attorney general overturned the Lake Erie Bill of Rights in our State Department of Natural Resources now allows fracking in public parks.

So that is her thought about, well, maybe these things aren't so protective of our natural resources.

A group of students from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will be traveling to Greece this weekend after an anonymous donor stepped forward to help.

Gabe This was a feel good story.

Originally the district had a fund set up to make this possible, but they didn't use the money for that.

And the fund, the original fund that was supposed to be used was from a big donation made by philanthropist Mackenzie Scott, $20 million that she gave to the district and, you know, the district powers that be were criticized for getting her.

This are budget cuts, but you can't talk to a student or staffer at that entire district who won't talk about how they're struggling financially and don't have what other schools have.

But, you know, to be able have this back on the ground, you know, for a lot of students, this might be their first time even leaving Ohio.

So this is going to be a huge opportunity for them.

And, you know, kudos and the schools have said they've listened.

They've heard the complaints from parents and students and they're going to restore money for this fund.

Maybe we don't know how much yet, but there will be some aspect of it for these basically special things, like a trip.

It may not seem essential, but this education can really go a long way.

And it's a reminder that for these students who are time and time seeing poverty or time and time seeing, you know, we don't have enough funds or, you know, there are more to the world than they seeing and they get a chance to go see it.

A number of Ohio non-profits will benefit from a new round of giving by philanthropist Mackenzie Scott.

One of the richest people in the world.

She continues to dole out her fortune.

Her organization yield, Giving, will distribute grants totaling $640 million to 361 groups, including about a half dozen in Ohio, some well-known organizations in northeast Ohio as well.

And her original plan was give $250 million.

But Josh, she upped it.

What organizations are getting that cash?

Well, several different organizations throughout northeast Ohio.

Look, this is huge.

She's doing this across the country.

She's getting some flak for it, too.

So, yeah, many different northeast Ohio organizations are going to be benefited by this.

So towards employment was one.

I know that the LGBT center of greater close to Cleveland.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So those are two of them.

There are more.

I'm sorry.

I don't have that whole list in front of me, but the money from Mackenzie Scott.

What's interesting about this, Gabe it's really an answer.

Elon Musk had a tweet that was deleted.

In the tweet, he said, Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouses should be listed among reasons that Western civilization died.

Right?

And at that time, their plan was $1,000,000 gift to 250 organizations.

Well, her answer to that was not to answer it, But instead, instead of $250 million, she decided to give to 361 groups, 640 million and a bunch of those that were going to get a million got two.

That's a pretty good answer.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, like it's it's crazy to think that we're going to call spreading your wealth and helping other people benefit and get ahead as evil.

I mean, that's just a crazy thought to for someone to possibly have.

Monday on the Sound of Ideas on 89 seven.

KSU coordinating producer Drew Macias is in the host's chair for a conversation on bike safety, which, as an avid bicyclist, he knows about firsthand.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching.

And stay safe.