DeWine warns Crew owner about moving team
In response to an inquiry from Republican state Rep. Mike Duffey, of Worthington, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said last week that he has authority to sue to keep the Columbus Crew SC from moving.
But who’s responsible for pulling the trigger on legal action?
Turns out that DeWine, also running for governor, isn’t waiting for anyone to ask. The day after his legal determination, he sent a letter to Crew SC owner Anthony Precourt, spelling out a 1996 Ohio law passed after the Cleveland Browns bolted to Baltimore.
That 21-year-old statute — apparently never tested in court — requires several steps that an owner must take before pulling up stakes in Ohio, including giving local interests a chance to acquire the team.
DeWine told Precourt he hopes the team remains in Columbus. If not, Precourt must follow the requirements in Ohio law before moving.
“My office is prepared to take necessary legal action under this law to protect the interests of the state of Ohio,” the attorney general warned. Want a political holiday?
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Dissent in GOP ranks
Speaking of the major GOP tax revamp: Not all Ohio Republicans are fully onboard with various provisions.
As you might expect, Gov. John Kasich was not among the GOP governors signing a letter urging quick passage of the measure.
But in response to a Dispatch tweet of a story that the tax bill could make “dark money” political contributions tax-deductible, state Auditor Dave Yost replied: “This is a bad idea. Trying to imagine anyone defending this provision with a straight face in public. Yuck.”
Not everyone in the Ohio GOP camp is happy with the party’s full-throated backing of Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race, either.
In response to Moore’s longing for a time when families were strong “even though we had slavery,” former state Sen. Shannon Jones, a Republican, tweeted: “When evil & ignorance collide.”
Later, the Warren County commissioner was even more blunt about her party: “‘What shall it profit a man,’ Jesus asked, ‘if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?’ The current Republican Party seems to not understand that question.”
Back to New Hampshire? So who do you think was the guest last week for the inaugural Concord, New Hampshire, “On Background” radio show, a broadcast “all about” firstin-the-nation presidential primary politics?
You guessed it: Kasich. Asked the inevitable question about 2020, Kasich replied: “Everybody wants to know, ‘what are you going to do?’ And I don’t think anybody believes me when I say, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
He said he would lend a hand in the 2018 midterm campaigns for the Granite State, “if I’m asked to come in and help.”
And he said that Democratic Minnesota Sen. Al Franken did “what was best for himself and his family” by quitting after Franken was accused of sexually harassing a number of women.
Kasich again expressed disappointment that he didn’t get an “enormous bump” after finishing second in the 2016 New Hampshire presidential primary.
“The media so fixated on Donald Trump that it didn’t occur.”