Metro Monthly

by John Patrick Gatta
Metro Monthly Staff Writer

With the 24 hour news channels and major media outlets continuing to leave their journalistic ethics somewhere in a high school hallway – “Did you KNOW how much this politician paid for a haircut?” “We’re not saying that this is true but we’re going to repeat and allow others to repeat it anyway?” – voters are once again being inundated with well-rehearsed talking points that perpetuate half-truths and place innuendo above content.

“I don’t base my opinions off of what I hear on TV. I don’t watch that much TV,” said June Terranova of Austintown, a wife/mother of two young boys, bookkeeper and junior at Youngstown State University.
“If I do watch a news show, I take it with a grain of salt. On your own, it’s the best to study all the candidates. I could tell from the beginning they were pushing who they wanted. They were against certain candidates. They, from the beginning, centered on the Democratic side with Hillary and Obama and didn’t really give many other people a chance. They did the same thing with the Republicans,” Terranova said.

For now, voters in the Mahoning Valley must dig through what’s presented to them in order to separate fact from fiction. And it looks as if more residents are taking matters seriously, making sure that they cast a ballot and do their “homework” before granting a politician their vote.

Rokey Suleman, Trumbull County Board of Elections deputy director, said he expects approximately 9,000 absentee ballots to be used for the upcoming Ohio Primary. His office mailed out 5,000. Both are increases.

Suleman expects overall turnout for the March 4th Ohio Primary to be between 62 to 65 percent.
“It’s going to be higher than we expected, originally, because we thought with Ohio being a late primary that the presidential candidates would be decided. On the Democratic side, it’s obviously not decided – with all the candidates coming into the Mahoning Valley and surrogates coming into it as well.”

While Ohio may have a lasting impact on the Democratic ticket, just as it did in the 2004 presidential election, the staggered primary season still presents voters with a dwindled pool of candidates due to earlier primaries that thinned the field.

Terranova is one of those affected. An early supporter of Republican candidate Ron Paul, she helped get his name on the ballot. If he does well enough in the Buckeye State, she would be a delegate for him at the Republican Convention this summer. But with Sen. John McCain viewed as the winner, she’s left with little to interest her.
“A lot of Republicans are disgruntled because John McCain is not really a Republican. This whole business with 100 years in Iraq, a lot of people are saying, ‘What?!?!’ ”

“With the borders, John McCain totally did not follow with a lot of people in the conservative movement were screaming about. And the war – we can’t afford it. We definitely can’t afford to attack other countries. John McCain’s willing to . . . he’s threatening Iran, he’s threatening Russia. It’s just crazy. I just can’t go for it.
“Ron Paul never even voted to go in [Iraq]. He’s a strict Constitutionalist; the things that he votes on. He’s never voted to increase taxes. He’s got a strong record and he’s consistent. I like that.”

Without much prompting, she offered her feelings on the likely GOP nominee: “Definitely, I will not vote for John McCain. If it seems like it’s close, I will vote for the Democrat. Not that I necessarily agree with a lot of things, but I agree more than what I do with John McCain.”

Her interest in Paul comes as a result with the direction of the Republican Party over the past seven years. “The conservative moment is not even what it originated to be. You hear neo-conservatives have basically taken over the Republican Party.
“Ron Paul, his whole campaign is, basically, on traditional Republican views – nationalism; not so much isolationism, but non-intervention, sound money and things like that.”

She found Paul’s background in economics and his belief in free markets as positives. “He’s the only Republican besides Pat Buchanan in previous years to come out against all these free trade deals, the loss of sovereignty through trade deals like NAFTA and the NAFTA Super Highway.”

Although she is disappointed with where Paul’s candidacy has gone over the past two months, Terranova and other Paul supporters do not plan to be silent. Plans are being discussed for a march in Washington D.C. before the Republican Convention “to send a message that we do vote and that we’re not happy with what’s going on here. “

Many unions such as the United Auto Workers (UAW) feel victimized by the NAFTA agreement and foreign imports and both proved to be key issues for many in organized labor.

Michael Aurilio, recording secretary for UAW Local 1112 and chairman of Community Action Program (CAP), explained that the focus is on candidates who demonstrate policy changes that bode well for American workers. “We’re looking at things to help our membership because if our membership isn’t taken care of then we have no jobs. If we have no jobs then who’s going to play the bills? There’s just things out there that are bothering us that we need to address like fair trade as opposed to free trade. We’ve been watching, especially in this Valley, how we’re eroding.

With constant talk that the country is nearing or already is in a recession, the upward trajectory of oil and gas prices, consumer debt leading to home foreclosures and rising inflation, concerns about the country’s economic future are also of great concern to voters.
According to the online article, “Ohio manufacturing jobs have tumbled since 2000” (on the site www.reliableplant.com), Ohio has lost 236,000 jobs in manufacturing, construction, wholesale, retail, information services and finance. Growth involved 100,000 new jobs in private health services, 25,000 in the service industry (restaurants and bars), and 18,700 new jobs in state and local government (public education, health care and prisons). During that time 2,500 jobs providing professional, scientific and technical services were created, the Web site said.

The article concluded that “every industry that is capable of exporting and faces foreign imports or routine outsourcing lost jobs in Ohio over the past seven years. All new jobs are in domestic consumer services that rely on soaring levels of debt.”

For the Local 1112, Aurilio cited two examples of major concern to its members: getting a better return on gas taxes and health care costs. “Our last three contracts have been about health care. Our great people down in Columbus they eliminated the Certificate of Need for health care, and it went from a public service to private profiteering,” he said.

Aurilio explained that the UAW members take a straw vote after the primary season, and when there is a clear majority that is who the union endorses for U.S. president.

“We’ll probably go with the Democratic candidate because right now McCain’s the front runner and he really doesn’t have any plans for economic development. He’s not pushing any agenda to keep jobs in the United States. With that being said, we’ve seen what the Republican Party’s doing to us,” Aurilio said.

Historically, unions are viewed as supporters of the Democrat Party but Aurilio, who represents nine counties including Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson, Hamilton and Tuscarawas, pointed out that it’s on a case-by-case basis, particularly on the state and local levels.

“We endorse both Republicans and Democrats. We don’t endorse independents for the simple reason that they don’t file until the day before the primary. We usually put our endorsements out before the primary. We got stuck in the past on endorsing a candidate that said they were going to run and chose no to.”