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In the last week, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther shows signs of an incumbent in a tight race desperate to prove he deserves another shot at his job. If he were even slightly engaged with everyday people, he wouldn’t need the polling firm he’s hired to learn about what matters to people in the city he is paid to lead.

Selected voters in Columbus recently received a survey (or “push poll”) from a market research firm, EMC Research, paid for by the Friends of Ginther campaign ($55,000 paid to EMC Research on July 27, 2023). What these polls lacked in ethical research, they made up for in creative rewriting of history, attempting to create a fiction of Andy Ginther as having “worked tirelessly to fight crime” in Columbus with only two examples to offer the public of his effort.

In the last week, Columbus Mayor AndrewGinther shows signs of an incumbent in a tight race desperate to prove he deserves another shot at his job. If he were even slightly engaged with everyday people, he wouldn’t need the polling firm he’s hired to learn about what matters to people in the city he is paid to lead.

Selected voters in Columbus recently received a survey (or “push poll”) from a market research firm, EMC Research, paid for by the Friends of Ginther campaign ($55,000 paid to EMC Research on July 27, 2023). What these polls lacked in ethical research, they made up for in creative rewriting of history, attempting to create a fiction of Andy Ginther as having “worked tirelessly to fight crime” in Columbus with only two examples to offer the public of his effort.

Protestors filled the Columbus City Council chambers at their October 16 meeting to denounce their silence on the genocide of Palestinian people and support for the government of Israel. There were so many protestors most were turned away at the door since the building was “at capacity,” although that turned out not to be true.

More than 150 gathered at the Statehouse Thursday evening, October 12, to rally for Palestinian rights as violence continues to murder the people of the eastern Mediterranean.

Organized by students and residents alike (all of whom will remain anonymous due to right-wing efforts to discredit and ruin people fighting for human rights), the people gathered to voice their anger not just at the Israel government’s continued use of violence to justify their occupation of Palestine, but hope for a better future.

Press release from Joe Motil’s campaign

Andy Ginther’s refusal to discuss the state of the city with a legitimate Democratic challenger, long-time, highly respected, and well-known civic leader is indeed a blatant sign of disrespect for the people of Columbus. It is also an insult to the democratic electoral process.

Ginther displays his daily lack of knowledge of the city for which he receives an undeserved salary.

Spewing no more than empty slogans, always placing blame on others, never accepting accountability or responsibility, and presenting a record of failure, he must be afraid to meet Joe Motil in public to debate the pressing issues that challenge the daily lives of Columbus residents and the neighborhoods they live in.

Instead, he spends his $1.2 million payoffs from those who write checks to his campaign. They, who are his partners in this city’s pay-to-play system of politics, provide Ginther the money to spew the same fraudulent election year campaign rhetoric and promises on daily television ads.

It was worth the long wait this past Saturday morning at Trinity Baptist Church on the Eastside for those with way too many guns on their hands. The City was buying any gun a citizen had to offer – even 3D printed guns, which are illegal – with no questions asked. Some of these same citizens walked away with hundreds, and in some cases, thousands-of-dollars’ worth of gift cards from the City.

“It took me about three hours to get to where the police were,” said a source who did want to offer his name for publication. He lives outside Columbus and walked away $2,000 richer. “I went right to the gun store and bought some more guns.”

The City was offering up to $750 per gun, and the source told us he was able to get a gift card for a 3D printed gun. He had not printed and assembled the gun just for this buyback, but it’s certainly possible other sellers had done so. The City bought 344 guns for $136,600.

Before the buyback Mayor Andrew Ginther touted its potential for success.

“This will be one of our biggest buybacks ever,” he told NBC4.

As youth violence continues to rise in Columbus, and parents of teenagers are “begging and pleading” with legal and elected authorities to arrest and lock them up (WBNS TV “Mother of son who keeps stealing cars: Please lock him up” September 27, 2023) what options are these parents being provided with if any?

As mayor of Columbus, I will allocate $3 million into our Columbus Public Health Departments budget that will provide grants to families to obtain behavioral health and social supports through the OhioRise program.

As I demonstrate in previous essays, the “city” of Columbus, Ohio and The Ohio State University are two peas in a decaying pod. (See references below.)The intertwined failings of the two disorganized, anti-constituent, private-profiteering, anti-public institutions are symbolically and practically encapsulated in the purposeless, falsely-named University District Organization. The UDO, as it calls itself (but does not pronounce out loud at least in my hearing), is the illegitimate creation of the two. It is  no more than an offense to members of both communities. 

The GOP-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission voted to adopt Statehouse district maps that tip the scales for Republican candidates and solidify GOP majorities in both chambers. The two coalitions, Equal Districts and Fair Districts condemn the latest political power-grab by both the Republican and Democratic members of the commission.

“Politicians are getting in our way,” said Molly Shack and Prentiss Haney, Co-Executive Directors of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative speaking on behalf of Equal Districts. “It has become obvious that we cannot trust politicians to deliver the fair maps Ohioans deserve. We must remove politicians from the process and give power back to the people. We look forward to making that change by amending the Ohio Constitution in November 2024.”

This came up I was just doing some solar assessments over in North Central Ohio and more when you go driving in in that kind of region you're going to see a lot of these signs along the road that say no solar panels on Prime farmland and it's interesting anyway because they're all clearly made by the same people. Everybody's got the same signs and so I was just curious as to who's behind this effort that's going on. 

What's the motivation what's the argument so I did a little research and then I thought I'd just share that with you  a lot of this is going to be happening in the Midwest specifically so what's the issue that we're dealing with
here? 

I guess I should back up just a little bit because I have some sympathy for them I have some sympathy for these positions in my way of thinking. Prime farmland, Green Fields, whatever you want to call them, should be the last choice right? We should be prioritizing and saying, okay, let's deal with the brownfields first and foremost.