To give you a taste of Ohio politics, here is something going on in my own backyard. I posted last September about the lockout at AK Steel, a prominent area employer. In that post I showed a picture of the new Butler County Republican headquarters, which came with a $800,000 price tag and donations from AK Steel. This building is really nice, as compared Butler County Democratic headquarters store front. However, the Democrats have no problem at all operating out of this small space.
Now our Republican sheriff is getting involved in trying to bring this lockout to an end:
The Republican sheriff of Butler County, unable to get help from his own party to end an 11-month lockout at AK Steel’s Middletown Works, is turning to newly elected Democrats in Columbus and Washington.
Sheriff Rick Jones has written letters to Gov. Ted Strickland and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, both Democrats who won GOP-held seats on Nov. 7, and asked them to intervene.
“It is of the utmost importance that you intervene in the negotiations to bring this 11-month-old lockout to a productive conclusion. Our community needs your help and support,” Jones wrote. “I know it’s very strange that a local Republican sheriff would ask two of the most powerful Democrats in the state of Ohio to do something, but I am.”
Jones said Friday that he was frustrated that former Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican who served the maximum two consecutive terms, and former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, defeated by Brown in November, were not able to end the lockout. He said the toll the strike has taken on the county’s residents is getting to him.
It is nice to see Sherriff Jones take the initiative to help bring this lockout to an end. I know many families who are struggling to get by because of this corporate greed. I drive by AK Steel and see these people sitting out there picketing, as they have been for the past 11 months, and it is heart wrenching.
I have been hard locally on Sherriff Jones in the past. He has had some “questionable” techniques in dealing with illegal immigration. He has been so tough in fact that Jon Stewart has talked about interviewing him. It is good to see him focus some energy on a serious problem this community is facing. Sadly our Republican county officers seem to be ignoring the problem (of course – they have the new building to worry about).