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If the results of some of
last week’s ballot measures are a reliable indicator, then
the November 6, 2018 election showed that local voters are
sensitive to the social needs of the area’s most vulnerable
citizens. Well, at least sensitive to the needs of certain
segments of “perceived” vulnerable groups.
While levy initiatives for
Toledo Public Schools, Lucas County Children’s Services and
Mental Health Board rightly passed overwhelmingly; voters
also soundly rejected Issue 10, the $185 million Lucas
County Jail Construction bond issue.
Although the new jail’s
proposed location generated much of the local opposition to
Issue 10, there were approximately seven other jail levies
on ballots throughout the State of Ohio, all losing by
double digit margins.
Although it was noble to
not engage in a reform crusade based upon fear and hate, the
decision to appeal to taxpayers on compassion and treatment
proved to be a failed campaign strategy on the part of the
Lucas County Commissioners, especially for criminal justice
reform given today’s political climate.
Essentially, Lucas
County’s taxpayers’ response amounted to “we don’t want to
pay for what we perceive are drug addicts or criminals.”
Preliminary election results indicated that the measure
didn’t win a single precinct or play well in the central
city.
However, look for the
commissioners to bounce back rather quickly with the added
input of newly-elected commissioner Gary Byers, who brings
his experience as a former judge to the criminal justice
reform table.
“Taxpayers didn’t like our
plan, I accept that. We’ll get right back to the drawing
board to come up with another (plan), engage the community
now more than ever and keep moving,” says Commissioner Pete
Gerken.
In addition, Joe
McNamara’s crushing victory over Joshua Lanzinger will add a
strong voice to local criminal justice reform. The presence
of McNamara, along with Common Pleas Court Judge Lindsay
Navarre, will provide fresh faces and a much-needed youthful
perspective to the issue of mass incarceration.
While Lucas County remained emphatically blue following the
election, the State of Ohio remained a “headstrong” red
state accented by Mike DeWine’s gubernatorial victory over
Rich Cordray. While DeWine is more famously known for
purging the Ohio voter roles and for Republican-led
redistricting efforts which disadvantage black and
Democratic Party voters, the likeable but uncharismatic
Cordray probably sealed his lamentable fate by wrapping
himself in Issue 1, the State ballot measure that attempted
to
make drug possession and use no more than misdemeanors.
The badly defeated measure, which was strenuously opposed by
law enforcement, also would have prohibited courts from
“ordering persons on probation for felonies be sent to
prison for non-criminal probation violations.” Like the
commissioners’ strategy for Issue 10, Cordray’s principled
support of the progressive Issue 1 ultimately turned out to
be a bad campaign strategy.
On the other hand, national electoral outcomes, unlike, the
State of Ohio results, were very promising. Voter turnout
exceeded 115 million people, a rate of approximately 49
percent, possibly the highest midterm rate since 1914.
The national election results also showed that we,
collectively, have had enough of the misogyny,
anti-immigrant rhetoric, bigotry, xenophobia and sexism that
we hear from too many politicians. There will now be at
least 100 women in the House of Representatives for the
first time in history, according to the New York Times. The
election, with its “rainbow wave” of L.G.B.T. candidates,
also produced the first lesbian Native American to be
elected to the House and more openly L.G.B.T. people than
any previous election. Two Muslim women were elected to the
House and will join the first African-American women to be
elected to serve from the states of Massachusetts and
Connecticut.
Yet to be determined, however, are the elections of the
first black governors in the states of Florida and Georgia.
The results of these extremely tight races are currently in
the midst of ballot recounts and carry tremendous
implications for how we go forward as a nation.
The bottom line is that November 6, 2018 will be forever
looked back upon as an election when the issues of
diversity, equity, and inclusion were embraced again.
Yet, there remains work ahead in the areas of voter
suppression, criminal justice reform and alignment of our
policies and practices with the “better angels of our
nature.”
I am truly optimistic that we will make America diverse
again.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
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