Ohio Governor Mike DeWine oversaw a pandemic response that killed 20,000 Ohioans. Midway through the aforementioned pandemic, his administration announced that, whoopsie(!), the death toll had been undercounted by 4,500 souls.
Meanwhile, the state’s antiquated unemployment insurance system stiffed tens of thousands of other Ohioans during the most desperate time of their lives.
DeWine reopened bars and restaurants in May 2020 after he basically fired the nationally renowned Dr. Amy Acton, who held his hand through elementary pandemic response. All he asked was that Ohioans wear masks while walking from their doors to their table.
Some Ohioans couldn’t even handle that. They equated having to wear a mask while Krogering with tyranny. (There is a direct correlation between this nonsense and Ohio’s tumbling public school rankings.)
This led to a predictable response among the ambitious, thick-headed hobgoblins that populate the Republican Caucuses in the State Legislature.
The Kook Caucus threw everything at him, starting with Rep. Jon Cross (R-Kenton) getting drunk and threatening to muster a posse to storm the shuttered precinct during the pandemic primary in March 2020 and ending with Rep. Jena Powell (R-Arcanum) claiming Ohioans don’t want bribes.
The kooks haggled; they squabbled; they did everything within their limited mental faculties to undermine the sitting governor within their party. In the end, the best legislation they crafted was overriding DeWine’s veto of their attempt to limit the scope of the governor’s office to enforce health orders during a pandemic.
Before that legislation could take effect, however, DeWine announced he would lift the coronavirus restrictions on June 2nd. He then created the wildly successful Vax-A-Million lottery that has seen been emulated by numerous states.
This week, Ohio hit DeWine’s original benchmark on coronavirus numbers that would have lifted restrictions had the Kook Caucus not tried to usurp him.
From Daniel Griffin of nbc4i.com:
COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Gov. Mike DeWine announced Saturday that Ohio has achieved the COVID-19 case threshold he initially set in order to lift health orders in the state.
The governor’s office announced that as of Saturday, the state reached 49.5 onset cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents over the two-week period from May 22 to June 4.
DeWine initially set the metric back in early March, saying it would need to reach 50 cases per 100,000 for state health orders to lift.
I don’t write any of this as a voter for DeWine. Him killing 20,000 Ohioans and while worshiping at the altar of Big Business would be an impeachable offense in a functioning state.
But he has effectively firewalled himself against any primary challenge from his right flank. The Kook Caucus will whine, like they always do, and their champion will lose by 30% in a gubernatorial primary that is not nearly as competitive as their senatorial counterpart.
Unsurprisingly, it’s Ohio that is the loser after this inane intraparty squabbling among Republicans. All the Kook Caucus has ensured is that when the next once-in-a-lifetime pandemic occurs, which given our current trajectory will arrive in 2028, our public health will be in the hands of the likes of Rep. Drunk Fundamentalist Preacher and State Senator Cocaine-Addicted Chiropractor. They will represent roughly 13,000 people between them in a state of 11 million.
DeWine will most likely be dead by then. But he will always be able to claim he died as a two-term governor, and we as a state will be worse off for it. Such is his legacy.
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