Rooster in Review: Enter Conman

Down goes Governor DeWine! Down goes the governor! Oh my god!!!!!!!

Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) and I were chatting in the basement of the Encova building earlier today as the Republican Executive Committee convened nearby behind closed doors.

“Come to think of it,” he said. “This is a private event. How did you get in here?”

'“The security guard asked me for my name,” I said to McColley. “I told him, ‘Don Byrnes.’ He said he had to check to see if I was on the list.

“‘Oh, I’m not going to be on the list,’ I said, thinking my chances were dashed.”

“No worries,” he said. “Just sign your name on the form, list the date, and that you’re here for the ‘ORP’ meeting.”

Done and done!

And that’s how I found myself in a sweltering basement with the likes of hardcore Republicans like Auditor Keith Faber, Senator Kristina Roegner, and woman-beating conspiracy theorist Jack Windsor.

I found a familiar theme in government, regardless of party: A select few making decisions for the many, sequestered behind closed doors. In the end, the 64 assembled Central Committee members didn’t even have the heart to put their names on their votes, not that it mattered.

On whether to endorse a candidate or not, the committee voted 51-13 in favor. This was the biggest hurdle for Ramaswamy to clear, as he needed a supermajority of voters, a margin he cleared by seven votes.

Once that dam broke, the next result became destiny because it only needed a simple majority to pass. That resulted in a 60-3 vote, with one brave soul abstaining on a secret ballot.

Minutes later, a triumphant Ramaswamy stormed into the room to promise that, under his leadership, the Republicans would expand their coalition in November 2026.

It was another step closer to a reality where I catfished Ohio’s future governor into giving a stump speech in a Raisin’ Canes parking lot to an audience of one.

I said earlier today the smart money was on DeWine. And I got that wrong, likely due to my soft spot for the old man. It won’t happen again.

But make no mistake. This was an impressive win for Ramaswamy, whose campaign forced the issue and defeated last-minute meddling from Governor Mike DeWine, hoping to forestall a party endorsement ahead of Lieutenant Governor Jim Tressel’s likely entrance into the race.

Ramaswamy’s team won’t be sweating if he does. The MAGA takeover of the Kasich-DeWine wing of the party is basically complete.

The biggest winner, other than the obvious, might be former Congressman Tim Ryan and former Senator Sherrod Brown, both Democrats.

Ryan’s camp admits he’s “seriously considering” a run for governor, and current gossip about Brown is that he’s become enamored of the potential contrast between himself and Ramaswamy.

Brown, in typical fashion, is refusing to commit to anything at this moment, including the possibility of running for Senate against Jon Husted, who has an empty can of baby food where his brain is supposed to be.

The Republican Party is now hitched to a pump-and-dump kingpin who moved his business out of Ohio. It’s a roll of the dice given Ramaswamy’s untested nature as a candidate and Trump’s declining popularity, with the true effects of his disastrous trade policy yet to come to small-town Ohio.

The biggest losers, other than Attorney General Dave Yost and Tressel, might be House Speaker Matt Huffman, who, in my opinion, has never provided a solid alibi about his whereabouts on April 19, 1995.

Huffman is an anti-Trump Republican, though he would never utter that sentence in public since he’s smart enough to know that Trump could end his career at the next election if that were something he were interested in doing.

But Huffman, unlike Senate President McColley, didn’t endorse Ramaswamy upon the initial slate of legislative endorsements. Huffman, also unlike McColley, wasn’t hanging out in the Encova basement waiting for the results from the Executive Committee.

Huffman was in House leadership under former governor John Kasich, whom Huffman still loathes because Kasich bypassed the State Legislature and expanded Medicaid (his crowning achievement) through the Controlling Board.

Huffman saw the problems that Kasich posed to the House’s legislative agenda, and he’s smart enough to know that Ramaswamy will be much more powerful than Kasich ever was.

That would be hard times for a man who sees himself as the self-styled king of Ohio, despite never winning a state election outside of a gerrymandered Republican legislative district.

But those are all battles to come.

For now, all that is left to do is marvel at the sycophancy of the Ohio Republican.

It seemingly knows no depths, and now the future of our state might be burdened by an unqualified con artist, all because President Dementia blessed him with the Complete & Total Endorsement.

May God help us all.

This week in Ohio Man…

Stas Grinberg [via John Casmon]

Thank you to everyone who forwarded me the story about the traffic stop in Ohio that featured the raccoon lipping a meth pipe. Per usual policy, it’s embarrassing for our backwater polluted outpost whenever we make international news.

But I went a different direction with the Ohio Man this week, featuring an Israeli veteran who built an empire of real estate fraud in Cincinnati, if you can believe that.

From Dan Monk of wcpo.com:

CINCINNATI — He's an Israeli military veteran who made a fortune in Cincinnati by unlocking value in multifamily apartment buildings. Now, Stas Grinberg is locked up in a Butler County jail, awaiting federal charges of making false loan statements and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.

The company he co-founded, Vision & Beyond, is mired in one of the most complicated foreclosure cases Hamilton County has seen in decades.

Dozens of lenders, contractors, investors and tenants are fighting over the fate of more than 70 properties where tenants are struggling with utility outages, sewer backups, roof leaks and mold.

This is why you can’t trust anyone regularly appearing on podcasts toting the “hustle and grind” mentality. Usually speaking, the secret ingredient is a willingness to defraud less privileged citizens, which appears to be the case with Mr. Grinberg.

Hopefully, he can’t make bail anytime soon, because if he does, I assume he’ll be back in Israel and safe from further prosecution in about two weeks.

This week in The Rooster…

Photo by Ashes Sitoula on Unsplash

• Until death do us part. A father’s pain causes him to kill a Sheriff’s deputy for revenge in Cincinnati, J.D. Vance’s half-brother can’t be bothered to honestly campaign for mayor of Cincinnati and Rep. Josh Williams leaves the yard (again).

• The streets strike back. Big election results in Columbus as 59 percent of voters reject City Hall’s ordained candidate, while Ohio Democratic Party chairwoman Liz Walters quits her job to take a new one, thanks to her petty corruption.

• The conman enters the dojo. Vivek Ramaswamy looks to fend off late meddling from Governor Mike DeWine to block the Republican Party from endorsing the gubernatorial front-runner.

• You play to win the game. Jim Tressel looks to undercut one of Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign planks, a conversation with the Gigachad about Issue 2 repeal efforts, and House leaders no longer want to discuss the Browns deal.

We’ll do it again next week at the same time and place.

Until then, my friends.

Stay frosty!

THOSE WMDs. Inside DeSantis’ “made-for-TV” fall in Florida… Inside the world of investigators who know you’ve faked your death… Wind theft: The mysterious problem plaguing wind farms… Now is the time to eat bagged lettuce… Is there a best day of the year to retire?