The Curious Case of Bernadine Kennedy Kent

Why is a maskless Democratic State Rep. sitting next to a life-size cut out of President Business Deals?

We pause the ongoing coverage of fallout from the FBI’s quest to see Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder die in prison — the latest revelation being the feds subpoenaing House records from FirstEnergy’s previous three attempts in 2017 to bail out their decrepit nuclear energy plants, one of which was co-sponsored in the Senate by current Secretary of State Frank LaRose — to ask what in the hell is going on with State Rep. Bernadine Kennedy Kent (D-Columbus)?

For more on the excommunicated Democrat who just straight up isn’t coming to work anymore while collecting a $70,000 annual paycheck for a part-time job, we turn to my friend Max, a former Ohio House staffer, current tech gremlin, and proprietor of belldumber.com, where he occasionally writes about Ohio politics. You can follow him on Twitter, where he never tweets about politics, at @JuiceWag.

He also wants to pass along that he donated the $50 I paid him to write this article to State Senate Mark Fogel, opponent of the odious Niraj Antani, because, and I quote: “Fuck Niraj Antani.”

A few days ago I got an interesting tip-off from a friend of mine, a picture appearing to show a sitting Ohio Democratic State Rep. maskless next to a life-size cutout of Donald Trump. This is the type of thing that would surprise me virtually anywhere outside of Ohio. 

Not that shocking in Ohio of all places, where the local Democrats conspired to get batshit huckster Larry Householder back to Speaker of the House. 

Anyways, take a look at what Democratic State Rep. Bernadine Kennedy Kent was up to last weekend. This was found on the public Facebook page of local Trump-loving attorney Don Roberts. 

Rep. Kennedy Kent is the one on the left in red, next to the uh lifesize cardboard cutout of Donald Trump in a mask. I can barely even focus on writing the rest of this, just can’t get over the thought process behind buying a life size Trump cutout and then slapping a mask on it. 

In the process of trying to confirm this was Rep. Kennedy Kent, despite being virtually certain given I used to see her regularly at the House, I ended up on the phone with her and that’s when things took a turn. 

I expected the standard politician denial with a no comment, but Rep. Kennedy Kent was candid enough to confirm that not only was it her, but she was there for her husband. 

According to Kennedy Kent, her husband, James Whitaker, is a prominent supporter of Mark Richardson. Richardson is the Republican running against Joyce Beatty, in a race that will not end up within 40 points. 

The photos are from an event that appears to be this one, which matches up with when the photos were uploaded to Facebook. 

The Rep. denied being there to support Trump, instead saying she was just there to support her husband who’s in her words, “a walk-away Dem.” Walk-Away Dems are the campaign for Democrats to leave the party and start supporting Trump, which in a weird twist were mostly shared by the Russians. 

So apparently she doesn’t support Trump, but was seated at a campaign event next to his life-size cutout. Rep. Kennedy Kent also told me that, “under no circumstances am I voting for Joe Biden.” Continuing on with, “Biden does not represent who the Democrats are.” 

She didn’t clarify that she isn’t supporting Trump, but did tell me that she sat out the Democratic primary. 

This is just the next wrinkle in the saga of Rep. Kennedy Kent, who decided not to run again this year after being reelected just once in 2018. She also apparently hasn’t even been to the Statehouse or office buildings since May 2019. 

Here’s the Franklin County Democratic Chair explaining,

“I can’t say she’s been at a meeting or a party function in, I’d say, over a year, definitely,” Franklin County Democratic Chair Mike Sexton said. “That’s obviously been a concern of mine and others because the district has not been represented.”

Sexton said he has seen a lot more of Dontavius Jarrells, the Democratic nominee in the deep-blue district who is likely to win the November election to succeed Kennedy Kent as its new representative.

“He’s been out there working pretty hard through this crisis making sure people get their unemployment benefits,” Sexton said. “He’s doing a lot of constituent work already, but he doesn’t have a title, and he can’t go vote” in the House.

Apparently she hasn’t actually done anything in a year, and Jarrells who is going to be succeeding her in the house has been working on constituent services. 

I’m not sure how that works, given if you call her office number it goes to a House administrative employee, and her District still has a legislative aide but apparently you can somehow reach Jarrells for services. 

This was just the latest twist, Kennedy Kent was also booted out of the Democratic Caucus at the House for forging the names of Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Leadership.

She alleges that this was due to her supporting Ryan Smith for speaker. She might actually have a point here, the Democrats clearly colluded to get Larry Householder elected speaker and she wasn’t one of the 26 Democrats who kicked Fred Strahorn to the curb and lit the House on fire by voting for Larry. 

This is all after an even weirder incident from 2017 when,

A complaint was filed against Rep. Bernadine Kennedy Kent, D-Columbus, for actions she took in firing her legislative aide, who said in a letter she suffered from an unknown medical condition that made it challenging to walk, sit and stand. The woman said Kennedy Kent tried to require her to work after her assigned hours, transport her as directed, even when out of town, and required her to attend all sessions and committee hearings. The woman said Kent also didn’t have the right to dictate to her when and how to seek medical treatment.

I don’t think anything ever ended up happening as a result of that, but it definitely isn’t ok. Not the first or last time staff have been allegedly abused at the House, and it isn’t stopping.

None of those will top the weirdest incident to happen to Kennedy Kent in her time at the house: when a guy who allegedly just murdered a lady went to the House offices demanding to meet with her to get a new state ID. 

This seriously happened and is why there are now metal detectors to get into the Riffe office building, where the House Offices are. Everything about her last 4 years in State office seems weird, and if anything is a microcosm of the State legislature the past few years: Nothing makes sense, harassment is rampant and corruption is an everyday fact of life. 

I’m not sure if the whole point of this is to go over the crazy fact that Kennedy Kent was maskless at a Trump event. It definitely is not good, but also leads nicely into how the Ohio House Dems are unique at having awful oversight and organization. 

They voted in Larry Householder in exchange for practically nothing, have consistently underperformed in elections, have 10 members who voted for House Bill 6, and have multiple reps who’ve had harassment claims filed against them. This isn’t normal, or good, and it’s pretty evident that not only the Republicans are the rotten ones downtown. Literally everyone and their lobbyists are. 

The Columbus machine on either side isn’t going anywhere, outside of hopefully many to prison, and it’ll just keep on going. Now would be a great time to harp about real change and reform but honestly that isn’t happening. Who knows what will break next, but can anything top the twists and turns of Kennedy Kent’s time in office? 

THOSE WMDs. How to make your arguments stronger (hint: it’s not about making them longer)…Local news ecosystem taking root in Northeastern Ohio… Ohio zoo adopts rare blue lobster from local Red Lobster… The man with the golden airline ticket.. How to outrun a dinosaur… Ohio among states with salmonella outbreak.