Yesterday, Ohio Dem LG Candidate Yvette McGee Brown announced Strickland’s plans to assist urban communities, including a plan to create a Leadership Center for African-American Male Achievement.
That’s nice. Except for a few giant problems and giant questions.
First, the Strickland Administration already found it well and good to eliminate state control of assistance specifically for African-American males.
An entity with a similar, somewhat broader mission – the Commission on African American Males – was eliminated as a state agency in the budget Strickland signed in 2007. Its funding and operations were moved to the Ohio State University, where they remain.
Ok, so the program remains, but we need to spend more to do something already sent to an educational institution to manage?
So what else can Yvette sink her hands into?
Also as lieutenant governor, McGee Brown said she would oversee an urban co-op and internship program funded by $25 million in revenues from planned casinos, give priority in state development grants to businesses and housing located within easy distance of public transportation, and expand the state’s Save the Dream foreclosure assistance program.
It seems with all these programs that Yvette is talking about creating a completely new department or office that focuses on Urban Affairs by cherry picking programs out of other departments. What will be the cost to set up this new office just for the LG? Or will she be able to interfere with specific programs in each department and overrule the director of those departments? This totally ambiguous direction is the kind of failure of leadership that has caused such a bureaucratic fiasco in Ohio’s state government.
Oh, and guess what NRA, the LG candidate said gun issues are irrelevant to the Governor’s race.
McGee Brown declined to comment on one major urban policy matter: gun control. Last week, Strickland touted his endorsement by the National Rifle Association at events across the state, but McGee Brown said the issue was irrelevant to the race.
That should be news to gun owners across Ohio.
UPDATE: I revisted the Newark Advocate website linked at the top of this post where I originally obtained the excerpts discussed in this article. Since I originally wrote this post, Yvette’s quote changed to the following:
McGee Brown declined to comment on one major urban policy matter: gun control. Last week, Strickland touted his endorsement by the National Rifle Association at events across the state, but McGee Brown said her opinion on the issue was irrelevant to the race.
As you can see, the article added “her opinion” to the paragraph. I wrote Michael Shearer at the Newark Advocate about the change. He said the article was produced by the AP and resided on a subpage within their site. Apparently, when the AP updates their version of the article, it automatically updates on the Newark Advocate site as well, and that’s likely what happened in this case.
Does it change the meaning of the statement? Absolutely. But it should make the statement no less worrisome for gun owners. Voters have every right to know where the Governor’s nominee stands on gun issues. After all, she is next in line to be Governor. In addition, if McGee Brown doesn’t support the rights of gun owners, then Strickland’s support must also be questioned. After all, McGee Brown is supposed to be the person he feels could best replace him should he leave office before his term expires.
So, Yvette, where are you on the rights of gun owners?