Change-Wary U.S. Voters Reject Ohio Union Curbs, Abortion Ban
November 10, 2011, 6:52 AM ESTBy Mark Niquette and William Selway
Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. voters defeated Republican- backed curbs on unions in Ohio, rejected a Mississippi abortion ban and ousted the Arizona legislator behind an anti-immigration law in ballots yesterday showing an electorate wary of change after the longest recession since the 1930s.
The Ohio defeat of limits on union bargaining rights enacted by first-term Governor John Kasich and Republican lawmakers, the rejection of a Maine Republican measure ending same-day voter registration and the loss by Arizona Republican Senate leader Russell Pearce heartened Democrats heading into the 2012 presidential race.
With the economy still struggling in the aftermath of the 18-month recession, voters expressed distrust for transformative policies, said John C. Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.
“A lot of voters are saying, ‘Whatever is going to happen, I don’t need any more change in my life right now,’” Green said.
In Virginia, where President Barack Obama won in 2008, Republican Governor Bob McDonnell’s party picked up seats in the House of Delegates and appeared close to taking over the Senate, according to the Associated Press.
Ohioans also approved a measure challenging Obama’s health- care law, while Mississippi kept Republicans in charge by choosing Lieutenant Governor Phil Bryan to succeed Governor Haley Barbour, who couldn’t run again because of term limits.
New Jersey Power
In New Jersey, Republican Governor Chris Christie failed to expand his power over the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Democrats gained one seat as a result of redistricting, according to tallies by the AP and Star-Ledger. Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Steve Beshear also won re-election.
“Both parties have something to be excited about,” said Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. “The results point to an extremely close situation ahead of the election in 2012.”
That’s in contrast to a year ago, when voters angered at the stalled economy and the Obama administration put Republicans in control of a majority of statehouses and the House of Representatives.
Both Democrats and Republicans seized on yesterday’s results as evidence of voters’ support a year before presidential and congressional elections.
Andrei Cherny, Arizona Democratic Party chairman, said voters rejected radicalism when they threw out Pearce, the state Senate president who led lawmakers in passing an immigration law in 2010 that sparked national boycotts and was emulated by Georgia, Alabama and other states.
Making Sense
“Whether it is in Arizona or Ohio or elsewhere, people actually want things that make sense in terms of governing and not just things that will rile up a partisan base,” Cherny said in a telephone interview.
Bryant’s election in Mississippi was “a tremendous testament” to the state’s Republican leaders, said Bob McDonnell, chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
“For the first time in more than 125 years, Mississippi voters have elected back-to-back Republican governors,” he said in a statement.
The fight over collective bargaining in Ohio drew national effort from labor unions in the presidential battleground. The Ohio measure, which affected about 360,000 teachers, police officers, firefighters and others, lost 61 percent to 39 percent, and was defeated in all but six of the state’s 88 counties, according to the secretary of state’s office.
National Implications
The vote has national implications, emboldening Democrats for Obama’s re-election and discouraging Republicans in other states from trying to curb public-sector unions, said Paul Beck, a political-science professor at Ohio State University in Columbus.
“They’re going to be much more careful in picking their spots,” Beck said in a telephone interview before the vote.
The measure would have restricted bargaining to wages, hours and working conditions, barred strikes and allowed government entities to impose contracts. It also required workers to cover at least 15 percent of health-care insurance premiums and contribute 10 percent of their pay to pensions.
A similar bill pushed by Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker triggered weeks of protests at the Capitol in Madison and spurred recall elections in nine Senate districts.
Unlike the Wisconsin law, which exempted police and firefighters, the Ohio bill included them.
Help for Localities
Kasich, 59, said before the election that the law was needed to help local governments control costs. Now, he’ll “take a deep breath” and reflect on the outcome, the governor told reporters at a statehouse news conference.
“It’s clear that the people have spoken,” Kasich said. “They might have said it was too much, too soon.”
Kasich said the state won’t be able to solve the financial problems that local governments face.
“We’ll work with them to help them overcome their challenges,” the governor said. “But let me be clear: there’s no bailout coming. There is no bailout because, frankly, there’s no money.”
The repeal is good news for Obama, said William C. Binning, chairman emeritus of the political-science department at Youngstown State University and a former Mahoning County Republican Party chairman.
“Had ‘Yes’ prevailed, I think Ohio would have been out of the picture for Obama, and now it’s in,” Binning said in a telephone interview. He cautioned against reading too much into the vote. “That’s not to say he’s going to win; I just think he’s going to be competitive.”
Fewer Votes
Yesterday’s election was decided by far fewer voters than in the 2008 presidential contest, when 5.77 million ballots were cast. Early results count 3.28 million, according to the secretary of state.
Ohio voters also showed themselves critical of Obama’s health-care overhaul, a signature accomplishment of his time in office that has been a rallying point for Republican opponents.
They backed a constitutional amendment that would block any mandate that individuals buy health insurance -- a key part of the Obama plan and the crux of legal challenges -- by 66 percent to 34 percent. It was approved in all 88 counties, according to the secretary of state.
Ohio joins four states that considered similar measures last year and four slated to vote next year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Mississippi Rejection
In Mississippi, voters rejected a measure that would have made it the first state to ban abortion by declaring that life begins at inception, an effort to challenge the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade.
“It will give pause to Republican legislators and perhaps some Democrats who want to say I’m for this,” said John Bruce, who teaches political science at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. “They’ve seen it fail in what has consistently been called the most pro-life state in the country. If it can’t pass here, it’d be hard to pass anywhere.”
--With assistance from Amanda J. Crawford in Phoenix and Esme E. Deprez in New York. Editors: Jerry Hart, Jeffrey Taylor, Stephen Merelman To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.net William Selway in Washington at wselway@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net
