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House Leader Criticizes Petro's Stand Against Reform

For immediate release CONTACT: John Kohlstrand Thursday, September 8, 2005 Redfern criticizes Petro’s stand against reform House Democratic Leader Chris Redfern today criticized Attorney General Jim Petro, whose office was to argue in court today against allowing several common-sense reform initiatives on the November ballot. “This is one more example of why we have a culture of corruption in Columbus,” Redfern said. “Hundreds of thousands of Ohioans have signed petitions, hoping for a chance to vote for reform and clean up politics in Ohio. Hundreds of thousands of Ohioans are on record as supporting fair elections and taking the special interest money out of politics.” “Yet Jim Petro is arrogantly putting his party’s political interests ahead of the citizens he is supposed to represent. And he’s doing it by inventing a technicality,” Redfern said. “Why is Jim Petro so afraid of a vote of the people? Why does he fear reform?” Reform Ohio Now’s four ballot initiatives were certified by the Secretary of State’s office, which validated the signatures of 353,094 Ohioans. But Petro and a Delaware-based corporation, “Ohio First” argue that the initiatives should be disqualified because some of the petitions were circulated by out-of-state residents. Redfern scoffed at Petro’s argument. “If Jim Petro was genuinely concerned about out-of-state circulators, then why didn’t he step in last year, when the gay marriage amendment was placed on the ballot?” Redfern asked. “For that matter, if out-of-state political influence is such a concern for Jim Petro, than why doesn’t he return the hundreds of thousands of dollars his campaigns have taken from out of state interests over the years?” “With all the corruption and incompetence currently swirling around the Statehouse, you’d think Jim Petro would have better things to do than inventing ways to stop citizens from trying reform state politics,” Redfern said. “Unfortunately, Jim Petro is putting his own political interests ahead of the interests of ordinary Ohioans. “Ohioans deserve a chance to vote on these important reforms. People like Jim Petro should stop standing in the way,” Redfern said. - 30 -