Columbus – State Senator Shirley Smith (D-Cleveland) released the following statement today after voting against the passage of House Bill 318, which creates a separate federal primary on June 12, 2012:
“I am completely disturbed by the Republican decision to unnecessarily create an additional primary election in 2012. This new primary will cost as much as $15 million, and all year we have been told that the state has to guard its resources.
“My colleagues in the Democratic Caucus offered an amendment that would have combined the state and federal primaries to create a single primary in 2012, saving the state those $15 million. Who in their right mind would pass up such an opportunity?
“I also offered an amendment that would have codified an agreement between Secretary of State John Husted and Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald, which was also supported by the majority’s leaders. This amendment would have required the Secretary of State to send absentee voter applications to all registered Ohio voters for the November 2012 Presidential Election. Again, and without sufficient explanation, Senate Republicans rejected the amendment.
“This is the same party that, several months ago, blamed public employees for the state’s financial problems, instead of finding fault with the huge, unnecessary tax loopholes and excessive tax cuts that they enacted in 2005. Now, under the twin specters of Senate Bill 5’s defeat and possible referendum on the highly partisan Congressional maps, Republicans baldly waste taxpayer dollars. If they had used an open and inclusive process to draw those new Congressional boundaries, I am convinced that we would not be here today.
"Their actions show internal incoherence or unbridled hypocrisy within their party. Either way, the result is not good for Ohio.”