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A rough outline of how Republicans will go after Democratic state Rep. Debbie Phillips has become apparent in the wake of Republican Mike Hunter announcing his candidacy for her seat and Athens County Republican Party Chair Pete Couladis submitting a letter to the editor supporting Hunter and attacking Phillips.
Hunter and Couladis weren’t shy about ragging on Phillips for supporting the budget deal in December that relied upon delaying the fifth year of an income tax cut approved in 2005. The 4.2 percent fifth-year tax cut, which hadn’t gone into effect yet, will be delayed for two years.
In his letter (which appears on page 5 today), Couladis charges that Phillips “is the person who voted to withhold the tax cut designed to bring relief for Ohio’s working families, so that she could prop up unsustainable spending.”
In an interview with our reporter, Hunter condemned the tax-cut delay, repeating questionable arguments about Ohio being one of the highest-taxing states (studies dispute this). Neither Couladis nor Hunter will acknowledge that this specific tax-cut delay saved the state of Ohio from draconian and unsustainable cuts for public schools and higher education, as well as for libraries, mental-health services and other areas of the budget that have already suffered substantial cuts.
The move to save the budget by delaying the tax cut was supported by such radical tax-loving groups as the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Manufacturers Association, the Ohio Business Roundtable, the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants and the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation.
If the majority of Republicans in the Ohio Senate who voted against the budget deal had admitted to the obvious reality – that in terms of this budget, not plugging the budget hole would have been a disaster for the state – they would have joined the Democrats in supporting the legislation.
Instead, making a cynical political calculation based on blatant mendacity, they voted no so that in 2010, they could brag about standing firm against taxes, and non-incumbent challengers such as Hunter, would be positioned to attack their Democratic opponents as tax-loving liberals. In the current climate, with mindless Tea Party anger swaying impressionable voters, this could be the key to reclaiming the Ohio House and winning other state races. The fact that the tactic is already showing up this early in the campaign season should signal a loud warning for Phillips and other Democrats that they need to counter it compellingly and quickly.
Phillips, in her reply to Hunter and Couladis’ statements, seems on the right track as far as facts and data go, though she will need to fine-tune her message into easily digestible bits. This is the only way she can sway the voters who seem vulnerable to the simple anti-tax message that Republicans will be repeating like a nursery rhyme.
Another hint of where this race is going appeared in Couladis’ letter. He slammed Phillips in relation to coal-mining and power plants, even though she, like him, supported the proposed coal-fired power plant in Meigs County. But that’s not good enough for Pete, who wrote that Phillips “is the person whose base of supporters fought the power plant that would have brought union jobs and tax relief to the working families of Meigs County, Ohio, which has been hard hit by unemployment.”
So now it’s not good enough to support jobs and economic development; all your supporters are required to show the same support.
This is working out to be a really fun campaign season. I can’t wait till the fliers start appearing in my mailbox.
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Take out the toughest Democratic fighter in Athens County the political winds in Athens county will be shifting. Those folks who focused on taking Gwinn out know exactly what they were doing. Phillips is going to have an uphill battle