Letters: Matt Huffman, sneaky lawmakers made 'frenzied mob' calling out their hypocrisy

You created 'the mob'

Note: Today’s guest column by Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, appeared on Dispatch.com last week.

In his recent guest column, Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman writes about the opposition to Issue 1, calling it “the height of hypocrisy.”

He claims to be fighting “the frenzied mob,” referring to Ohioans he has already disenfranchised through gerrymandering and voter obstruction.

He fails to recognize his party’s extremism is the reason citizens are demanding our constitutional amendment procedure be preserved.

Who's Matt Huffman? The Lima man running the show at the Ohio Statehouse

As a colleague, I personally like Matt Huffman. Politically, however, we are 180 degrees different.

Huffman misconstrues and obfuscates facts by comparing the bylaws of a political party to our state constitution that actually governs the citizens of Ohio.

Ohio Senate president: ’The rabid opposition to State Issue 1 is the height of hypocrisy’

He makes claims against Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, even though these claims were clearly refuted when Issue 1 was being debated earlier this year.

The real hypocrisy is Republicans’ advocacy for this August election despite voting for the bill that eliminated them a few months ago. They are trying to sneak Issue 1 and this multimillion-dollar sham past voters, stating we need “to protect our state constitution against outside special interests” when, in fact, it is their side that is being bankrolled by an out-of-state billionaire!

After illegally instituting super-majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, Republicans want to take away the most direct way Ohioans have to change policy in Ohio.

That is the point of Issue 1: to make sure nobody has the power to disagree with them ever again.

Voters should not be fooled. Vote “no.”

State Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, Ohio’s 25th Senate District

The real gaslighting

Re "Stop gaslighting the public," July 21: Buckeye Firearms Association Executive Director Dean Rieck accuses opponents of Issue 1 of 'gaslighting the public' and goes on to explain why he believes a constitution should be hard to change.

Letters: Stop the gaslighting. Changing Ohio's constitution too easy. Vote 'yes' on issue 1

The Ohio Constitution is already very hard to change by citizen initiative.

In the last 14 years (2010 to 2023) there have been 63 citizen initiative constitutional amendments to our constitution.

Of those, 59 failed to meet the current requirements to even reach the ballot (imagine having to collect signatures in all 88 counties instead of 44). Of the four that made it to the ballot, two were defeated and two passed.

Rieck failed to give a single example of a citizen initiative constitutional amendment ever passing, that was bad for Ohio. Even the United States constitution had an amendment that later was found to be undesirable and was repealed. Thank goodness we have constitutions that can be amended and re-amended.

Want an example of the public being gaslighted? Proponents of Issue 1 claim it will protect the Ohio constitution from big money from outside Ohio — but the Issue 1 campaign is financed by an Illinois billionaire.

Jeff Dixon, Grove City

A not so funny

How – hot - is - it?

It’s so hot, I saw a robin grabbing a worm using oven mitts.

This summer has made it harder to ignore the changes in our environment. The high temperature in Phoenix has been 110 degrees or more for over 20 straight days, sometimes reaching 118 degrees.

In Adrar, Algeria in early July, it was 103.3 Fahrenheit. That was the overnight low. The hottest days on earth since weather instruments were invented in the 1800s have all been in the last three weeks. Drought and heat have caused wildfires in so many places.

Even most of Ohio has felt the smokey effects of the Canadian fires. The changing climate is killing people, heating the oceans, destroying crops and getting worse each year. Maybe we should try to respond in thoughtful ways. There are many things that people are already doing to make a difference. Number one on my list is simple.

Stop voting for people who pretend it isn’t happening. Stop electing politicians who care more about the money they get from fossil fuel companies and care less about the rest of us.

Stop supporting those who are willing to sacrifice the future of our children and our grandchildren here and around the world.

John Schmieding, Athens

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Republican lawmakers' hypocrisy created 'frenzied mob' fighting Issue 1