The forces trying to defend Ohio State Issue Two, the anti-union measure that the GOP rammed through the legislature as Senate Bill 5, have achieved a new pinnacle in over-reaching... and in wasting money!
There have been reports of pro Issue 2 robocalls from Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. As has been pointed out, why in the HECK should voters in Ohio care about the opinion of the governor from another state, on a purely Ohio issue?
Ah, but I can top that!
A friend of mine from the SW part of our state received a robocall from (wait until you hear this...!)
PAT BOONE!
That's right- the aging, bigoted senile crooner.
Also, we have received pro Issue Two robocalls and mailings at our home. That means that the forces of evil have so much money to burn that they are blanketing ALL voters, not just identified Republicans or independents. You've got to remember that almost 1.3 MILLION registered, confirmed voters signed the referendum petitions to put this issue on the ballot. (that's a HUGE number- in 2010, only 3,852,453 votes were cast in the governor's race.)
Also remember, early voting in Ohio closed on Friday and a LOT of votes have already been cast and progressive forces really stressed early voting.
Basically, the progressive forces got out early, and ran a genuine grassroots campaign. A lot of liars throw that word around, but, it was really true. The level of solidarity is VERY high. As a result, in my little village, we have a number of hard core, wingnut, reactionary flamers. But NONE of them have "pro" issue two yard signs out. Things are that bad for them.
Now, I grant you, in Ohio, no one registers as an "R" or "D." In order to identify voters, you have to check which ballot they took in the last contested partisan primary. And since a miniscule number of people vote in those primaries, the vast majority of voters here are technically independents. But identified mailing and calling lists are widely available.
So if the forces of evil are widely mailing and calling ALL voters it means two things for certain. One, is that they have money to burn. Second, is that they have NOT identified who their supporters are and don't have a "boots on the ground" operation that is actually HERE in Ohio. Clearly, there is so little support for this measure that in order to spend all of the money that they have been given from out of state (Koch brothers and the like) they just have to mail and call any name they can find.
As a result, the trash can in my little village post office is absolutely overflowing with ginormous oversize full color fliers from one of the right wing front groups, that arrived on Saturday (the day AFTER early and absentee voting CLOSED.) These suckers cost a TON of money and now they are just an ecological disaster.
This also spells doom for Issue Three the feeble attempt to somehow repeal "Obama care." Our rat fink SoS allowed their dog whistle language to be on the ballot, but the turnout against Issue 2 virtually guarantees the defeat of Issue 3 as well.