Forwarding the Republican Agenda

Members of the Democratic Party who are Forwarding the Republican Agenda:

Joyce Beatty

Catherine Barrett

Tim Cassell

Mike Mitchell

Tyrone Yates

Clayton Luckie

These are the 6 Ohio House members that voted for the Ohio Core bill. The bill passed by nine votes. This bill, which was lobbied against by the OFT, the OEA, and Governor-Elect Strickland, passed with out the support of those 6 Democrats. These six, which include the House Minority Leader, are working directly to undermine thier newly elected leader and the agenda of one of thier core constituancies. This type of complicity in the Republican agenda is absolutely intolerable, especially during this sour grapes session.

Gov. Elect Strickland has said that the Core bill (discussed in depth in the link above) would potentially "set up a system that will forever consign a student that may have unique gifts and abilities to a secondary place within our society simply because they do not have the ability to function in other areas."

He had asked the House to wait untill he took office to consider the bill so it could get the consideration and mandate that such a bill would need to work.

Rep. Beatty and the five above have now joined the Republicans in pissing on the newly eleccted Governor's boot. This is absolutely intolerable, especially when you consider that this bill would have had a vastly smaller chance of passing if the leadership had held the line and bothered to bring over more Republicans.

10 Republican House members voted against the bill and many were wavering in thier support.. willing do for the Governor what members of his own party were not; Give him a chance to govern before destroying his agenda.