November 7, 2018

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2018

The 2018 Election Edition Rep. Steve Stivers wins re-election P9

DeWine defeats Cordray P11

Athens turns out to vote P16

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

Covering elections in an extraordinary year

LAUREN FISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

I never really asked to be a political reporter. Like most things in this business, it was something that kind of just happened.

I first jumped onto the politics beat back when I was a freshman reporter covering Graduate Student Senate. The GSS president had just announced that he’d be running for state office, and that meant I would be the one in charge of covering the race.

Months of preparation ensued, and before I knew it, it was Election Day. At about 5 a.m., my managing editor was tapping me on the shoulder telling me to go home. Apparently, I’d finally passed out on my desk shortly after the paper went to the presses. The candidate I’d been covering had lost the race, and I walked home just as the sun began peeking over the Athens skyline, wondering if the past year’s work had been worth it.

We’re living in highly divisive times. You don’t have to be a political expert to figure that one out. And as objective reporters, there’s not much we can do beyond presenting you, our readers, with the facts.

Our journalists have been preparing for

this edition for months now, endeavoring to find new and innovative ways to cover an extraordinary midterm. The hosts of “Swing State of Mind,” our podcast on Ohio politics, have been gearing up for a special elections edition. Our multimedia and social media teams have been hard at work creating informative content for our Instagram feed throughout the week.

Rather than simply telling you which candidate won or which issue passed, we’ve been pressing our reporters to answer an even more important question: Why does it matter?

This edition of The Post wouldn’t have been possible without our managing editor and Ohio politics aficionado Maddie Capron, who, despite battling a case of pneumonia the week before elections, managed to pull this issue off.

And one last note: I’m writing this on the morning of Election Day — which means I have absolutely no idea how this is going to play out. By the time you pick up the paper, the ballots will have been counted and we’ll

know what issues passed and who will assume office.

So, I can’t tell you to head to the polls. I can’t tell you who to vote for. All I can ask is that you don’t let the passion die out. The divisiveness of this election year has been tumultuous, but it’s also brought out the best in some of us.

An entire generation of young people is perhaps more politically engaged than ever before. I can’t scroll two seconds down my Instagram feed without running into a photo of an OU student knocking on doors or proudly displaying their “I voted” sticker.

My hope is that The Post has made it easier to digest this year’s elections. After all, you, our readers, are the ones who really make the decisions. We’re simply here to present the facts and to tell the stories that matter.

Lauren Fisher is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University and the editorin-chief of The Post. Have questions? Email Lauren at lf966614@ohio.edu or tweet her @Lauren__Fisher.

Cover photo by Kelsey Boeing All illustrations by Marcus Pavilonis

THE

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LAUREN FISHER MANAGING EDITOR Maddie Capron DIGITAL MANAGING EDITOR Alex McCann ASST. MANAGING EDITOR Jessica Hill CREATIVE DIRECTOR Abby Gordon EDITORIAL NEWS EDITORS Sarah M. Penix, Ellen Wagner INVESTIGATIVE EDITOR Bailey Gallion SPORTS EDITOR Spencer Holbrook CULTURE EDITOR Alexis Eichelberger OPINION EDITOR Chuck Greenlee COPY CHIEF Laila Riaz ART ART DIRECTOR Abbey Phillips GRAPHICS EDITOR Riley Scott DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Meagan Hall DIGITAL DIGITAL PRODUCTION EDITOR Megan Knapp SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Kate Ansel BLOGS EDITOR Georgia Davis DIRECTOR OF MULTIMEDIA Alex Penrose DIRECTOR OF PODCASTS Madeleine Peck

POST

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Athens County by the numbers More than 21,000 people voted in Athens County for the 2018 midterm elections on Tuesday. Here’s how they voted INFOGRAPHIC BY ABBEY PHILLIPS

15th District

63.11%

Rick Neal

VOTED

Steve Stivers

Total votes cast

34.47%

94th District

21,675

55.38%

Taylor Sappington

Jay Edwards

44.62%

Governor race Senator race Sherrod Brown

Jim Renacci

Richard Cordray

67.93%

Mike DeWine

62.61%

33.91%

31.94% THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 3

DEMOCRATS DISCUSS

Minorities victimized by voter suppression While strict voting laws combat a non-existing issue, minorities are left under assault.

During the second Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. during the 1950s and ‘60s, one of the most sought after rights by activists was the right to vote. Malcolm X is famously remembered for saying “Give me the ballot or the bullet,“ offering segregationists an ultimatum to either respect African-American voters or suffer the violent consequences, similar to the American revolutionists who fought against taxation without representation. Martin Luther King Jr., alongside John Lewis, Stokely Carmichael and Diane Nash, led the Selma Campaign protesting for the right to vote that finally convinced the U.S. government to act. Five months after the campaign ended, President Lyndon Johnson signed arguably the most important piece of legislation to come from the Civil Rights Movement: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA).

The VRA reinforced the right to vote for minorities with full support of the federal government. It allowed the Department of Justice to use a coverage formula under Section 4(b), which is approved by Congress, to determine if states, counties or cities use discriminatory practices in their electoral process. Should a jurisdiction be identified as such under Section 4(b), the Department of Justice was allowed to use Section 5 to invalidate any discriminatory election laws from those

jurisdictions. Several mostly former Confederate states tried to pass laws that would have limited the voting power of minorities, ranging from restrictive photo voter I.D. laws to racially-biased gerrymandered districts, but Section 5 prevented them from going into effect while protecting the rights of minorities. Section 5 proved to be instrumental in expanding the franchise to minorities.

According to the U.S. Commission for Civil Rights, African-American voter registration in Mississippi increased from 6.7 percent in 1965, to 59.8 percent in 1967, to 90.2 percent in 2012.

Unfortunately, Section 4(b) wouldn’t be around forever. In 2013, in the U.S. Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court ruled Section 4(b) unconstitutional in a 5-4 decision, rendering Section 5 moot. With the coverage formula no longer valid and Republicans in control of the House of Representatives unwilling to renew the formula, the states that were once prohibited from enacting their own laws were allowed to pass any electoral laws they saw fit. It was at this point that we saw states that were once covered under Section 4(b), such as Texas and Georgia, start to enact stricter voting laws that diminished the influence of minority voters. Texas enacted a strict photo Voter I.D. law, passed by a Republican-controlled state legislature and signed into law by Republican Governor Rick

Perry, that prevented people from voting unless they had a state-approved photo I.D. This includes a driver's license, which many minorities who live in cities and rely on public transportation do not have. In Georgia, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is also the Republican nominee for governor, has placed on hold 53,000 voter registration applications, of which about 80 percent belong to minorities, in an effort to bolster his candidacy in a tight race against Stacey Abrams, an African-American Democrat who has energized those very same minority voters.

Now, Republicans will defend these laws arguing that they are intended to combat voter fraud. However, voter fraud is not an issue in American elections. In a study conducted by The Washington Post from 2000-2014, they found only 31 credible cases of voter fraud out of over 1 billion votes cast.

Republicans know there is hardly any voter fraud.

They are simply trying to disenfranchise minority voters who they know will not vote for them. If these laws go unchecked and unchallenged, minorities are looking at a return to Jim Crow-style voter suppression.

Bailey Williams is a junior studying economics at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post.

What do you think? Let Bailey know by tweeting him @BWill_Ohio.

AROUND THE WEB

Charter schools to be an important issue for Ohio CHARLOTTE CALDWELL is an undecided sophomore studying at Ohio University.

4 / NOV. 7, 2018

Charter schools have now become all the rage for parents looking for an alternative option to traditional public schools, with charter schools making up nearly 7 percent of U.S. public schools in 2013 and 2014. While there are many potential benefits on the surface for children from impoverished communities, charter schools such as Ohio’s largest online K-12 school, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) have come under fire after their heavily debated teaching methods and decisions.

During the end of 2017, the middle of the school year for many students, the online school threatened to shut down due to claims that the school overfilled their full-time enrollment, giving them more money from the state education department than they needed. When the department attempted to take away this extra funding, the school threatened to shut down in the middle of the school year, saying that these funds had a “fatal impact.” Students enrolled in the school were already receiving failing grades along

with the school itself, who earned five Fs and one D on their 2016 and 2017 state report card. This report for any traditional public school would have caused a government takeover. Many feared that if the school shut down entirely, some students who were close to graduating would never graduate.

This issue has come up multiple times during the recent gubernatorial race between Democratic candidate Richard Cordray and Republican candidate Mike DeWine. Cordray called for an end to all for-profit charter schools, while DeWine wants these schools to prove themselves by performing course completion testing and competency before they would receive state funding. Children learn in many different ways, and the assumption that all for-profit charter schools are doing wrong for their students does not solve the issue. DeWine’s stance on the issue shows that he is dedicated to realizing the potential of charter schools and that abolishing them completely wouldn’t benefit the children that they have

helped, specifically shown in the positive effects in low-income students.

If the issue of mismanagement was taken out of the equation, the idea of charter schools can actually be a welcome change to students who struggle with state Common Core and standardized testing. Charter schools have flexible curriculum and hold a greater accountability for performance. Parents also have the option to choose a specific charter school to suit their child’s needs, unlike traditional public schooling that is usually based on district.

No matter the result of the gubernatorial election, expect charter schools to be something that is on the plate for Ohio for years to come.

Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Charlotte? Email her at cc670717@ohio.edu.

NOAH’S ARK

‘This Land Is Your Land’ is punk NOAH WRIGHT is an undecided sophomore studying at Ohio University.

If you grew up in the American school system, it's almost guaranteed you were branded with the song “This Land Is Your Land.” Many American children were brought up on the idea the Woody Guthrie anthem reflected the idea that our nation was one big happy melting pot that gave equal opportunity to everyone.

The only problem is that notion is entirely false.

In fact, “This Land Is Your Land” has been called everything from an alternative national anthem to a Marxist anti-anthem; but the simple truth is it’s super punk, perhaps even the first punk song in contemporary American music history.

When Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land,” things were not going so great for America. We were still on the tail end of the Great Depression and we were about to enter a massive war. Guthrie was pretty sick and tired of hearing Kate Smith’s delusional patriotic hit “God Bless America” dominate the radio all day long. So tired, in fact, that he originally titled “This Land Is Your Land” as “God Blessed America For Me.” How punk is that? The song was actually written with the purpose of criticizing “God Bless America.” But it gets even better.

While the version we know today wouldn’t be released until 1951, Guthrie began writing it in 1940, and it originally included lyrics that gave a pretty harsh social

commentary on the state of American in the late 1930s.

The first verse that’s been redacted from the version we learn as children went: “There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me. / The sign was painted, said 'Private Property.' / But on the backside, it didn't say nothing. / This land was made for you and me.”

When contemplating what the meaning behind this verse truly is, if you consider it’s been wiped from the popular version, it’s easy to see Guthrie was saying something critical here. This verse was perhaps intended to touch on the classism and uneven distribution of wealth that ran so rampant in early 20th century America. He’s pointing out how so many had lost access to the riches of a country that truly belonged to all of us.

In his next lost verse, it’s pretty indisputable what message Guthrie was driving home: “One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple, / by the relief office I saw my people. / As they stood hungry, / I stood there wondering if God blessed America for me.”

Guthrie spent a great deal of time traveling and learning from those who had lost everything to the Dust Bowl, and, in the 1930s, our government wasn’t hesitant to let those people starve. President Herbert Hoover had simply taken a hands-off approach to the economic and environmental tragedies that ravaged

America. Watching his people beg outside a relief office that had no relief to give clearly made Guthrie feel certain ways about the nation he called home.

The last line truly solidifies the idea that there’s something punk about this song. By saying “I stood there wondering if God blessed America for me,” he’s directly addressing the hypocrisy of “God Bless America.” He is asking if God truly did bless America the way the hit song championed it did, then why was so much going wrong? If God blessed America for everyone, why were his people starving while the rich and powerful did nothing?

The song we are bred to know by heart originally had a lot to say about our nation. In its final form, it can still include deeper undertones about race, religion and who this country truly belongs to. There’s no denying the loss of these verses takes some of the punch out of it.

Why the original version was lost could be attributed to the mindless nationalism and anti-communist attacks on art of the 1950s, but, regardless of the reason, “This Land Is Your Land” had just as much to say about those in power as any punk rock classic does.

Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Noah? Tweet him @NoahCampaign.

THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 5

POLICE BLOTTER

Students smoke in dorm room; bird causes alarm ELLEN WAGNER NEWS EDITOR Two students found themselves in the weeds while smoking weed over the weekend.

On Friday at about 2 a.m., the Ohio University Police Department responded to a call from resident assistants in Treudley Hall about a student who had smoked marijuana.

The resident assistants said the man had been “yelling and screaming and was now unresponsive on the 3rd floor,” according to the OUPD report.

After a brief investigation, the student had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and admitted to smoking marijuana earlier. He was checked out by the Athens County EMS and was cleared. The student was issued a citation for disorderly conduct by intoxication.

Another student in the room was also investigated and was issued a citation for possession of marijuana.

The incident was one of three citations of possession of marijuana by OUPD over the weekend.

SLEEP CALLING On Friday, the sheriff’s office responded to Huckleberry Road for a 911 open line call.

According to the report, dispatchers could hear what “sounded like someone swearing and hitting buttons on the phone.” On scene, deputies spoke to the elderly man who had called.

He said he had fallen asleep on the phone when he realized he accidentally made a call, and he could not get the phone to shut off. He said the cussing that deputies heard was him yelling at his phone and apologized for the misunderstanding.

With no criminal activity present or additional assistance requested, deputies returned to patrol.

BYE BYE BIRDIE On Thursday, the Athens’ County Sheriff’s Office responded to an activated residential alarm on Pleasonton Road.

On the scene, deputies check the residence with the homeowner. A bird was found inside the residence, which caused

the alarm. No further action was needed, and the case was closed.

was also contacted and responded to the scene. No further action was needed.

WALK THRU The sheriff’s office responded to a report of a suspicious woman hanging out near Beverage Drive-Thru in The Plains last Wednesday.

On the scene, the woman was found walking through the drive-through. She was told to leave the premises immediately, according to the report. Once she left the area, deputies returned to patrol.

The case was closed.

AW NUTS! The sheriff’s office took a report from a man about the theft of walnut trees on Deep Hollow Road Thursday.

The man said the trees were cut from the property he owns. If anyone has any information about the recent theft of trees, they are asked to contact the sheriff’s office.

SORRY, WE’RE CLOSED On Saturday, deputies responded to an alarm at a business on South Plains Road.

Deputies spoke with a woman who came to the business not knowing that it was closed, according to the report. She said she didn’t realize the business was closed until she opened the door and the alarm went off.

After the alarm went off, she decided to wait for deputies to arrive. The owner

RING OF FIRE The sheriff’s office responded for a report of active breaking and entering on Green Run Road Friday.

The man said a man and a woman came onto his porch and took a metal fire pit ring. The pair also took some items from his vehicle. The case is still under investigation.

@EWAGNER19 EW047615@OHIO.EDU

NEWS BRIEFS

LGBT Center holds rally; priests accused of assault SARAH M. PENIX NEWS EDITOR THREE PRIESTS WHO SERVED IN ATHENS LISTED AMONG 17 CLERGYMEN ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ABUSE Three of 17 Ohio Catholic clergymen who have admitted to or have been accused of sexual abuse of a minor have served in Athens churches over a span of about 20 years.

Joseph A. Martinkosky, Robert F. Marrer and Walter Plimmer each served as priests in Athens between 1955 and 1972. They are among the 16 priests and one seminarian listed in a news release from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Steubenville. Those 17 “have been credibly accused or admitted to sexual abuse of a minor and removed from active ministry,” the release reads.

Martinkosky is the most recent of the three to have served in Athens. He served at Christ the King University Parish, 75 Stewart St., in 1972, according to the

6 / NOV. 7, 2018

church’s website. Martinkosky was suspended from ministry in 1991, according to the news release.

Marrer, who is now deceased, served at St. Paul Church, 38 N. College St., in 1966 and at Christ the King from 1966 to 1970, according to the churches’ websites.

Plimmer, who is also deceased, served at Christ the King from 1955 to 1957, according to the church’s website. However, Plimmer was suspended from the ministry in 1956, according to the news release.

The news release containing the list was released by the diocese Wednesday.

It dates back to the diocese’s formation in 1944, the release reads, and most of the cases are decades old.

FOR FIRST TIME, OHIO UNIVERSITY’S HOMECOMING KING AND QUEEN ARE BOTH AFRICAN-AMERICAN This year as Ohio University announced its homecoming winners, history was

made. Both winners were African-American, a change from previous years.

Keith Key and Jasmyn Pearl were announced homecoming king and queen during this year’s homecoming festivities.

Their win carries a great amount of significance in OU history because of whom they represent.

In the past, the homecoming court has been racially diverse; however, this is the first year that the king and queen were both African-American.

Pearl, a senior studying family and consumer sciences, is still figuring out what the victory means to her. She said when she arrived at OU, she had a list of things she looked forward to accomplishing, and being crowned homecoming queen happened to be on the list.

“I really didn’t expect to be homecoming queen,“ Pearl said. “It was a total shock, but I really wanted the opportunity to represent my class.”

WON’T BE ERASED RALLY HELD IN SUPPORT FOR TRANS PEOPLE The Won’t Be Erased rally was to show support for trans people while giving them an opportunity to speak out and share their stories on Friday.

The rally was held in solidarity and support of trans and intersex people, delfin bautista, director of the LGBT Center who uses they/them pronouns and the lowercase spelling of their name, said.

“We will not be erased,” bautista said.

The rally was planned two days ago in light of an announcement of a federal law that would possibly redefine gender and would essentially erase trans and intersex people’s existence, according to the rally’s Facebook event page. The rally was hosted by the LGBT Center at the Civil War Monument. There were about 50 people in attendance.

@SARAHMPENIX SP936115@OHIO.EDU

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94TH DISTRICT

Rep. Jay Edwards speaks during a debate against Taylor Sappington on Oct. 29.

(BLAKE NISSEN / PHOTO EDITOR)

Ohio House of Representatives candidate Taylor Sappington speaks during a debate against Rep. Jay Edwards on Oct. 29. (BLAKE NISSEN / PHOTO EDITOR)

Edwards wins re-election for 94th District MIKAYLA ROCHELLE FOR THE POST Republican Jay Edwards won the race for state representative of the 94th District, beating Democrat Taylor Sappington 58.29 percent - 41.71 percent with 99.99 percent of precincts reporting in Ohio.

Jay Edwards, a Nelsonville native, is a graduate of Ohio University. He is currently the incumbent for the 94th District.

Edwards is a member of the Athens Area, Nelsonville, Belpre, Meigs County and Marietta Area Chamber of Commerces. He is also a member of Nelsonville Rotary, the Farm Bureau and National Rifle Association. Edwards is also an appointed member of the Athens County Transportation Improvement District and the Meigs County Transportation Improvement District.

Edwards plans on continuing to work for funding of schools, reducing the amount of stan8 / NOV. 7, 2018

41.71% 58.29% *As of 1 a.m. Wednesday with 99.99 percent of precincts reporting

dardized testing, restoring local government funds, reducing the cost of higher education, combating the opioid crisis and expanding opportunity in southeast Ohio.

“We have generational poverty and a lack of opportunity,” Edwards said in an email. “I have worked on many initiatives with Democrats and Republicans, both in Columbus and on the local level. I have also built a broad based network of area business and organizational leaders. Together we make progress everyday.”

The median income in Athens in $22,204 and the poverty rate is 54.7 percent according to a report

from 24/7 Wall St. The report rates Athens as number eight in a list of “America’s Poorest Towns.”

“We are working on many projects right here in this region both across the aisle and with fellow Republicans to figure out poverty issues and address them,” Edwards said in a debate with Sappington.

Edwards will continue to fight for fair funding and local control for schools so more time can be spent teaching students, according to his campaign website.

In regard to the opioid crisis, Edwards plans to work with law enforcement and community leaders to make sure southeast

Ohio has the resources it needs to keep drugs off the streets and expand drug counseling and rehabilitation, according to his campaign website.

Edwards has made his campaign goal to simply show up and listen to what his constituents care about during his campaign.

“A State Representative is supposed to go to Columbus to represent the people in that district,” Edwards said in an email. “The only way to do that is to show up, be accessible, and listen to the issues and ideas that people have.”

Edwards and his opponent agree on a lot of issues, Edwards said in an email. Differences become clear in Edwards’ attempt to always remain bipartisan to issues.

“I do not look at ANYTHING from the perspective of a Democrat or Republican. For me, it is about right versus wrong, not right versus left,” Edwards said in an email.

@MIKAYLA_ROCH MR290816@OHIO.EDU

“

I have worked on many initiatives with Democrats and Republicans, both in Columbus and on the local level. I have also built a broad based network of area business and organizational leaders.

Together we make progress everyday.”

- Jay Edwards, Ohio’s 94th District representative

15TH DISTRICT

Rep. Steve Stivers explains his policies at the debate for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District on Oct. 30. (ANTHONY WARNER / FOR THE POST)

Rick Neal speaks at the debate for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District on Oct. 30.

(ANTHONY WARNER / FOR THE POST)

Stivers wins Ohio 15th Congressional District seat GEORGE SHILLCOCK FOR THE POST With 99.99 percent of precincts reporting, Republican incumbent Steve Stivers won more than 58 percent of the vote to reclaim Ohio’s 15th Congressional District seat, defeating Democratic challenger Rick Neal.

In Athens County, Neal received 63.11 percent of the vote, while Stivers got 34.47 percent.

Stivers will continue to represent the 15th District, which holds 12 counties including the entirety of Athens, Clinton, Fairfield, Hocking, Madison, Morgan, Perry, Pickaway and Vinton counties and parts of Fayette, Franklin and Ross counties.

During his campaign, Stivers talked about reducing the cost of health care, expanding broadband access to rural areas and balancing the federal budget.

Stivers passed legislation during his time in office which focused

39.46% 58.62% *As of 1 a.m. Wednesday with 99.99 percent of precincts reporting

on growing the economy and creating jobs. Three of the bills he primarily sponsored became law. His most recent was H.R. 1900, a bill which created the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus.

According to a press release from Neal’s campaign, he called Stivers to urge him to stand up to the Republican party when President Trump demeans people and spreads fear around the country.

“I hope Steve Stivers will work with Democrats in Congress to bring real healthcare reform that lifts consumers and delivers healthcare to all Ameri-

cans regardless of their income,” Neal said in the press release.

During a debate in Athens, the two candidates traded jabs at each other and disagreed on a lot of issues such as health care, the economy, civility and gerrymandering. The 15th District is one of many congressional districts in Ohio that are considered gerrymandered in favor of Republicans.

Stivers is also a Brigadier General in the Ohio Army National Guard and the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican Party’s main fundraising arm for campaigns.

During the campaign Rick Neal and other state Democrats often criticized Stivers for his role as head of the NRCC. He said Stivers’ and the NRCC are a main reason why politics in the U.S. is so uncivil.

Stivers, who is also a founder of the “civility caucus” in the U.S. House, said that he encourages campaign advertisements funded by the NRCC to be fair and truthful but he can’t control the content of the ads.

David Pepper, the chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said it doesn’t make a lot of sense for someone who represents a struggling district to have a position like that.

Adam Rapien, Stivers’ campaign manager, said representing the district takes priority over being chairman of the NRCC. He said Stivers is able to do both jobs without sacrificing one for the other.

Despite losing, Neal narrowed the margin of loss compared to

previous Democratic campaigns that ran against Stivers. In 2016, Democrat Scott Wharton lost by about 32.4 percent, while in 2014 he lost by about 32 percent. In 2012, Democrat Pat Lang lost by 23.2 percent.

Many Democrats attribute these large margins of victory for Stivers to the fact that the district was gerrymandered in favor of Republicans after the Republican-led government redrew the congressional districts after the 2010 census.

Stivers will be apart of the 116th Congress of the U.S. With a projected Democratic majority, Stivers will find it more difficult to pass legislation than previous years. The Senate’s projected Republican majority makes it even more complicated to pass legislation.

@SHILLCOCKGEORGE GS261815@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 9

SENATE

Sherrod Brown (PROVIDED via Izzi Levy, Brown’s press secretary)

Jim Renacci (PROVIDED via Brittany Martinez, Renacci’s campaign director)

Brown to serve third term in Senate seat MIKAYLA ROCHELLE FOR THE POST Democrat incumbent Sherrod Brown won the Senate race against Republican Jim Renacci, beating him 53.16 percent to 46.84 percent with 99.99 percent of precincts reporting in Ohio. This will be Brown’s third term.

“Tonight, Ohio, you showed the country that by putting people first and by honoring the dignity of work, we can carry a state Donald Trump won by nearly 10 points,” Brown said in his victory speech.

Brown was born and raised in Mansfield, Ohio. Prior to his first Senate election, Brown was a member of the Ohio General Assembly and served as Ohio’s Secretary of State and represented Ohio’s 13th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“The single biggest problem facing Ohioans is that as they work harder than ever, they have less and less to show for the 10 / NOV. 7, 2018

53.16% 46.84% *As of 1 a.m. Wednesday with 99.99 percent of precincts reporting

work they put in,” Brown said in an email. “I’m fighting to make sure every single Ohioan has the opportunity to succeed — from the first-generation college student working their way through school at OU, to the nurse in Cincinnati or the business owner in Sandusky.”

One of Brown’s main focuses in his political career has been standing up for American workers. He has spent his career fighting to make sure Ohioans see their work pay off by investing in job-training programs. He’s also attempted to make it easier for student borrowers to refinance

their loans. Brown said he has also fought to raise wages and wants to make sure workers “have a seat at the table and the ability to organize and bargain.”

Brown made the opioid epidemic one of his main concerns.

Brown has been working with fellow Sen. Rob Portman, R-OH, to make it easier for Ohioans battling addiction to receive treatment.

“I hear from Ohioans on the frontlines of this epidemic every day, and they need Congress to step up and provide the resources they need to make an impact in their communities,” Brown said in an email.

Creating jobs is also one of Brown’s top priorities for his next term. He is pursuing new policies that will support U.S. job creation. Some of those policies include renegotiating trades so they work better for Ohioans to tax incentives for companies who keep jobs in the U.S. “This is the most important election of our lifetimes because every other election has passed and is relevant at this point. We have to focus on now,” Bailey Williams, president of Ohio University College Democrats, said.

For the past 11 years, Ohio has had a Democratic senator and a Republican senator. Before this election, only 14 states had a senator from each of the main political parties, according to Pew Research Center.

Brown defeated Renacci, who had been in the U.S. House Representatives for Ohio’s 16th District since 2010. Before his career in politics, he was a busi-

nessman and operated more than 60 businesses. He created 1,500 new jobs and employed 3,000 people statewide, according to his campaign website.

“For my lifetime (this is the most important election cycle) because of the political tension that is going on right now.

People are making things super divided. I don’t think we are as (divided as) it appears on social media,” Missy Pedulla, president of Ohio University College Republicans, said.

Brown spent election night in Columbus with his family and fellow Democratic candidates.

“I have spent my career fighting for working families across our state,” Brown said in an email.

“I am proud that Ohioans know me, know my record, and know that they can count on me to give them a voice in the Senate.”

@MIKAYLA_ROCH MR290816@OHIO.EDU

GOVERNOR

Richard Cordray (PROVIDED via cordrayforohio.com)

Mike DeWine (PROVIDED via ohioattorneygeneral.gov)

Mike DeWine will be Ohio’s next governor BENNETT LECKRONE SENIOR WRITER The Ohio governor’s office will remain red as Republican Mike DeWine defeated Democratic opponent Richard Cordray in Tuesday night’s election, becoming the state’s next governor.

DeWine received more than 50 percent of votes statewide with more than 99.99 percent of precincts reporting in, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s website.

NBC politics projected that DeWine would win on Twitter.

In Athens County, DeWine and Husted received 7,186 votes, far less than Cordray’s 13,268.

DeWine has advocated for more affordable college and reduced standardized testing during his campaign, including guaranteeing tuition rates, according to his website. DeWine has also supported increasing educational funding for low-

46.41% 50.70% *As of 1 a.m. Wednesday with 99.99 percent of precincts reporting

er-income Ohioans.

“Over the years, state funding has decreased to help lower-income Ohioans pay for higher educational opportunities in our state,” DeWine’s website reads.

“The DeWine-Husted Administration will increase state funding for lower-income Ohioans to attend to higher education.”

DeWine also plans to help fund basic job-qualifying certificates, like coding certifications, according to his website.

Aside from education, DeWine and his running mate, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted,

“

Over the years, state funding has decreased to help lower-income Ohioans pay for higher educational opportunities in our state.”

- Mike DeWine, Ohio’s next governor

plan to address Ohio’s opioid epidemic by declaring it a public health emergency, expanding drug courts and creating more early intervention programs.

Overdose deaths claimed thousands of lives in Ohio in 2017: 4,854 Ohioans died of unintentional overdose in 2017, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

DeWine, the Ohio Attorney General and former Senator, will be making a return to the Ohio governor’s office. He was the state’s lieutenant governor under Republican George Voinovich from 1991 to 1994.

Cordray, however, has criticized DeWine for what he says are ineffective policies on the opioid epidemic.

“What Mike DeWine is doing right now as attorney general is simply too little too late, and he has had no plan to address this crisis until he started running for governor this year after sev-

en years of indecision and inaction as attorney general,” Cordray said in May. DeWine has also pledged to continue Medicaid expansion despite previously labeling it as financially unsustainable, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

DeWine will succeed fellow Republican John Kasich. While DeWine has promised to continue some programs created during Kasich’s tenure, like JobsOhio, the two differ in their approach to President Donald Trump.

Kasich has been a staunch critic of many of Trump’s policies since the two faced off in the 2016 Republican Primary.

DeWine, on the other hand, has been endorsed by Trump.

DeWine and Husted will take office in January.

@LECKRONEBENNETT BL646915@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 11

The Blue Island BENNETT LECKRONE | SENIOR WRITER

While Athens, along with Appalachian Ohio, has been disempowered by selective redistricting, reform efforts could change that

H

eather Taylor-Miesle still owns a shirt emblazoned with the slogan “When Athens votes, Ted wins.”

Taylor-Miesle, who has worked in politics for more than 20 years and is currently the executive director of the Ohio Environmental Council, worked for Ted Strickland’s campaign when he was a representative.

Strickland, a Democrat, would later become the governor of Ohio.

The city of Athens was part of the 6th Congressional District at the time, which encompassed most of southern Ohio, Taylor-Miesle said.

Now, most of Athens County is in the 15th Congressional District, with some of the southeastern portion of the county in the 6th Congressional District.

12 / NOV 7, 2018

Athens was still a liberal holdout in a conservative area at that time, but Taylor-Miesle said the area was still able to have an impact on the district.

“I think it was intentionally disempowered,” Taylor-Miesle said regarding Athens in its current congressional district.

The 15th congressional district, which incumbent Republican Steve Stivers won once again in the 2018 election, was drawn after the 2010 census to favor Republicans.

It took effect in 2012 and will be in effect until 2022.

The district encompasses a large portion of Appalachian Ohio but also stretches north, looping around Columbus to capture parts of the city like the Brewery District and the city of Upper Arlington.

“When a district's been gerrymandered,

especially to the degree that the 15th District has been gerrymandered, it's really an uphill battle,” said Athens County Democrats Chair John Haseley. “All of the numbers are working against you. It takes a lot of effort and everything has to come together to be successful when you're swinging upstream against gerrymandering.”

Beyond just heavily favoring Republicans, this district also presents a unique challenge to its representative, Ohio University political science professor Barry Tadlock said.

Both Stivers and Neal are from the Columbus area, a vastly different region when compared to Southeast Ohio. To properly represent the district would involve spending lots of time in very different communities learning about the issues in each town,

“It necessitates a person who really embraces the idea of trying to represent all of the diverse areas in a district,” Tadlock said.

“I think that can be really, really hard.”

Haseley acknowledged that proper representation is difficult to come by when someone is not from the area of their constituency.

“You try to have a representative that is more connected to your community and understands the problems and the values of a particular community or region, and having somebody from Upper Arlington representing Appalachia kind of defeats that whole premise,” Haseley said.

Athens is not the only area in the state with a vast and gerrymandered district.

Current maps across the state have been designed to heavily benefit Republicans, Taylor-Miesle said. Of its 16 representatives, 12 are Republicans.

Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, or the “snake on the lake,” stretches thinly across the northern part of the state from Toledo to the outer reaches of the Cleveland area, being connected at one point only by a bridge. Another district takes the shape of a duck floating on water.

ATHENS DISENFRANCHISED Gerrymandering, which means to redraw a district to favor one party, can lead to situations where representatives are from different regions, and whole different cultures, of the state than some of their constituents, Tadlock said.

Such is the case in the 15th District, where Stivers, a resident of Upper Arlington, represents many Appalachian Ohioans.

On paper, Athens doesn’t fit the mold of Appalachia.

Political views in Appalachia tend to be more right-leaning than in Athens, Tadlock said.

“I think culturally it is distinct from the other parts of Ohio in not just conservatism, but perhaps a more libertarian strain,” Tadlock said. “A resistance to an idea of government being a place to look to to solve problems.”

That is partly due to the economic situation in Appalachian Ohio, where some of the poorest counties in the state are located.

“The lack of any large metropolitan area figures into things as well because it means that there's just less in the way of economic development and job opportunities and more in the way of economic challenges like high unemployment and lower median income,” Tadlock said.

Athens stands out from that conservatism: The county was one of only eight out of 88 counties across the state where a majority of voters voted for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

Democrats dominate Athens. Eleven out of the 14 Athens County elected officials are Democrats. All three county com-

“

When a district’s been gerrymandered, especially to the degree that the 15th District has been gerrymandered, it’s really an uphill battle. All of the numbers are working against you. It takes a lot of effort and everything has to come together to be successful when you’re swinging upstream against gerrymandering.”

Most of Athens County is located in the 15th Congressional District.

- John Haseley, Athens County Democrats Chair

missioners are Democrats. So is the coroner, the treasurer, the clerk of courts, the prosecuting attorney, the county engineer and the recorder.

The only Republicans are two judges and Athens County Auditor Jill Thompson.

The county is an Appalachian anomaly. Only one other county in Ohio’s Appalachian region — Mahoning, where Youngstown is located — had a majority of voters who favored Clinton in 2016.

The presence of OU and the population of the city of Athens are clear-cut reasons for the county’s image of a Democratic stronghold. Students from across the state, nation and world, as well as the community around OU, give Athens its distinct sense of diversity and a more liberal feel than surrounding counties, Tadlock said.

“It's like an 800-pound gorilla in this part of the region,” Tadlock said of the city of Athens. “It's a more liberal element that would be associated with a major public university that you would not find in other parts of the region, and more affluence as well, and more impact from international students and even students from outside of the region that have come here to go to school.”

While Athens is located in a conservative area of Ohio that doesn’t always match its politics, Taylor-Miesle hopes that it could soon be better represented after recent reform efforts.

REFORM In May, the writing was on the wall for Ohio politicians.

The Fair Districts = Fair Elections Coalition, supported by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and a variety of other

organizations, had collected enough signatures to get a redistricting reform measure on the November ballot.

Taylor-Miesle, who was involved with the coalition, has worked on ballot initiatives in multiple states. She said she never saw as strong of a response as she did from Ohioans on redistricting reform.

“I have never seen anything even remotely like this,” Taylor-Miesle said of the initiative.

A ballot measure was added to the May ballot after weeks of negotiations between the Fair Districts = Fair Elections Coalition and the Republican-led Ohio Legislature.

Ian Dollenmayer, a legislative aide for Ohio State Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, one of the leaders on the legislative side of redistricting reform, said the senator previously worked on reforming the smaller state legislative districts, which passed in 2015.

“Keeping communities together keeps representatives close to home,” Dollenmayer said. “It prevents you from breaking down demographics and slicing up neighborhoods and counties.”

The reform, which will be used in the redrawing of districts in 2020 after the next census, creates several layers of approval required from both parties.

Under the old system, only a majority vote in both houses was required to pass redrawn maps. The new maps were drawn after the decennial census, and when a single party controlled the legislature during that time, the maps could be drawn heavily in the favor of a single party.

In the new redistricting system, 60 percent of both the Ohio House and the Ohio

Senate would have to approve the maps, with more than 50 percent from both parties in the legislature agreeing.

If that fails, a seven-member nonpartisan commission would get a chance to adopt a map with support from at least two members of the minority party.

If the commission also fails, the legislature would again try to redraw the maps, this time with at least one-third of the members from the two largest parties in the legislature. Another failure would result in a simple majority vote.

Taylor-Miesle thinks the districts will change tremendously and hopes that the new process could usher in a new era of collaboration between parties.

“We’ve lost the art of discussion and civil debates, and there’s no way to pass a map without some kind of civil debate,” Taylor-Miesle said. “That’s going to be a tremendous opportunity.”

Taylor-Miesle said she hopes the reformed redistricting system could lead to more compact districts – the measure requires that at least 65 of Ohio’s 88 counties be kept whole during the redistricting process.

“There are a lot of opportunities for Athens, which is growing by leaps and bounds right now, to have folks who really take in mind the values of that community as a primary objective whenever they go into Capital Square or Congress,” she said.

@LECKRONEBENNETT BL646915@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 13

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Issue 3 passes for Athens City School District It’s a waiting game for the Athens City School District Board of Education. The almost year-long board discussion about what to put on a levy issue to address deteriorating facilities concluded in March, but the decision to approve the levy was made by voters on election night.

Discussions began with three options.

All of which addressed what to do with elementary level buildings, including a single campus solution.

The single campus solution, which was supported by disability advocates, was taken off the table by the board in October.

While the board had received an offer for 8 acres of land on The Ridges from Ohio University, it was not enough. The board wanted 20 acres for the single campus solution and it told residents in October 2017 that OU would not give that amount.

The board moved from three options to a compromise solution: “option four.” “Option four,” which was the basis for Issue 3, included two pre-K to third-grade buildings, one fourth- to sixth-grade building, a new high school and a renovated middle school.

The local share of the project is projected to be $60.5 million. The board is expecting nearly 32 percent of the total project cost of $77 million to be covered by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, OFCC. The two pre-K to third-grade buildings would be built on the current locations of East and Morrison-Gordon elementary schools.

The fourth- to sixth-grade building will be in a renovated Plains elementary, which will have a special addition for the sixth grade.

All of these solutions were meant to address two major problems: socioeconomic inequality and deteriorating facilities.

A previous Post report analyzed the difference in the performance index between The Plains Elementary and East Elementary, roughly 26.5 percent. Tom Gibbs, superintendent of the district, said the district looked at reducing disparity through socioeconomic integration.

This socioeconomic integration would be achieved, based on board discussions, by the grade re-configuration proposed.

Laura Alloway is a mother of two daughters who attend or attended West Elementary. West Elementary, one of four elementary schools in the district, would be torn down under the proposed plan.

Alloway believes West is a socioeco-

AGAINST: 47.53% nomically balanced community between kids who get free and reduced lunch and those who do not.

Based on data regarding students who receive free and reduced meals collected by the Ohio Department of Education for fiscal year 2018, West had the fourth smallest percentage of students receiving free and reduced-price meals in the district.

Based on building assessments used for the district’s facilities master planning, West is in similar shape to the rest of the elementary schools. All four of the elementary schools were recommended to replace heating, roofing, security system and emergency lightening among other facilities improvements. The levy is meant to provide funding to support these replacements.

The board will begin to look into funding the district's work with architects.

The district will be solely responsible for funding the plan until they become eligible for state funding.

Rick Savors, spokesman for the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, said the district has followed all the steps to qualify for the Expedited Local Partnership Program, or ELPP. ELPP means the amount of money the district spends on the project before state funding is available and will be deducted, or credited, to the district’s portion of the local share. The final percentage of state funding won’t be confirmed until the district passes the levy and signs a facilities plan agreement.

While the district has given an estimated dollar amount for the state’s contribution, Savors said the OFCC does not provide exact dollar amounts.

Savors said the eligibility of districts to receive state funding is based on an eligibility list developed by the Ohio Department of Education.

The list is based on a local property wealth indicator and is revised every year. The timeline for when districts will receive funding would be decided by how many districts decide to use the money for its approved projects.

The passage of the levy brings the district into a new set of discussions about how to move forward with addressing the facilities and social concerns within the district.

Nolan Simmons contributed to this report.

@MAGGIESBYLINE MC987015@OHIO.EDU

How the internet is shaking up the world of political elections ABBY MILLER FOR THE POST Contrary to what some people believed during the humble beginnings of computer technology, the internet is here to stay.

Similar to technological advances in the past, people from a variety of professions have eagerly jumped on board with the internet and taken advantage of all that it has to offer. This includes political leaders from across the country who are using the internet in new, evolving ways.

Elections differ in candidate platforms and voter turnout during every cycle. Technology, a driving force behind elections, changes based off of the time as well. Lauren Elliott-Dorans, assistant lecturer for political science at Ohio University, said that the popular tools used to reach voters depends on the time period.

“TV ads became prevalent almost as soon as we had television. Before that, it was radio ads,” Elliott-Dorans said. “Campaigns are really adaptive when it comes to new technology to reach voters, especially doing it cheaply.”

Telephones precursing the internet and its use on mobile devices. Campaigns have historically used phone banks for calling voters up, Elliott-Dorans said. Today the use of phone banks for campaigns is already decreasing due to cell phones.

“It’s harder to get a hold of people and even harder to get them to answer because now everyone has caller ID, and they know it’s an unknown number,” Elliott-Dorans said.

Beginning with the race for the Democratic Party primary for president in 2000, the internet has been a tool used for campaigning, mobilizing voters and gathering campaign volunteers.

“In terms of mobilizing volunteers, the internet has been tremendously helpful,” Elliott-Dorans said.

The internet also serves as many OU student’s main tool for finding information on candidates. Adelina Miller, a sophomore studying middle childhood education and theater, said that the internet is how she primarily learns about politics.

“I look up stuff on Google,” Miller said.

Many candidates not only use the internet, but they also use apps to help with

“

(Social media) allows you to communicate more directly with possible constituents, not just about your platforms, but to highlight your personality.”

- Lauren Elliott-Dorans, assistant lecturer for political science at Ohio University

their campaign efforts. While in 2000, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Bean used the website MeetUp, the Obama campaign in 2008 had an app for campaigners, Elliott-Dorans said.

“You didn’t really need to step foot in the campaign office, which changes the dynamic of things,” Elliott-Dorans said.

Politicians are also taking advantage of social media networks to reach out to their constituents. “(Social media) allows you to communicate more directly with possible constituents, not just about your platforms, but to highlight your personality,” Elliott-Dorans said. “Politicians are in a better position to signal their personalities and their tendencies to voters in the use of these kind of more democratic platforms.”

Some students at OU do not interact with candidates on social media. Miller said that she tries to keep social media fun.

“I try to not look at (politicians’) stuff,” Miller said.

For voters, the new role the internet plays in elections can mean increased pressures to be politically active. Studies show that social media has led to increased social pressures for people to go out and vote, Elliott-Dorans said.

“I vote and stuff, but it’s not something I’m that passionate about yet,” Malie Curry, a freshman studying integrated science education, said.

Citizens can also register to vote online and can find information about their polling location. With such a large sea of information available to voters online, the threat of disinformation and fake news continues to become a more prominent concern.

“One of (the dangers) is people not being savvy enough to know what’s a fake news story versus a real news story and what’s satire versus what’s not,” Elliott-Dorans said.

Curry said that she can generally spot fake news when faced with it.

“If something doesn’t seem right, it’s probably not,” Curry said.

For Miller, a story she’s unsure about means researching the topic.

“If I see something that I think is maybe real, I’ll look more into it,” Miller said.

What Elliott-Dorans sees as the biggest problem with the internet today is people’s ability to self-select their news.

Around the world, people can access news stories from every angle, but generally speaking, they choose not to. “(People are) usually interested in feeling supported and seeing messages

that confirm their existing attitudes and hanging out with like-minded people,” Elliott-Dorans said. “When we do that, our attitudes actually become far more extreme. They’re less rooted in reality.”

A possibly even bigger danger is that despite the vast amount of political news available to people online, they’ll ignore politics altogether.

While Miller and Curry both don’t follow political figures on social media, Curry does engage in political discussions and watches speeches.

Despite all of the possibilities the internet opens up for campaigning and politics, physical conversations still prove to be the most effective route for engaging voters, Elliott-Dorans said.

“Time and time again, if we’re talking about persuading voters and mobilizing voters, it’s that face-to-face contact that’s been demonstrated to be the most effective,” Elliott-Dorans said. “That’s usually the best way to go.”

@ABBLAWRENCE AM166317@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 15

Athens casts votes More than 20,000 students and residents of Athens took to the polls Tuesday. Here’s a look back on the day

Anna Payne leaves the polling station at the First Presbyterian Church on Court Street. Payne says that she voted because she “ just wants to see change in this country.”

(ALEXANDRIA SKOWRONSKI / FOR THE POST)

Workers load up the ballot machines to have the votes counted.

(NATE SWANSON / FOR THE POST)

Freshman Katie Gold talks with junior Graci Book about a sample Democratic ballot during Election Day. (COLIN MAYR / FOR THE POST)

16 / NOV. 7, 2018

Republicans wait for the midterm results at the Athens Republican Campaign Headquarters. (HANNAH RUHOFF / PHOTO EDITOR)

Chris Roach (left) hugs the new Athens County Treasurer Ric Wasserman (right) following his victory in the 2018 midterm elections. (ANTHONY WARNER / FOR THE POST) 11-year-old Sadie, a lab-corgi mix, poses in her Election Day gear at the Athens Board of Elections office. Sadie’s owner, Joan Butcher, 59, of Athens, takes Sadie on a walk every night and decided to dress her up because of Election Day. (MIDGE MAZUR / FOR THE POST)

Board of Elections waits for ballots to come in.

(MCKINLEY LAW / PHOTO EDITOR)

Christine Knisley, President of Athens City Council, cheers while listening to poll results at The Pigskin Bar and Grille.

(EMILEE CHINN / PHOTO EDITOR)

People sit at the bar in The Pigskin Bar and Grille while watching the election results on TV. (ELLIE PONTONES / FOR THE POST)

A voter fills out his ballot at First Presbyterian Church on Court Street. (HANNAH RUHOFF / PHOTO EDITOR THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 17

Here’s a breakdown of how much money was spent in some of Ohio’s major races GEORGE SHILLCOCK FOR THE POST More than $90 million was raised for local, statewide and federal races in Ohio by candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties prior to the Nov. 6 general election.

Money raised is less often an indicator of who will win a race, but it can show just how competitive it is and how much people care about the outcome. This holds true for the gubernatorial race, which was a projected toss-up, according to the Cook Political Report, but Republican Mike DeWine ended up winning.

According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Ohio Secretary of State’s website, the majority of the money is being funneled into one race, the Ohio gubernatorial race between Democrat Richard Cordray and DeWine. DeWine raised more than $23 million while Cordray raised over $37 million.

Other races throughout Ohio have much larger margins. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, is doubling the amount raised by his opponent, Democrat Rick Neal.

Stivers raised more than $3.8 million, while Neal raised more than $1.2 million. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, outraised Rep. Jim Renacci for the U.S. Senate race by more than $20 million.

Brown raised about $22 million compared to about $7.8 million

by Renacci.

Money didn’t just flow toward the high-profile races; lower level state races also receive a fair amount of money. Rep. Jay Edwards, R-Nelsonville, raised more than $500,000, while his opponent, Taylor Sappington, raised more than $138,000.

Campaign finance changed in 2010 and 2014 when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. Federal Election Commision and McCutchen v. Feder18 / NOV. 7, 2018

al Election Commission. Those decisions removed limits on the amount an individual may contribute during a two-year period to all federal candidates, parties and political action committees combined. This means that much more money could flow into political campaigns than ever before.

This money comes from various sources but can be broken down into a few different categories: individual contributions; political party and other committee contributions, often referred to as Political Action Committee (PAC) money; candidate contributions; and loans.

“You’ll likely see Democrats shying away from PAC money use during this election while Republicans will still accept large donations from them,” Sarah Poggione, a political science professor at Ohio University, said.

Poggione said many Democratic campaigns want to do more grassroot fundraising in order to give themselves an image of not being controlled by big business.

She said Democrats will still accept money from rich donors.

PAC money has become controversial. Some candidates, mostly Democrats, even swear off taking corporate PAC money from businesses and take a more grassroots approach to fundraising, while other candidates take in large amounts from those funds.

Sappington, for example, was one of those candidates. His donations averaged about $195 per donation compared to $1,225 per donation for Edwards, his opponent.

“This is my most passionate issue,” Sappington said. “We started this campaign, and we made a pledge to take no corporate PAC money.”

Sappington said he has called out Democrats across the state who make this pledge but then take corporate PAC money when they win office.

Sappington was still given

“

You’ll likely see Democrats shying away from PAC money use during this election, while Republicans will still accept large donations from them.”

- Sarah Poggione, a political science professor at OU

donations by pro-Democratic PACs and committees, such as Every District, LaunchProgress and the Ohio House Democratic Caucus, but a majority of his donations were from individuals.

Edwards received large amounts of donations from individuals but also got big dollar donations from corporate PACs and unions, such as the Ohio AFO-CIO Voter Education Fund, Realtors PAC and Ohio Coal PAC. Edwards said he is thankful for donations and endorsements from organizations, such as the Chamber of Commerce and labor unions, but he does not vote based on what they want.

He said the choices he makes on votes are his own, and they can sometimes upset these very same groups.

Some of the bigger races in Ohio are also attracting a large amount of money from outside of Ohio. DeWine received more than $2 million from out of state while Cordray got more than $12 million from outside of Ohio.

Anyone can look up how much money is being spent on any elections by looking up the FEC or the state’s Secretary of State’s websites.

@SHILLCOCKGEORGE GS261815@OHIO.EDU

Record numbers of LGBT and female candidates in recent election GEORGE SHILLCOCK FOR THE POST Taylor Sappington, a Democrat running for the Ohio Statehouse, is one of many candidates running for office who may change the face of politics in Ohio — and across the nation — if elected Nov. 6.

Ballots across the U.S. feature a record number of LGBT and female candidates, and Ohio’s slate is no different. Sappington and U.S. House candidate Rick Neal are just two of the 392 openly LGBT candidates running across the nation.

“For me personally, it would mean a lot to win this seat and not only represent LGBT issues, but southeast Ohio and Appalachia,” Sappington said.

“To run as an openly gay man on the same ticket as Rick Neal, an openly gay man running for Congress in my district, really is kind of extraordinary.”

In addition to the slate of LGBT candidates, there are more than 1,000 women running for state and federal offices in the U.S. — including 11 U.S. House candidates, Ohio Lieutenant Governor candidate Betty Sutton and Ohio Secretary of State candidate Kathleen Clyde.

“We need to run on the strength of our candidates and our ideas,” Clyde said. “I think many voters are ready for a change, and I think that’s what

we will see in this election.”

Clyde said she is glad to see more women running across the country. She said she thinks people look at her accomplishments and qualifications rather than her gender because it shouldn’t be important.

Women, LGBT people and most minorities are considered widely underrepresented in U.S. government. Women make up 50.8 percent of the U.S. population but only fill 107 of the 535 seats in the House and Senate.

Meanwhile, there are just seven openly LGBT representatives in Congress’ two chambers.

Sappington said representation is important at all levels of government and necessary so that members of legislative bodies, like the Statehouse and Congress, have a wide range of identities, personalities and backgrounds.

Neal and Sappington both said they believe a big reason more diverse candidates are running for office this year is that many people are upset with the current government. Both believe the dysfunction and inaction at both the state and federal levels need to be fixed.

“I think it is largely a reaction to the Trump administration and supporters of Trump in other offices,” Katherine Jellison, a history professor at Ohio University, said. “Women and LGBT folks feel under siege in this era

and feel that their rights and their dignity are at risk and want to push back against that.”

Jellison said she believes people who have felt unempowered are doing better at organizing and mobilizing to get out the vote.

Neal, like many other minority candidates, has a chance to make history: If he wins his election against incumbent Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, he would become Ohio’s first openly LGBT federal representative.

Prior to running for lieutenant governor, Sutton became the first woman elected as a legislator at the city, county, state and federal levels.

“It’s a unique time, but that’s not to say that we have solved all the problems that need to be addressed, but it’s the start of bigger things to come,” delfin bautista, the director of OU’s LGBT Center, said.

If these minority candidates win, the election could see a “rainbow wave” of LGBT winners or a “pink wave” of female winners across federal, state and local races. Some of these candidates face uphill battles against incumbents, but many others are running in more winnable races.

“There are a lot of stereotypes about Ohio and Ohio not being a very welcoming state, and part of that is grounded in reality and part of it is misunderstandings,” bautista who uses they/them pronouns and the

Women in Ohio

0

Women Nationwide U.S. Senate

23

U.S. House

237

57

State House

2,760

11

State Senate

628

1

Statewide offices

135

80

Total

3,783

11

lowercase spelling of their name, said. “Not that having an elected official makes everything perfect, but it’s one of many things that will show LGBT people here in Ohio that our lives and our voices matter.”

The Human Rights Campaign puts out a scorecard for each congressional representative’s voting record on LGBT-related legislation. That scorecard gives only seven of the 18 current Ohio representatives in the Senate and House a score higher than a zero.

Both Neal and bautista said having these candidates — or more candidates who are supportive of minorities — in office would help pass legislation to provide protections and equal

rights at the state and federal levels.

“Now, it’s time to bring some new perspectives that reflect the greater diversity of the American population and bring a point of view that says there are other perspectives and experiences out there besides the usual default white, straight, male perspective,” Jellison said.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published Nov. 5. Taylor Sappington and Rick Neal both lost to Jay Edwards and Steve Stivers. Kathleen Clyde won the lieutenant governor position.

@SHILLCOCKGEORGE GS261815@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 19

THE BIGGER PICTURE MADDIE CAPRON | MANAGING EDITOR

While many say all elections matter, there’s something different about 2018

I

f you ask someone in politics, they’ll probably say all elections matter.

But to some, the 2018 midterm elections have just felt different.

Nationally, the elections decided which political party will control Congress. On a state level, Ohioans will see a new governor, as well as fresh faces in the Statehouse and in other areas of state politics. In Athens, voters had the power to decide the fate of schools in their district and who will become a county commissioner. Few, if any, people in politics would say those things are anything but irrelevant, but there’s still something distinct about this election.

Over the past few years, politics have become more polarized and more personal. The rise of movements like “March for Our Lives” and “#MeToo” have put social issues to the forefront of the political discussion. While some voters are concerned about the state of the economy, health care policies and immigration. To some, however, this election was about deciding the future of the country, what it values and where it will go.

20 / NOV. 7, 2018

AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE SEEN AND HEARD Washington, D.C., is about 350 miles from Athens, and while some may think what happens in Washington doesn’t have too big of an impact on their own lives, this year’s election could have a tremendous one.

USA Today reported that this year’s election “won't just decide who takes control of the House or Senate. The midterms are seen in large part as a referendum of President Donald Trump, whose two years as president have been tainted with controversy and scandal.” Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that this election is unlike any other in recent history.

For Ohio University Student Senate President Maddie Sloat, this election was an opportunity to halt what she sees as an unraveling of progress in the areas of civil rights and women’s issues. Sloat said her opinions as a politically involved person are separate from her work in Student Senate.

“As a young woman who’s worked to promote civil rights and women’s issues for years now, feeling like so much of the work that our country has done to make progress in these areas has been undone in such a short time is a difficult pill to swallow,” she said. “So for me, this election is an opportunity to halt that as soon as possible, and start making change in the right direction again.”

Sloat isn’t alone in that realm of thinking. Activists on both sides of the political spectrum poured countless hours, days, weeks and months into advocating for their beliefs. In 2016, for example, The Post reported that many students had put campaigning ahead of classes and other duties, making it their number one priority. Students now wanted to see the change they had anticipated come to fruition.

“While I believe that every single election matters and that every citizen should exercise their civic duty of voting every election cycle, given the current climate of our nation and the important issues at stake, this election is an incredibly important one,” Sloat, who votes in her hometown of Pittsburgh, said. “Our representatives will decide on issues that have direct consequences on the wellbeing and

“

Midterm elections are an opportunity for citizens to check the actions of the current administration. I think this election is an opportunity to remind Washington of our priorities as citizens of this country.”

- Maddie Sloat, Student Senate president

experiences of women, citizens of color, immigrants, people in poverty, LGBT folks and so many more in the United States, and voting this election cycle shows that we care about what happens in our own country.”

Athens County Republican Party Chair Pete Couladis felt similarly to Sloat, saying there seemed to be much more at stake nationally since this election decided which political party has control in Washington.

“This election seems to have more negative and nasty campaign ads particularly from the congressional candidates,” Couladis said in an email. “This is a reflection of the current turmoil in our society due to social and political issues and the organizations and the internet that continue to inflame people and their attitudes.”

MAKING IT PERSONAL For some, this election goes far beyond politics and political jargon, and it could have an impact on their everyday lives.

Robin Kelby, a first-year master's student studying computer science who uses they/them pronouns, said that although they don’t have a personal story as to why the elections matters to them, many other people in their life have seen politics become personal. When their parents divorced, they said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act allowed their mother to receive insurance through her employer. Additionally, the act helped their partner’s mother through cancer, they said.

“Other friends must carefully follow health care laws and regulations, because changes in those laws and regulations

can be the difference between getting the medication they need and the consequences of going without,” Kelby said in an email. “You may not be affected by a law now, but you or someone you care about may be affected in the future, and you should vote as if you yourself would be affected.”

Health care is just one of the many issues that was at the forefront of the elections. Over the past years, Democrats and Republicans have latched onto certain issues they believe strongly in. From gun rights, immigration reform, abortion and women’s rights, and countless other issues, some say Americans are living in a time of political revolution. And that revolution has made waves in Athens, hitting even closer to home.

For example, there have been nearly 300 mass shootings in 2018, according to ABC, leading to movements like March for Our Lives. In March, hundreds gathered in Athens to support increased gun legislation as part of more than 800 rallies taking place.

OU College Democrats President Bailey Williams, who was a main organizer of the march in Athens, said he had organized the march because “no one is spared” from gun violence.

“You don’t have to be in D.C. to advocate for gun control,” Williams said. “Satellite protests and marches are just as important as the ones in D.C. to show how widespread the support for this movement is.”

Starting in 2017, a wave of sexual assault allegations trickled throughout the country, and this semester, that empowerment to report has been seen on campus. As of

Oct. 23, there have been 21 total reports of sexual assault to the Ohio University Police Department and the Athens Police Department since Fall Semester began.

About 500 students gathered on College Green at the end of September for the “It’s on Us, Bobcats” march and rally to call for an end to sexual assault on campus and express their support for sexual assault survivors.

Regardless of the issue at hand, Athens City Council President Chris Knisely said politics affect residents’ everyday lives.

“This election and every election matters to people who live in Athens, because the candidates who are elected establish policy, and the ballot issues that may be approved affect our everyday life,” she said in an email.

WHAT COMES NEXT? Nationally, Democrats took back the House and Republicans maintained control of the Senate. Ohio will still have a Republican governor and Democratic senator. Athens County will continue to be represented by Jay Edwards and Steve Stivers. However, people are still unsure of what comes next after this election and what this means for the political momentum in the country.

On Election Day in Athens County, voter turnout was nearly 48 percent. That was a significant increase from the last midterm election in 2014 when it was about 34 percent, showing more people were voting this election.

In 25 states, there were more “advance vote counts” than there were in the last midterm elections in 2014, according to the New York Times, and more than 36 million ballots were already cast as of Monday. While Ohio was not one of those states, the number of early voters in the state was catching up to 2014.

“Midterm elections are an opportunity for citizens to check the actions of the current administration,” Sloat said. “I think this election is an opportunity to remind Washington of our priorities as citizens of this country.”

@MADDIECAPRON MC055914@OHIO.EDU

THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 21

the weekender Annual International Dinner to bring students together from around the world KERI JOHNSON FOR THE POST Ohio University’s International Student Union will host its annual International Dinner on Sunday in the Baker University Center Ballroom.

Tickets are available until Thursday, November 8; and will be sold on Monday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the first floor of Baker Center.

Tickets are also available online.

“ISU is the umbrella organization for 20 other student cultural organizations,” ISU president Carla Triana, a senior studying international business, said. “The purpose of the dinner is to bring the community together— that’s domestic students and international students— as well as the Athens community, because we view ISU as an organization that’s here to promote cultural awareness, not only at Ohio University but the surrounding areas.”

The dinner dates back to the late 1990s and can draw crowds upwards of 300 people. This year’s theme is “A Night Around the World.” The night features food and entertainment from all around the world.

“There will be several regions of the world represented,” Triana said. “We truly want to take you on a trip around the world. We’ll have performances representing Latin America, performances representing Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.”

ISU’s International Dinner often gives guests opportunities to dance and have fun, but this year’s dinner is a little different.

“From my knowledge, we haven’t had a professional band come perform for an 22 / NOV. 7, 2018

IF YOU GO WHAT: INTERNATIONAL DINNER WHEN: 6 P.M., SUNDAY WHERE: BAKER UNIVERSITY CENTER BALLROOM ADMISSION: GENERAL $15; $10 FOR CHILDREN AGES 5-12

international dinner. It’s the first time, I believe so,” Triana said .

This is the first time ISU’s International Dinner is having a professional mariachi band perform. The band, Mariachi JVCarter Chicago 1, is just one of many performers that night. Attendees of the dinner will have to wait until Sunday night to see who else is performing.

“This year it’s been a point for us to represent every region of the world.

We’re having performances in mediums that haven’t been done before. We’re featuring art from every culture,” Ami Scherson, vice president of ISU and a senior studying music, said.

Performances will be interactive, and organizers made a point to get performers from many different regions of the world.

“We are celebrating different parts of the world, allowing every culture to be represented on campus,” Aleah Cumberbatch, communications director of ISU and a sophomore studying psychology, said. “We hope to have cultures represented from every continent.”

Food will be prepared by the students of 17 member organizations, with each dish representing the cultural region of

Attendants of the annual International Dinner are served international cuisine in the Baker University Center Ballroom on Oct. 1, 2017. (ALEX PENROSE / FILE)

the organization.

“We have a variety of foods. There’s no one set type of food. We try to cater to all needs, like there will be vegan foods and certain meats that are allowed. By no means is there one type of food. We try to have it all,” said Cumberbatch.

Guests are encouraged to dress semi-formal or in traditional attire, Cumberbatch said.

“It’s more or less formal,” Cumberbatch said. “We just want people to bring a little bit of their game.”

Attendees can tag social media posts with #IDinner2018. People can post pictures of their outfits and the fun they had, Cumberbatch said. “(The Muslim Students Association) is helping out by cooking,” Majed Zailaee,

external program director of Muslim Students Association and a Ph.D. student studying mathematics, said. “They’re so supportive of us so it’s our way of giving back.”

The dinner will be an interactive experience where people are encouraged to mingle with each other.

“The best thing about International Dinners in the past has been mixing ingredients together. We go to the dinner and take pride in our dish. We don’t say who makes what, so it’s kind of a competition when we see people enjoying the food,” Zailaee said.

@_KERIJOHNSON KJ153517@OHIO.EDU

WHAT’S GOING ON? MEGAN GORDIN FOR THE POST

FRIDAY DJ Barticus Y2K Millennium Dance Party at 9 p.m. at The Union Bar and

Grill, 18 W. Union St. Decompress from a stressful week by listening to your favorite early 2000s throwback jams. Admission: $5 Freekbass with special guest The Awful Kind at 10 p.m. at Casa Nueva,

6 W. State St. Enjoy the sounds of ‘90s grunge performed by Freekbass, a Cincinnati-based singer, along with songs by The Awful Kind, a local band. Admission: $7 in advance; $9 at the door

SATURDAY Both Sides Now at 8 p.m. at Donkey

Coffee and Espresso, 17 W. Washington St. Come to a musical performance open to all ages, featuring vocalist Max Swartout and pianist Jeff Daubenmire. The duo will perform tunes of all genres.

Admission: Free, but donations are welcome Lost Flamingo Theater Company Presents: Dog Sees God at 8 p.m. in

the Baker Center Theater. Enjoy a play that parodies the Peanuts gang as angsty teens. Emotional and clever, the play is sure to entertain. Admission: $5

NOW RENTING 2019 -2020!

Marching 110 Varsity Show at 8 p.m. at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. Come see “the Most Exciting Band in the Land” perform some of their biggest hits from this year’s marching season. Admission: $10; free with student ID Rainbow Dance with DJ Logan Savage at 9:30 p.m. at Casa Nueva.

Dress up in your most colorful outfit and get ready to dance and celebrate LGBTQ identities. Proceeds from the Rainbow Dance will benefit the Southeastern Ohio Rainbow Alliance. Admission: $5

1-12 Bedrooms Athens Largest Selection of Houses!

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$525 and Under 3 BR 32 Smith St 4 BR 107 North Congress St. 3 BR 121 North Congress St. 4 BR 10 Milliron St. 4 BR 28 Smith St 3 BR 19 Foster Ave.

SUNDAY Little Fish Yoga at 11 a.m. at Little

Fish Brewing Company, 8675 Armitage Road. Enjoy a morning yoga session designed for people of all skill levels. Bring a mat. Admission: Free

Prime Campus Locations

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November Family Dance at 3 p.m. at

ARTS/West, 132 W. Union St. Bring the whole family and dance to live music provided by Stump Juice — no experience needed. Admission: $3 suggested donation

for 2019 - 2020

Little Fish Trivia Night at 5 p.m.

1-6 Bedrooms

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Gather up a team and head over to Little Fish Brewing Company to show your skills in a trivia competition. Admission: Free @GORDINMEGAN MG525717@OHIO.EDU

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86 North Court Street THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 23

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2017

Virtual healing

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

The MAC’s rising star

DEFENDER THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

OF THE TURF

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Claire Buckey claims her territory on Pruitt Field despite recurring health problems P12

Free speech policy causes concerns P11 Cover: Medical field utilizes VR P12 Embracing local agriculture P20

ANOTHER REMEDY

President

Duane Nellis

+

Breaking down OU’s budget P12

MORE AND MORE WOMEN ARE CHOOSING TO TREAT MEDICAL CONDITIONS WITH ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE INSTEAD OF DOCTORS VISITS PAGES 20-21

After a nearly yearlong nationwide search, Duane Nellis took office as Ohio University’s 21st president on June 12.

Now, Nellis reflects on his past and shares hopes for the future.

Safety Javon Hagan’s new role P16 Exploring the world of animation P20

Comparing expression policies P9

A sit-down with the president P12

Nellis in college P10

Sustainable volunteering P20

Hockey’s second-year starter P14

Effects of marijuana depenalization 9

OU Southern’s equine program 12

Volleyball setter’s move from Italy 18

Nellis’ previous employment P20

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2017

GRASS-ROOTS

ELECTIONS

L I F E S T Y L E Mamerto Tindongan finds life more valuable with less P20

DECK CAN GO HERE FOR A HALLOWEEN-RELATED STORY YAY BOO MWAHAHAHAHAH

Evaluating Trump’s presidency P8 TACO exceeds majority vote P15

PAGES 16-21

[

DECISIONS FOR ATHENS Hispanic students balance college P20

Pumpkin’s rise to Athens celebrity P12 Setting up haunted houses P16

Looking for an enriching college experience centered around teamwork and creativity?

Quilt empowers sexual assault survivors P19

THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2017

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2018

Foundation of The Post hasThe been serving Ohio University OHIO HOCKEY and the Athens area for more than 100 years, and we’re always hiring.

Baker 70: one year later

How Bill Gurnick put the Bobcats on the map P20

P12

+

Faculty diversity rises slowly P8 Photo story: MLK March P12

w

Closing the gender gap in STEM 11

COVER: Ohio’s next big investment 12

NEWS SPORTS CULTURE OPINION BLOGS MULTIMEDIA VISUALS PROJECTS Basketball’s star center P18

Dave Jamerson’s journey to God 20

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Healing the scars

P 11

+

T H W B H E Post-grad possibilities P10

CONTACT EDITOR@THEPOSTATHENS.COM

E Y I L L E A R D

A love for cult classics P20

Sibs Weekend events P22

THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018

Pipe bursts in residence hall P8

It’s Women’s History Month. ‘The Post’ compiled a collection of stories to celebrate women in Athens and Ohio University.

Cultural problems with ‘Friends’ P19

Hockey works on power plays P21 Businesses in action P10

THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2018

UNEARTHING A SECRET

She walks

THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2018

by faith P12

The story behind a patch of farmland, a man and his reputation P12

THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2018 THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2018

FOOD ISSUE

UNCERTAIN FREEDOMS P14

ATHENS CULTIVATES RESTAURANTS AND DISHES THAT STUDENTS AND LOCALS HAVE COME TO KNOW AND LOVE. THIS ISSUE IS DEDICATED TO THOSE FAMILIAR FLAVORS.

The turnover rate of businesses P9

One team, one video game P19

Caligraphy in the digital age P20

Brunch life in Athens P6 Carriage Hill one year later P9

Donkey’s most regular regular P19

From junior college to Ohio P20

Athletes’ diets in season P17

Cover story: family kitchens P18 Updates on Union explosion P9

Land of opportunity P12

A dazzling history P20

THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2018

Fridging in comic book culture P18

REFLECTING ON THE YEAR Take a look at the different faces, places and events that highlighted the 2017-18 academic year through the lens of ‘Post’ photographers