(MACHINE GENERATED)
Jerry Ewalt: Hello and welcome to the First Right Podcast, a weekly conservative news show brought to you by Restoration of America. I'm your host Jerry Ewalt Chief Marketing Officer for Restoration of America, and today we are blessed to reconnect with Mark Weaver, a seasoned communication strategist, lawyer, and lecturer. Mark is an expert in his field and is here to speak with us about the current state of affairs in his home state of Ohio. Well, mark, welcome to the show.

Mark Weaver: Thank you. Thanks for having me back.

Jerry Ewalt: Well, it's, it's our pleasure. And since we're, we're gonna spend a lot of time talking about the upcoming Ohio ballot initiative, I'd love for you to give the audience a little bit about your, your legal and political background in the Buckeye State.

Mark Weaver: Sure. I'm originally from Pennsylvania, but back in 1995, I moved to Ohio to become the Deputy Attorney General of Ohio. I had been in Washington, DC where I'd worked as a communications consultant, and I was a spokesman at the Justice Department in Washington. So since 95 I've been an Ohioan. That's where I'll spend the rest of my life in Ohio. In addition to being the Deputy Attorney General, I've been a litigation partner in law firm, a crisis communications person, and I've advised hundreds of political leaders, government officials on issues surrounding politics, media law, and crisis communications.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. So let's, let's get right into it then. Let's zero in on ballot initiative one that so happens to people will go vote on August 8th, which is Tuesday. So tell us a little bit, what is Initiative One?

Mark Weaver: So in Ohio, like every other state, we have a state constitution, but it's pretty easy to amend in Ohio, just a 50% vote plus one, and you can put whatever you want into the state Constitution and corporate special interests have already done this. The most blatant example is the casino industry a few years back, spent a lot of money in advertising to convince 50% plus one of the Ohio voters to put the right to run a casino and make a profit right in the state constitution, literally naming the addresses where the casinos would be and who would get to run them. This is directly in the state constitution, of course, that's more suitable to a legislative setting, which if you wanna have casinos in your state, it really ought to be your state legislature who does that. But because the Ohio State legislature wouldn't do it, the corporate interests went around them and put on a ballot issue.
There are other things in our state constitution that are similarly inappropriately. There should be in the state law instead. So as a result, our state lawmakers have put on a, a ballot issue this year that would elevate the standard to 60% required to amend our state constitution. This sort of super majority requires that different sides come together to support a change to an important document like our state constitution. You probably know that our federal constitution has a minimum standard of 66% of Congress just to get it to the states. And then 75% of the states have to agree to amend the federal constitution. A lot of the state, our state constitutions should have similar super majorities, and that's what the vote will be on August 8th.

Jerry Ewalt: I see. So right now it's, it's fairly easy to get an amendment on the Constitution at 50%. Now, you, you kind of talked about the difference between going from 50 to 60 and then talked about the federal, which is two thirds to 75%. In some situations, why is 60 the right number for Ohio?

Mark Weaver: Well, any number over 50 is gonna be good. There was a Constitutional Study commission a few years ago that recommended 55%, and the legislature here has recommended 66, 60%. When you get to larger numbers than 50, it requires both sides of an ideology to come to a table. It ought to be hard to change the governing document. Imagine what might've been put in the US Constitution if the bar was as low as a 50% plus one vote of the population that the mind reels of the possibilities of stuff that could be littered into the US Constitution with such a low bar.

Jerry Ewalt: So for conservatives, you know, we always like to see that things are hard to make a change, or if you really wanna make a change to the Constitution, it should, to your point, it should take effort, a stronger effort than maybe 50%. So that, that's good news. Do you, is there any impact that this would have on future ballot initiatives or anything coming up that we see in the future for Ohio?

Mark Weaver: Sure. It's hard to avoid the fact that this November, there very well may be on the ballot a an issue to amend the right to have an abortion plus unspecified among other things sort of including, but not limited to stuff into the state constitution. Many people suspect that in addition to putting the right to have an abortion right up until the ninth month, to be clear, the amendment that's being put on in November would allow one doctor to claim that a mental health of a woman required her to have an abortion literally in the ninth month. That would be written right into the state constitution in November. And if the standard is 50% plus one, it's entirely possible the voters might prove that. 'cause the, the abortion industry will spend millions of dollars in false and misleading advertising to try to convince Ohioans that somehow it's just about the right to an abortion may be in the first trimester, but of course, because it's the mental health of the woman as attested to just by one single doctor, it's going to put the right to abortion up to the ninth month into the state constitution and other things that are not specified that have anything to do with reproductive rights, the term used in the amendment, which could include of course, little girls who mistakenly think that they're little boys and their ability to go insist that they have genital mutilation or chemical castration, which most reasonable people know is, is just evil to allow that sort of thing to happen.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. So I, so I, I hear you talk now. So this is, there is a lot at stake, theoretically, there is a lot at stake with what's gonna happen on Tuesday Mar August 8th voting for this, this change to go from 50 to 60%, making it so easy to change the Constitution at 50%, allows competing interest corporations to kind of come in, spend a lot of money, move that needle. So it's, it's, it's not super difficult to change the Constitution in that direction. So this would protect the, the, the constitution harder to change it, but also protect, make sure that people really want these initiatives to come forward. And as you said, something very important on that's coming up in November is, is changing the constitution for abortion that will allow abortion to happen all the way up to nine months, which is very extreme. And I know the majority of Americans do not support something like that.

Mark Weaver: No doubt that's true. The giveaway here is the abortion industry knows they can't get the policy they want from the people's elected representatives in the Ohio General Assembly. So by spending literally millions, it will eventually be tens of millions of dollars typically from either out of state special interest or from the abortion industry itself, which profits from making abortions. They are attempting to confuse Ohio voters and place into the Constitution, which at a very fast read looks like it's rather moderate. But as, as I mentioned, there's this loophole that one doctor saying that one woman's mental health would require her to have an abortion in the ninth month would be, this is really just opening it up to abortion on demand up through the ninth month with, with the only, the smallest percentage of Americans think that that's good policy. Right?

Jerry Ewalt: Absolutely. So this is, this is pretty unique, right? When you have a talk about the, the dynamics of a ballot initiative, it's very different from election between two candidates, for example.

Mark Weaver: Sure. I have advised more than a dozen statewide ballot initiative in Ohio over the years. All of them successfully, thank goodness. And so it is, it's a difficult enterprise to convince people to vote yes or no in a ballot issue. 'cause it doesn't come down to personalities the way a candidate race does. Mary Jones is running against John Smith for state representative or State Senate. Well, you might have met Mary at a county fair, or you might have met Mr. Smith down at the rotary meeting, and they may have opinion about them the way you have opinion about anyone you meet, or you may see them on television and decide whether you like them or not. Or they may have a party label next to their name, which gives you a a little cue about whether you wanna support them or not. We don't have that for state ballot issues. You have to read the language, and the language often is written in a way that's hard to understand because it's written by my colleagues, lawyers. There's a reason why it's written that way. But it can be confusing as a result. People are often confused when they vote on statewide ballot issues, and they may or may not be paying attention to the places where you can find out the most. So it's a more information intense ballot decision.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah, and, and you know, complicated by the fact that this is happening in summer. A lot of people are on vacation. There's no candidates, no personalities on this. This is literally the only initiative that's on this ballot that we're asking the people of Ohio to go out and vote. And the impact that it will have on their future is dramatic,

Mark Weaver: No doubt about it. Here's what I expect, what happened if in fact, issue one fails on August 8th? I expect special interest groups from the left and the right to line up and to start to put their own extreme policies right into the state constitution. As it stands right now, the number of words in the Ohio State Constitution is more than eight times the US Constitution. That's how many extra statutes, if you will, or detailed policies have put into what really is supposed to be a blueprint for how the State General Assembly and the state lawmakers and the people of Ohio can get along in a, in a, in a system of government laws.

Jerry Ewalt: So, yeah. So that, that's, that's a big impact. So let's, let's explore a little bit on some of the strategies that both sides are putting in. Can you talk a little bit about what Republican, the messaging that Republicans and Democrats are, are putting forth for this initiative on Tuesday?

Mark Weaver: Sure. The Republican General assembly leaders are the ones who recommended this to the ballot. That's why it's on the ballot. State Secretary of State, Franklin Rose has been a loud voice and supportive issue, one except many others. The Democrats largely have have opposed this and they have linked arms with, in some of the groups they've linked armed with, not all, but some of them are really extreme. The Communist Party has come out against issue one that's troubling when you're on the same side as the Communist party, as has the abortion industry, which is spending millions of dollars. They've got millions of dollars to make, and they know that. And so they're spending millions of dollars, including some really over the top advertising that has people wondering what the real agenda is.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah, absolutely. So Mark, where where could people, especially in Ohio go to learn more about, about this issue?

Mark Weaver: Well, the good news is, restoration of America has had a lot of good coverage on this. And so I would start with there, but there are many good sources on the issue. One side, including at the Ohio Republican Party site, which has really led the effort to do this. This isn't a partisan issue. There are many Democrats and independents who are supporting it, but for now, those of us who enjoy the first Right newsletter every morning, at least on the weekdays, they, they point us to stories and all the great resources of restoration of America. That's where I recommend people go to get good information about this issue and other things that affect America.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. Well, we certainly recommend the first right newsletter and podcast as well. So, but Mark, this has been really informative and I appreciate you taking the time to come on the show and, and give us an update on what's going on and, and such an important initiative in Ohio on Tuesday. So thank you.

Mark Weaver: Thanks for all the good work you're doing with this podcast. I enjoy it.

Jerry Ewalt: All right, well, that's our show for today. Thank you so much for tuning in and supporting conservative media. Don't ever forget by working together and staying diligent, we conservatives can bring our country back to true greatness. Until next week, let's all keep praying that God will continue to bless America

First. Right. A new kind of new summary without the liberal SL every morning in your inbox, always free subscribe by texting first right to 3 0 1 6 1. That's FIRSTRIGHT All caps one word to 3 0 1 6 1.