(VIDEO) CHRISTINA HAGAN SERIES: "TOWNHALL MEETING" - ISSUE: DRILLING IN STATE PARKS

 

On May 9, 2011 newly appointed (March 1st - by the Ohio House Republican Caucus) Christina Hagan, not yet out of college (Malone University, as state representative for Ohio's 50th Ohio House District held a town hall meeting at the Louisville Public Library.

As the SCPR sees it, the hasty call for a townhall meeting was mostly an exercise in political damage control fast on the heels of her having voted for House Bill 153 (Ohio's budget for biennium fiscal years 2012-12 on which Amstutz was the sponsor) on Thursday, May 5, 2011.  In a solid party line vote (59 Republicans - yes; 40 Democrats - no) Hagan voted for dramatic cuts in local government funding, K-12 education, nursing home reimbursements and the like.  Moreover, she supported Senate Bill 5 which some say is an attempt to undermine public worker unions.

Damage control?

Yes.  As a rookie legislator she is particularly vulnerable come November, 2012 when she has to actually get elected to the office.

Only about 30 days or so before her HB 153 vote (on March 30, 2011) she voted for the controversial Senate Bill 5 (curtailing the collective bargaining rights of public union members.  She can expect many of them; although teacher, police and firefighter are the only unions which tilt towards supporting Repubicans, to visit political retribution for in her retention bid in 2012.

The Stark County Political Report videotaped Hagan's townhall meeting and is embarked on presenting most of the material taped in a series.  A few days ago, The Report ran a piece in which a couple attendees brought of the fact that the HB 153 vote was strictly along party lines.  While the SB 5 wasn't exactly along party lines, it was very close to it.  In both instances Hagan did vote the Republican Party line and any implied intimation by her that she considered voting against the party position was  disingenuous at the very least and more realistically an outright sham.

The same goes for her Stark County fellow in the Ohio House:  Kirk Schuring (the 51st).

Hagan's retention as state representative will come up in a presidential year which, in addition to her being a novice and having ired Republican friendly unions, will be another incentive for Democrats (Democrats come out in greater numbers in presidential years) to field a stiff challenge to Hagan.

Because of her marked inexperience, Hagan did not dare to try the townhall meeting on her own.  She brought veteran Republican legislators Ron Amstutz of Wooster and Dave Hall of Millersburg to Louisville to provide most of the answers to questions of 50th District voters.

In today's blog the SCPR takes up the question presented at to why the state of Ohio would jeopardize the safety and conservation purity of our state parks in allowing oil and gas drilling companies to drill for oil and/or natural gas (most likely for natural gas via what is know has hydraulic fracturing - aka "fracking")?

If he can be believed and trusted, Representative Hall makes an interesting presentation on how he will fashion legislation to allow drilling in state parks. 

Here is a video of Representative Hall making the Republican's case for allowing the drilling: