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UAPA Endorsement

UAPA Endorses John Kulewicz, Heidi Munc, and Andrej Rotter for City Council Election

The Executive Committee of Upper Arlington Progressive Action has voted to endorse John Kulewicz for reelection and Heidi Munc and Andrej Rotter for election to Upper Arlington City Council.

Our process for endorsement was as follows:

UAPA Endorses Two for UA School Board

The Upper Arlington Progressive Action (UAPA) Board recently voted to endorse two candidates for the two seats available on the UA School Board. The selections were made based on responses to a set of ten questions (below) sent to all candidates. Neither Lou Sauter nor Liz Easton responded to our questions.

 

We recommend Nidhi Satiani be elected and Carol Mohr be reelected.

 

Rankin's past record shows where he'll go

 
 

UAPA Supports Payday Lending Bill

Recently the executive committee of UAPA voted to support the passage of Ohio House Bill 333. It limits the annual interest rate charged on a typical two-week loan (from payday lenders such as Check Into Cash and Always Payday) from the current 391 percent (about $15 per $100 borrowed) to 36 percent. They are called payday loans because that is the interval between paychecks at most employers.

Statewide, the number of payday lendin offices rose nearly 15-fold between 1996 and 2006 to 1,562. That is more than the combined total of restaurants operated by the McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy's chains in Ohio. The industry has fought hard against a lower interest-rate cap, arguing it would put them all out of business. Industry officials say they offer a valuable service to those who can't get a loan anywhere else and are a better option than late fees or bounced checks.

Opponents say the two-week loans trap too many people in a cycle of debt, where they need a new loan to pay off the previous one.

Steve Stivers, former bank lobbyist, appointed State Senator and candidate for U.S. Representative, 15th District, weighs in with a typical Republican response by saying setting caps that low would be an overreaction to the issue and shut off credit to those who need it. "Most of these people are in the payday lending marketplace because their credit is not very good," he said. "Those people are not going to get the best interest rate." He has also said, "You can't take away people's ability to screw up their own financial situation by taking away the legal loan products, because they'll move to the illegal loans."

Ohio Attorney General Mark Dann is conducting a public hearing on the issue on Wednesday, April 9, 4:00 p.m., at Good Shepard Baptist Chrch, 1555 E. Hudson. For more information, contact Cathy Johnston at 280-1984 or cathyjohnston@cohhio.org.

The Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending has set up a web site chock full of great information.

The beginning of a more productive City Council?

Table 1: Progressive voters made the difference. Only 1 vote per precinct separated the 2nd and 3rd place finishers
and the 3rd and 4th place finishers.
 
Official City Council Results
Candidate Votes % Vote Margin Vote Margin / 34 UA Precincts
Erik Yassenoff 6,186 23.3% 717 21.1 votes
Mary Ann Krauss 5,469 20.6%
31 .91 votes
Ed Seidel 5,438 20.5%
39 1.15 votes
Dan McCormick 5,399 20.3%
1,322 38.9 votes
Leslie Heath 4,077 15.3%

UAPA's endorsed candidates win re-election

After waiting well over a month for certified election results and taking a break for holiday merriment, we can finally announce that UAPA's best-outcome election scenario won the day in UA's City Council race! A belated thank you to the UA progressive community for realizing the importance of this City Council race and coming out to vote. Our endorsed candidates, Mary Ann Krauss and Ed Seidel, were re-elected in a race that was very close.

Election Analysis

1. The progressive vote had a race-determining impact --- only one vote per precinct separated the candidates in 2nd and 3rd place and the candidates in 3rd and 4th place. Table 1 shows the official vote tallies.

2. Kingsdale was arguably the single biggest election issue. The election of Seidel, Krauss and Yassenoff, who all share a common mixed-use vision for Kingsdale, strongly suggests that voters believe the City has a responsibility to UA citizens to negotiate for the best possible use of this scarce, commercial property in the very heart of UA.

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