The Cuyahoga Valley Republican Club met on Tuesday night, April 25th , and was treated to two fantastic guest speakers. First was Ohio House Majority Leader Derek Merrin and the second was Ohio’s Secretary of State, Frank LaRose.
Representative Merrin was stuck working overtime in Columbus and was not able to attend in person, however he was able to call in via a video chat and was able to speak with and interact with those in attendance electronically. He spoke about the vital importance of Ohio Joint Resolution 1 being passed which would allow for a change to the amendment process to the Ohio Constitution to be placed on the August ballot.
He contends that raising the threshold to amend the Ohio Constitution from 50% plus one to 60% plus one will provide critical stability to Ohio governance and will prevent matters that do not belong in the state constitution from being included in it.
Secretary of State LaRose echoed those sentiments, as he has been an ardent advocate for making this change. During a Q&A session, LaRose was asked about the dangers our open primary system poses to Ohio voters. He quickly announced that he is 100% in favor of getting the Ohio primary system closed, and that allowing the raiding of primaries from outside parties is completely absurd and contributes to a lack of trust in our election system.
“The simple solution is this, instead of letting people show up in a bus paid for by some leftist group, why not make them decide to switch parties far in advance? Make them actually register as a member of the Republican party or actually register as a member of the
Democrat party. That is the best solution.” LaRose Stated.
After the meeting concluded, many attendees lined up at the OFRG table to sign a petition to close our primaries and to force run off elections when no candidate has received the majority of the vote.
Shannon Burns, chairman of the Strongsville GOP Club said when he approached the OFRG table, “where do I sign? This nonsense needs to finally come to an end in Ohio”.
