Now that conservative Republicans control all of state government, Ohio progressives are fighting back. Janetta King, former policy aide to Governor Ted Strickland, has launched a think tank called Innovation Ohio to be a public voice for progressives in state policy debates. The group was announced at a press conference in Columbus today.
Like the conservative Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Innovation Ohio will commission reports from experts to shore up their positions on issues like education, the economy, health care, and the environment. While the Buckeye Institute, formed in 1994, describes itself as “Ohio’s premier free market think tank,” Innovation Ohio will be “sort of the obverse side of the Buckeye Institute,” says Innovation Ohio spokesman Dale Butland, a former press secretary for Senator John Glenn.
“We are nonpartisan, but we will take a progressive point of view,” he says. “Our primary constituency is the middle class and the disadvantaged. If economic hard times require sacrifice, we believe the sacrifice has to be equally shared. As far as we can tell, the wealthy have not sacrificed.”
This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 1, 2011.