Jim Jordan looking at pro sports rules allowing home TV, radio blackouts: Capitol Letter
Rotunda Rumblings
Bad sports: U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan is examining the antitrust exemptions that professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey teams enjoy in sports broadcasting deals that include home-market blackouts, Sabrina Eaton writes. The Champaign County Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee sent letters Monday questioning why it is still so difficult and expensive for fans to watch their home teams, despite technological improvements. The letters ask heads of the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association to provide briefings on their sports broadcasting markets and “blackout” exemptions.
Money crunch: Funding speedbumps in constructing interstate highways have replaced the aggressive federal push of the 1950s, forcing today’s states to navigate complex financing challenges and prove projects are worth billions before breaking ground, Eaton writes. The tighter funding picture complicates the task of planners in six states who have worked for decades to create a new interstate highway that would connect Michigan to South Carolina by way of Ohio, stitching together existing roadways and planned construction into a transportation corridor that could reshape regional economic development.
New digs: The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections will run its first election from its new headquarters, with early voting for the Sept. 9 primary in several contests across the county beginning on Tuesday, Mary Frances McGowan reports. Director Anthony Perlatti said during a press conference on Monday that the move is a significant upgrade from its previous facility, including increased parking capacity and a larger voting space. The building, formerly the home to The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com, is located on Superior Avenue between East 18th and East 21st streets.
On the ballot: Several communities in Cuyahoga County will have non-partisan primaries for local government offices on the ballot Sept. 9. In Cleveland, seven City Council contests are on the ballot, Kaitlin Durbin writes. Other contests on the ballot include mayoral primaries in Cleveland Heights, East Cleveland and Garfield Heights, with an added mayoral recall question in Cleveland Heights. Maple Heights also has a District 7 City Council contest.
Criminal case criticism: Bobby George, a member of the George family, a prominent financial contributor to Republicans and Democrats across the state, still hasn’t been able to defend himself against charges of attempted murder and rape, a year after he was accused, Adam Ferrise reports. The charges have resulted in the state withdrawing $3.5 million to support the Georges’ $35 million, three-building restaurant and entertainment complex in the Flats in Cleveland. But the special prosecutor’s length of investigation has led to criticism in the legal community. George denies the charges.
Homecoming for Moreno: U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, who was born in Colombia, is visiting his native land this week as part of a three-nation tour of Latin America. Associated Press reports that Moreno has emerged as an interlocutor for conservatives in Latin America seeking to connect with the Trump administration. While in Colombia, Moreno plans to meet with national politicians, business leaders and local officials.
Federal crackdown: In a press conference to announce that federal law enforcement will take Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump on Monday cited the 2024 murder of Mike Gill as an example of why his actions were needed. Gill, a University of Dayton graduate who formerly served as press secretary for ex-GOP U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor of Old Fort, died in a carjacking. “Fantastic person,” Trump said of Gill, as he announced he’s deploying troops fight crime and remove the homeless from Washington, D.C. As Trump portrays crime in the nation’s capital as spiraling upward, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser repeatedly has noted that violent crime has declined for the last two years after a sharp post-pandemic spike in 2023, The Washington Post reports. “If our capitol is dirty, our whole country is dirty and they don’t respect us,” said Trump.
Homespun: The New York Times’ Caroline Kitchener profiled the Warren County community of Aberlin Springs, which focuses on organic farming and a philosophy echoing the Make Healthy Great Again movement. The families in the upper-middle class development all feature stay-at-home moms. Most are white and conservative and some are anti-vaccine, although the agri-community’s founder tries to attract crunchy families from both ends of the political spectrum.
Campaign cash: The Teamsters are contributing to the campaigns of Republicans this cycle, continuing the union’s recent trend of increased GOP support and moving away from Democrats, Politico’s Adam Wren reports. In Ohio, that includes U.S. Reps. Bob Latta, Michael Rulli, Dave Joyce and Dave Taylor.
Vacation break: A sleepy hamlet in England’s Cotswalds was in lockdown on Monday after Vice President JD Vance and his family arrived on vacation, The Daily Mail reports. Police closed off all roads and footpaths leading to the hamlet of Dean, where the Cincinnati Republican is staying with his family at Dean Manor, an 18th-century country house. Officers are checking the identity of residents trying to pass through the security cordon, vehicles are being searched with sniffer dogs and walkers told to go elsewhere while the Vances are around.
Lobbying Lineup
Five tech companies that lobbied on House Bill 96, the two-year state budget bill.
1. Microsoft Corp.
2. Google LLC and its affiliates
3. Apple Inc.
4. Alibaba
5. Lenovo United States Inc.
On the Move
The Ohio Democratic Party’s Rural Caucus has elected new leadership, including Christopher Gibbs, a farmer and Shelby County Democratic Party chair, as caucus chair; Jordan Horstman of Miami County, a legislative aide to state Rep. Karen Brownlee, as caucus vice chair; and Troy Scott, an Ironton County Council candidate and public-school advocate, as caucus secretary.
Dominick S. Gerace II was sworn in Monday to serve as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, following his appointment as interim United States Attorney by U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi. Trump nominated Gerace for the job in July, but the Senate hasn’t voted to confirm him.
Birthdays
Ex-state Rep. Anne Gonzales
Chloe Green, senior legislative aide to state Sen. Michele Reynolds
Jake Neff, Ohio Senate Republicans’ deputy finance director
Kim Zianno, Ohio House chief administrative officer and director of human resources
Straight from the Source
“We’re talking about a very smart person, not a very principled person … It didn’t take him many years to go from comparing Trump to Hitler — which he did — to saying that he ought to be the leader of the free world.”
-Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg discussing JD Vance on the “Pod Save America” podcast, according to a report in The Hill.
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