Tag: Ohio

Dark Money Tries to make the Pig DeWine Look Good: But Renacci is 8 Points up on the governor, and growing

As I was listening to 55 KRC recently, an ad by Free Ohio, a Super PAC for Ohio’s lost stooge, Mike DeWine attempting to show the troubled governor in a contrasting light to Joe Biden, let me know that after all these years, these political insiders haven’t learned a thing.  After all that Republicans should have learned regarding the Trump presidency, it is evident that these dark money professionals still didn’t understand modern politics.  Mike DeWine has been a disaster for Ohio.  When he runs for office, he always runs as a conservative, but when he’s in office, whether as a senator, Attorney General, or a governor as he is now, he becomes overnight a liberal.  And if Ohio had elected Joe Biden as Governor of Ohio himself, we wouldn’t have done any worse.  So, it was laughable that there was an assumption among the professional political class out there that just a few months before the primary in May of 2022, money spent on ads like the ones Free Ohio is putting out would shape public opinion enough to change minds.  People were there to see how badly DeWine managed the state, especially during Covid, in which he led the nation in lockdowns, being the first to do so and to change election laws which led to the massive corruption of the 2022 election.  DeWine was the first in the country to change election laws during a primary, opening the door to all the other states that did similar things with mail-in ballots, all in the name of “maintaining social distancing during the Covid Plandemic.” 

I had a chance on several occasions during those terrible days of lockdowns in Ohio where members of the business community were on mass conference calls with Governor DeWine to attempt to work out concessions to the rules he and the liberal Obama activist Amy Acton came up with that were costing everyone millions and millions of dollars, by the day.  I have met Mike DeWine at a few events here and there but never really had a chance to talk to him.  Let me just say, DeWine is one of the dumbest people I have ever heard speak.  Under those conference call environments, he had no clue what to do and punted everything in Ohio to the CDC and the Dr. Fauci types, which was scandalous even then.  Now in hindsight, we know that to be even worse advice.  But even when few people really knew the severity of Covid was, DeWine sounded like a complete idiot giving the keys to Ohio over to a bunch of bureaucratic health department types to run all our affairs the way some pot-smoking, stringy-haired hippies might only fantasize about.  I always wondered how DeWine ever called himself a conservative coming from Yellow Springs, Ohio—certainly not my favorite place.  You can almost always smell the pot smoke in Clifton Gorge from Yellow Springs when visiting.  It’s not likely many Republicans would be able to put up with such an environment.  And obviously, getting to know Mike DeWine a bit over these last several years, he’s not a conservative, but the very definition of RINO that there is in the world. 

The Super PAC plans to spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars on this attempt to paint DeWine as a contrast to Biden.  Unfortunately, like many have tried over the last several years, thinking of Mike Bloomberg in Florida against Trump and the Bush money machine against Trump in 2016, they could never move the needle in a significant way in those races.  It is unclear why they would think they could move any opinions in Ohio when the people living in the state have very recent memory and pain over how DeWine ran the state.  Without question, Fox News and traditional outlets like Clear Channel radio corporate advertising are all too happy to take the money of this Super PAC.  For them, that’s what politics is, a chance to sell ads and pay for their content.  But reality shows that DeWine and Joe Biden have been aligned on just about everything over the last four years.  Even topics that don’t involve Covid.  It would be impossible to tell Joe Biden and Mike DeWine apart on paper by voting record.  And to think that money can change people’s memory of these things is pretty insulting, really.  Without question, some people don’t know much about these issues and might fall for such ornamental hype.  But in a primary, which is very surgical in nature, it’s a different kind of voter.  Primary voters are very engaged on the topics and not so easily fooled. 

As I’ve said many times, it’s hard to beat someone in a primary, especially with the corrupt money machine behind DeWine.  He has his voters who profit off the way he has done business over many years in politics.  But with an above-average primary turnout, someone like Jim Renacci could easily beat him in the primary.  Even with all this dark money flowing into traditional media, Jim Renacci is 8 points over DeWine going into February of 2022, which is horrible news for the current governor.  This is good news for those who want to see a more conservative governor in the general election this fall.  But that’s a steep hill for changing opinions no matter how much money is spent.  I suppose it’s worth trying from their perspective, but do they really think that the voters in the upcoming primary are watching Fox News?  I would say most of those people have moved over to other options, more Trump-friendly options.  And Trump is still the kingmaker in Ohio, and of the two candidates that are most in consideration in the primary, Renacci is the Trump guy.  DeWine is about as far from Trump as a Republican can get.  The last time DeWine was on stage with Trump in Ohio, he was booed for being there because of his role in the Covid lockdowns.  Trump is an executive and can get along with anybody.  But he’s certainly not going to go out of his way to support DeWine.  And an endorsement of any kind by Trump can erase away millions and millions of dollars spent by dark money to attempt to change opinions in traditional media. 

More than anything that has been exposed here is the distance between perception and reality.  Fundraising and what can be done with that money is part of the problem in politics.  The money machine creates leverage; that’s how DeWine was able to get many politicians to endorse him for the primary.  If they don’t support the money candidate, which DeWine certainly is, then they would find themselves short during their next election fundraising cycle, which all politicians dread.  One of their biggest problems is picking up the phone and raising money for their campaigns; no matter how good they might be at it, it’s something none of them likes to do.  But listening to this ridiculous Super PAC of DeWine unroll their 2022 primary strategy reveals just how archaic the current system truly is.  Traditional media has lost a lot of power over the last few years, and Trump showed that money in politics couldn’t beat a good message or a great candidate.  And that is certainly the case between Renacci and DeWine.  Renacci is an excellent candidate.  DeWine is a really corrupt and terrible one.  And no amount of money in the world can make the lipstick on that pig look good.

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Sheriff Jones Endorses the Governor of the Most Corrupt State in America: A solution to the stupidity of Mike DeWine

Another Reason Corruption is Good to See

This is precisely why I value the measurement of corruption, which I talk about extensively in my book, The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business. For the last several weeks, people around me have been asking, “what is going on with our great Sheriff Jones” the Butler County figure that is internationally known for his support of President Trump. Suddenly he has thrown his support to Governor Mike DeWine and made a whole lot of other flip flop decisions that seem ultimately at odds with the MAGA movement. So there is a bit of a panic on the matter, which I have explained as a form of corruption that must be accounted for to understand the decision-making process of Sheriff Jones. Corruption isn’t always just about money, but in the case of Jones and DeWine, without a Trump in the White House, many in the Republican Party are drifting back into the cave of power for the sake of it, and that is why we are seeing rifts forming ahead of the Ohio primary coming up in May of 2022. Unless we have a way of understanding the nature of corruption, we would otherwise have no other means of comprehending these strange behaviors. Trump has at least three more years before he’ll have a chance to be back in the White House. Naturally, Jones must align himself to the world between now and then. Yes, he is perfectly willing to adjust his beliefs to the power void that has formed in Trump’s wake, and from his point of view, the smart money points at the current governor of Ohio, the most corrupt state in all of the United States, Mike DeWine. 

As all this is going on, the challenging governor and my pick for the upcoming primary, Jim Renacci, is up 8 points over the incumbent DeWine. I had the opportunity to listen to Mike DeWine on many conference calls during the Covid mishap that his administration unleashed on Ohio. I have seen behind the veil just what an idiot DeWine was. I voted for him in the last election because he called himself a Republican. What I heard during the government-imposed shutdowns was a complete fool out of touch with reality. One moment in particular that impacted me was when I had to listen to Cedar Fair Amusements in May of 2020 try to explain their problem to DeWine about the trouble with not knowing when they could open their amusement parks because they had to hire, prepare their parks, and take all kinds of measures to get ready for a summer season that government had destroyed, and couldn’t give any guidance going forward. As a right-to-life governor, DeWine had put the pro-abortion Obama activist Amy Acton as head of his Health Department. She was running the state the way a stringy-haired pot-smoking hippie would run it, which was costing the business community billions of dollars during a lockdown over Covid that nobody could see the end of, especially Cedar Fair Amusements who ran a seasonal operation in two Ohio locations. It was worth hundreds of millions of dollars to them, and DeWine wouldn’t commit to anything to help them out. That was pretty much what DeWine said to everyone on those many teleconferences concerned over their businesses. His message was, we’re the government, and we’ll tell you when and what you can do and how long you can do it, and you’ll like it. Mike DeWine showed himself to be just as bad as the worst of Democrats during his first three years in office, and what he has done to Ohio will take decades to fix. So for me, it’s easy; Jim Renacci is the answer to the Mike DeWine debacles of the first term in office as governor.  DeWine has been a disaster.

Sheriff Jones has been something of a thorn in DeWine’s side while Trump was in office. DeWine was one of the first in the country to attempt mask mandates leading all other governors to the mandate first, just as he did with lockdowns. Without DeWine, many other governors only fantasized about it. DeWine was the first to do it. He was also the first to unconstitutionally alter election laws which would then pave the way for massive cheating that the Democrats would perform later that year with mail-in voting to remove Trump from office before the courts could even process the assault. Sheriff Jones, who advertised himself as a “pro Trump” member of law enforcement, suddenly endorsed DeWine for governor after all that DeWine had done to Ohio. Why? Well, the first thing is that the DeWine money machine is kicking in. Corruption and DeWine are never far from each other, and Sheriff Jones is always attracted to a kind of power. I’ve known Sheriff Jones for several years and what’s most valuable to him is his brand. For instance, when his brand is aligned with the Trump White House, it’s a wonderful thing. But I’ve seen it negatively align with big government union business, especially in 2013 when he backed the Lakota school tax increase, which he put his name behind to get it to pass by the most narrow of margins. So the Sheriff isn’t always a hard conservative; he just plays one on TV and in public appearances. And with Biden in the White House for the foreseeable future and Jones up in years himself, he needs to protect his brand while the political world sets itself in a new reality. 

What does Sheriff Jones like to do with his brand? Well, we have seen what he did to Thomas Hall, an Ohio Representative from Middletown who didn’t vote the way that the Sheriff wanted him to vote in Columbus, so the Sheriff used his name to berate the young man on WLW radio to thousands of people, personally attacking Thomas. Nobody elected Sheriff Jones to control other members of congress that we have elected to vote on our behalf. The Sheriff is supposed to take care of law enforcement concerns, not to dictate the terms of how other Republicans vote in our community by bullying them to his will. As a reaction to Thomas, the Sheriff went out of his way to put a primary candidate up against the Ohio Rep by dragging Matt King into the race, which naturally was pitting Republicans against Republicans on purpose for the intention of getting his way and making his point as being the “king maker” of the party, which put all kinds of people into a difficult position. Sheriff Jones didn’t care. He just wanted to show who had the power and what they had to do to kiss the ring to appease him, to hell what the voters of Butler County thought about the matter. That is why Jones had to align with Mike DeWine. Even though the governor is known to be attached to corruption, that power overflow gives Sheriff Jones the power to his brand that feeds his need to stay relevant as a man coming to the end of his career. Jones doesn’t have time to wait for Trump to be back in the White House. The need for power is always present, and DeWine is the quickest way to keep it. 

Now, of course, Jones would never admit to any of this. I’ve spoken to dozens and dozens of people affected by this situation, and they don’t know what to think about it. They feel betrayed and don’t have the words to put to the matter. That is why I like corruption so much, because if we didn’t have some way to measure corruption, no matter what form it exists, we wouldn’t have a way to explain this behavior. From his big labor union perspective, everyone thinks they are doing right; Jones thinks he’s doing what’s right for the Republican Party. He’s a moderate at best, and Thomas Hall has turned out to be way too Trump for his taste, so he is taking action. DeWine loved the way Amy Acton’s hair smelled after she took a shower, so he gave her the keys to Ohio and let her destroy it. As a long-married guy who is a closet Democrat, DeWine thought Acton knew what she was doing, so he defended her against all those evil business leaders who were outraged that DeWine and Acton had closed them down over Covid. DeWine showed himself to be an idiot who thought he was doing right. That’s why we have elections so that when we learn these things about people, we can get rid of them with an option, in this case, Jim Renacci. But honestly, there is only one right, not the right that Sheriff Jones comes up with, or his new buddy, Mike DeWine. But in our Republic, for it ever to really stand, it takes the taxpayers and respect for their vote. If they pick Thomas Hall, it’s not for Sheriff Jones to decide otherwise. Or for DeWine to attempt to hide four years of horrible management of Ohio behind one deal from Intel worth 20 billion dollars and to ride it like a bucking bronco at a rodeo. Corruption seeks to hide its misdeeds behind a façade that, if you know what you are looking at, can tell you the truth about the matter and allow voters to understand who they are getting involved with. And that is why corruption is a lot better to understand than to pretend like it doesn’t exist at all.

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Darbi Boddy’s Pre-Covid Proposal at Lakota: Making masks the parents’ choice, not a political imposition

Removing Masks from Kids at Lakota, Freedom of Choice

The first thing that everyone must understand is that wearing masks as protection from Covid or to spread Covid to others is 100% emotional, containing 0% logic. There isn’t one scientific study that rules in favor of masks being a preventative measure at all in relation to Covid, and over time, since March of 2020 when health departments in an initial act of helplessness wanted to take steps to slow the spread of the virus as it was unleashed on the world to do something, even if it was symbolic, not to incite a public panic as their worlds came undone with Mike DeWine lockdowns and closure of the American economy during a presidential election year. After two years of this behavior, some people are naturally timid and want to believe they can do something to control the various virus spawns that have come from Covid, and their fears have taken over their rationality. In a school system like Lakota with over 17,000 students in the population, there are lots of people who believe lots of things, but when it comes to the wearing of masks and imposing that belief on children who are supposed to be learning to think and not just take orders, this issue of mandating masks in schools has been detrimental to the learning culture of all public schools. Thankfully, the newly elected school board member Darby Boddy has made a motion to add a resolution to the agenda of the January 24th school board meeting to reset the health measures established before March 20th of 2020. In other words, to be rid of the mask mandates and the additional Covid standards that spawned from much irrationality as Covid was unleashed into our society and opinions about how to deal with it evolved strictly down political viewpoints, not around scientific logic. Darbi is proposing for Lakota to take leadership on the mask mandate issue and show the rest of Ohio what a logical management approach to the issue should look like, which is a wonderful thing that essentially took a new election even to put on the table. And thank God she has.

Now naturally, all the people who have been standing in the way of addressing this mask-wearing issue in public schools had their faces melt as Darbi proposed pages and pages of information supporting her position toward the safety resolution. But logic was never the factor in making children wear masks. What essentially happened was that all the really timid people in the world who seek government jobs in the health departments, the Governor’s office in Ohio, school administration jobs, people afraid of lightening, of wind, of sunsets, suddenly Covid gave them power over all the scary risk-takers in the world and they became addicted to the power like a drug addict on Heroin. And after two years of the behavior, they do not want to give up that power over others. They certainly don’t want to go back to normal before March 2020. For them, which is many of the employees in the Lakota school system, the lawyers who they employ, all the surrounding public employee unions, even the police unions, Covid has given them the cover story of their dreams, and they have no desire to return to “normal.” Roughly 5% of any work culture always want a doctor’s note to get them out of work whenever they want. Covid is far better than FMLA or any regular doctor’s note if they should be inclined to take a day off work excused. All you have to do with Covid is say that you were next to someone who was next to someone, who was next to someone who had Covid, and “poof,” you must stay in quarantine for some CDC recommended days. No doctor’s note, no logical approach, just perceptual reality. Covid has been a dream come true for the lazy in any workforce. 

Therefore, the fight to continue the mask-wearing mandates extends beyond political parties and descends into the cover of the less inclined employees. They spend a lot of time in their lives looking for reasons not to work. And that makes the management of any workforce a nightmare to conduct. That is certainly true in the private sector, but in a large school district like Lakota with thousands of students and hundreds of teachers and administrators, a 5% call-off rate is a nightmare to cover. To follow all the ridiculous CDC rules is irrational at best. But that’s what has been happening. The medical tyrants have had their way, and everyone has danced to their tune, including most legal representation. For lawyers, the easy thing for them to do is to recommend full compliance to CDC recommendations, even though there is no legal authority for the CDC or any local department of health to impose mandates of any kind on anybody, anywhere. Outside of government work, which public schools are, much life is returning to normal, such as in the NFL, where stadiums are open. People are enjoying the games as they did before March of 2020. Of course, the CDC recommends other behavior, but fans of the NFL experience are done with Covid and are returning to “normal,” and we do not see mass deaths. We hear alarming reports about case spikes, but as history shows, these cases aren’t any different from common colds in the past, and people have learned to live their lives anyway. They get the virus, get over it, and return to their lives as they always did. That same approach needs to be applied to all public schools as well. Covid protocols have gone on too long, and it is now having an impact on children in a negative way, which Darbi included evidence of in her proposed resolution, which will be voted upon in February 2022. 

For life to return to normal, which needs to, people like Darbi need to show leadership in political opposition. At this point, any scientific consideration about Covid isn’t a factor. There is nothing in science to support that masks do anything rational to help with Covid in any way. Instead, it’s purely political. It’s political for the teacher’s union. It’s political for the health departments. It’s political for the CDC connected to the Biden administration. It’s political for the law firms who see this Covid issue as easy money. But for those who must lead others and show courage to the world, it’s time to return to a normal life. To stop being afraid of Covid. And to start managing it proactively. It’s OK to support timid people who have real fears about Covid created for them in countless news reports rooted in politics and not rationality. But the purpose of a public school is to teach children, and it is the task of our society to ensure that they have the best opportunity at a good life while in that school experience. The authority figures might not want to surrender the controls they’ve enjoyed during Covid. But we owe it to children everywhere to take that leadership and show them that life goes on and that they don’t need to be afraid of every little thing in the world. The only thing dangerous about Covid is the perception that a government alliance with media has created. Legally, there is nothing to take action on. There is no liability to irrational fears. There is no constitutional enforcement. Governors have tried, and they have learned that the Supreme Courts of the states and the Federal level have no stomach for this nonsense. It’s time to take all that power back away from those who have become so addicted to all this Covid abuse. And to give kids a chance at a normal life, once again. 

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Republicans Need to Get Behind Renacci for Governor: President Jackson and President Trump’s constitutional success

Vote for Jim Renacci

Andrew Jackson was a Democrat, but to my mind, except for him and President Trump, they were the only two real Constitutional Presidents. Ronald Reagan was an actor who played a conservative well. Teddy Roosevelt was well-intentioned but became a leader of the Progressive Party. Abraham Lincoln was an enforcer of the Constitution, and it created a war. He held firm and did a great job, but he was cut down too short of making the country work the way it’s supposed to. In all of American history, there are only a few short years where constitutionally things worked how Ben Franklin’s Republic intended. Most of the rest of the time, it has been squabbles, character assassinations, and fiscal sell-outs at the international level that has driven most of our political activity, which then cascades itself into our lives with every new rule and regulation designed to make pin-heads into kings, and the hard-working into slaves. Our form of government is messy, and it should be. It’s a lot better than Chinese communism and our quality of life for all people, and our national GDP prove out the results. Saying all that, for the governor race in Ohio, the cowboy hat-wearing Joe Blystone is probably most aligned to my way of thinking. Other conservatives see the blood in the water and want to knock off Mike DeWine’s disaster in a primary where he is very vulnerable. Candace Keller is seeking signatures to run with Ron Hood. I like Candace even though she seems not to care for me so much. To her, I work with establishment politicians too often. I’d say that when you fight to get good candidates, you eventually become the establishment. Success can be tough to manage, but you will have to deal with it if you do your job. And it is in that spirit; I have absolutely no reservations in endorsing Jim Renacci for governor in Ohio. Once the smoke clears in the primary race, it will take a team effort to defeat the DeWine machine, so everyone needs to start thinking that way. Otherwise, they will be hiding their “purity” for political theater behind a mask that endorses more corruption and malice by re-electing Governor DeWine and allowing the bad guys to win again. 

I get the speeches, the search for the perfect candidate. The excellent specimen of political sentiment. The next “honest Abe.” I think all that is fine and healthy to have a robust debate. But before the primary election, around the April time frame, everyone needs to get behind Jim Renacci and make their platforms a part of his platform under one Republican umbrella because it will take that to beat the DeWine Machine. Out of all the candidates and their backing, only one person can beat DeWine in May of 2022, and that is Jim Renacci. The reason, well, he’s the only one with a chance to get a Trump endorsement before the primary, rather than after. If all the primary challengers support Trump, he can’t possibly pick one who might lose; it would have to be a unified sure thing before he would ever put his name behind a primary candidate for governor. If the effort came up short, the media would never let Trump live it down. Instead, Trump would be more likely to wait until the primary winner is announced to put his name behind the Republican governor for the fall election, but it would be too late by then. So keep all that in mind when giving speeches about political purity and seeking to elect some biblical figure into elected office. The first step in all that process is winning because without the win; you have nothing; it’s all talk. That’s why there were only a few times in American history where the Constitution somewhat was supported by the political class, and the nation ran well, Trump and Andrew Jackson. 

I don’t see these kinds of rationalizations as a compromise. I may be one of the most uncompromising people on planet earth. But in a group setting, I am one of the most compromising because everyone lets me down. I have no hope of finding the perfect person who represents me specifically. Instead, I work to find ways to align everyone’s best interests despite their personality traits. I never expect people to do the right thing just because they should. I always hope, but they seldom ever do, because that’s my experience with people. So when it comes to a public endeavor, I never expect purity, and dealing with anybody will require some compromise because none of the interests are ever aligned. Instead, I also look through force of will to align people to whatever is in their interest by whatever means. Presidents and governors of the past who were most effective in this kind of approach, like Jackson and Trump, approached the problem in this same way, and it was successful. I would say that such a mentality is the key to any prosperous republic, which is what we are in the United States, not some rat-infested “democracy” of mob rule and popular opinion. A contentious atmosphere where nobody is ever thrilled is how politics should look because honesty is forged in contention. It is better to get in there and fight than sit on the sidelines and chuck rocks to maintain a pure view of the world. The fight is what is needed, and you need to pick a side and fight there for what’s right. 

Even with DeWine wounded and very vulnerable, many people in both parties want chaos and mayhem to rule the day because there is great profit in it for them. That is one of the reasons that Ohio is the most corrupt state in America presently. DeWine has a machine, and it knows how to keep the right people in power to maintain this chaos, which they profit from. Now I can say I know Jim Renacci. Even though I said I understand Joe Blystone the best out of all the candidates, I know there is room for a Joe under the Renacci tent. But there isn’t room for the Renacci types or even DeWine fence-sitters the other way around. I certainly know where Candace Keller sits on the matter; she’s a no-compromise under any conditions kind of person. I admire that as a trait in people, but she won’t be effective when you must work with other people to make things happen. But there is room for a Candace under Renacci. Renacci doesn’t care if everyone agrees with everything he does. He wants to do a good job, and as a business guy, he understands how to align interests. That’s why he and President Trump are personal friends and why Trump would be most likely to throw his name into the race to help push the effort over the DeWine machine. The Trump children are also a part of the Renacci campaign, so there are many opportunities ripe for a significant political upheaval. But, it won’t happen unless all the conservatives align and work together. If the vote gets split, nobody will win, and all the forces that worked against each other will empower sheer evil to get a second term in Ohio. That is how people like Mike DeWine have stayed in power for so long; they know how to play this game, while all the other uncompromising characters out there fight each other over theories of right and wrong, evil then always prevails. 

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

You Can Get it All with Thomas Hall: What good government looks like

Vote For Thomas Hall

Now that we’re in the primary season, it’s time for endorsements. This one for Thomas Hall is so obvious that I might not even think he needs one. But primaries can be tricky since there aren’t usually many voters who participate, so just for good measure, I wanted to say how excited I am to endorse Thomas Hall for the 53rd House District in Ohio. Some redistricting is going on, which might expand Hall’s district from Middletown into Liberty Township, which is presently going through the Supreme Court process. But whatever the case, Thomas Hall is one of the finest examples of what politics should look like. He certainly deserves another term to continue doing the excellent work that he has been doing. He’s a Trump Republican who worked for the campaign in 2016 when it wasn’t so popular to do so out of Madison Township, where he had been a two-term trustee. As he appears in the video above, Thomas seems to be too young to have so much political experience at this point in his life and running for a second term in the Ohio House, but let me tell you, this guy is a whiz kid. He’s been involved in a lot of undoubtedly conservative legislature. He has stood up to some severe bullying by influential political figures and not allowed them to sway him away from the voting public. He is one of the rare examples of a person who comes into politics with all the ideology of goodness and has lived it out in real life, which is exceptionally unique. He’s everything voters could want and more in a representative, and I look forward to more from him in the years to come.

I always refer to politics as a blood sport. One of the things I admire most about Thomas is that he’s been able to weather a lot of political current without losing himself to the tides of erosion. He is the same good person going into his second year as the first. He has a confidence that is unusual in people young or old, which has served him well as a political heavyweight in a brief period. Of course, that kind of competency would get attention and make political enemies. Having political enemies is a great thing; it means you are doing a good job and ultimately doing the people’s work. Many people get into politics for the wrong reasons, making it a weary point of conversation for most people. They’d rather not deal with politics because their experience with politicians is often very negative for that reason. But Thomas is the exception. He is like the classic representative from some far-flung Wild West town that greets all his voters with enthusiasm, shakes hands with everyone, including all the babies, and is sincere in doing it. And people love him. Going into January of 2022, I would think that Thomas Hall would be a slam dunk for re-election. But you can’t take anything for granted these days. Some people may not know Thomas yet, especially with the prospects of redistricting, so endorsements are an excellent way to learn more about him.

Thomas and I met to film the endorsement video in West Chester, Ohio, to the south of where he lives and works, just north of Middletown. The 53rd district consists of Middletown, Monroe, Trenton, Seven-Mile, Madison, and Oxford, so West Chester is in another political universe. When we were parking Thomas was like a rock star. People recognized him immediately and wanted to come up and shake his hand. Thomas Hall has, after all, been a part of most of the significant gun legislation that has been moving through Columbus, including arming teachers to promote school safety and constitutional carry. He certainly has the most conservative position on abortion in politics. To the political left, these may seem like extreme positions, but Thomas is far from any kind of extremist. His views are consistent with most people’s, and you can see when he speaks with those who greet him, that is the case. Hall comes across as a friendly young man who cares because he actually does. And it is that attitude that has made him so successful as a first-term member of the House. He’s doing the kind of work in politics that people have wanted to see done for a long time, but often politicians don’t dare to do it. But Thomas is fearless and friendly enough to have compassion for his political rivals. He doesn’t have to be mean or a sell-out. He’s smart enough to win without crawling through the mud, and people can see that. That much is evident when people approached him while we were going to film the video. People naturally like Thomas Hall because they can see that he’s not a phony. 

I’ve known Thomas for a while now; I have seen him at events all over town for years. I know how hard it is for me to attend political events because time is often short, and it’s hard to schedule in my busy life. Thomas is always at all those events, and he goes to a lot more of them than I do. And when he is there, he is always very polite, very respectful, interested in talking to the people around him. He’s always learning new things and applying them to his vast experience as a young man. For me, his first term flew by too quickly. Every time I have met with him, it was reassuring to know that a great person like him was in one of our House seats in Ohio. He is what government should look like, and I’d hate to see that condition change with an election. So for my part, it’s a slam dunk on Thomas Hall, re-elect him, and send him back to Columbus not just with the primary election but the general coming up in November.

The primary is in May. It may seem a bit far out, but we can’t take anything for granted. These things move fast. A good government takes more work than most people usually give to it. But it’s worth it when you get it, which is undoubtedly the case with Thomas Hall. When I think of his name, I think of good government. I think of someone who will stand up to corruption emphatically. He has the ideology of someone new to politics who wants to fight the bad guys out there. But he has the smarts to know how to do it without losing his soul. I would go beyond calling him, my friend. I think he’s excellent for Ohio, great for the nation, and really good for the Trump Republican America that is hatching as we speak. This movement only started to sprout during the first Trump presidency. Those who don’t like Thomas Hall in politics are the same kind of people who didn’t like Trump because both wanted to solve problems rather than use crises to gain more power. No voter could go wrong with Thomas Hall, and when it comes time to vote for him in the primary, I am very much looking forward to voting for him and making the world a better place with a second term.

Rich Hoffman

The Stupidity of a Billion Dollars for Tri-County Mall: Its bad behavior that killed the shopping complex, money can’t fix that

A Billion Dollars for Tri-County Mall

Believe me, I want Springdale, Ohio, to succeed. My idea of going into the big city when I was a kid was going to the Tri-County Mall and the surrounding areas. They had everything there, and I have always loved it. When I was first married, the Forest Fair Mall opened just down the highway at Forest Park, and it had all kinds of exotic stores and places to eat, along with a movie theater. I thought I was in heaven. I raised my family in these malls, and I would love to see them stay alive. But I think the city council of Springdale is smoking crack if they think voting to spend a billion dollars on refurbishing the Tri-County Mall into a mixed-use development is going to work. It’s enormously stupid and is doomed to fail, and they should not do it. Instead, they need to understand why those malls failed, why all those stores and restaurants left, and make changes to their communities. Because if you don’t change the behavior of a community, throwing money at it won’t improve a thing. Instead, money is made in all economic activity because of behavior. Behavior is not changed by money. Behavior makes money. Bad behavior destroys money. 

From Springdale’s point of view and that of Forest Park, they blame Liberty Center’s success a few more miles north along I-75 for their demise. That state-of-the-art mixed-use community is a real treasure, and it’s where I go these days when I want to go out on the town. I love Liberty Center. It’s great to go see a movie. Eat at a nice restaurant. It has a traditional mall environment, and it also houses an outside mall area that feels like a downtown kind of atmosphere. But you know what it doesn’t have, thugs walking around with their pants half down acting like they will beat up all the customers. Liberty Center is privately managed to get rid of scum bags and losers when they threaten the positive shopping experience of the guests, and they do. They don’t put up with gangs of kids hanging out at Liberty Center, which is why the shopping area is doing well. That is also what destroyed Forest Fair Mall and Tri-County Mall. It wasn’t the change in box store status that came with online retail shopping. It was more that moms found it easier to shop for things from their living rooms rather than go to these malls where young people hang out and misbehave, dropping F-Bombs as they walk by and acting like they might be raped at any moment.  

This isn’t a racist thing; as much as progressives would like to make it so, it’s a behavior issue. When I was young, Tri-County and Forest Park were considered great places to live. Fairfield, which was just next to Forest Park, was voted in Playboy magazine to have some of the most beautiful girls in the country. I went to church in Fairfield. I dated lots of girls from Fairfield and Springdale. I used to be a driver for some of the old Cincinnati Bengals players after they retired, and they lived in Forest Park. I would take them home to their wives in their nice Forest Park homes. Those cities were family-friendly and full of economic prosperity. But as liberal politicians moved into their city councils and mayor positions, they brought many progressive ideas, which we all talk about now. But I was pointing all this out 20 years ago, and the writing for the decline was on the wall. The more liberalism moved into Springdale and the Tri-County area in general, the more that families moved out, north into Liberty Township, West Chester, and Mason. The smart money is left to get away from the bad behavior of progressive politics. And that same story could be said in just about every city that has seen its wealth leave, dropping the value of their communities to derelicts, government addicts, and substance abusers. People do not enjoy being around lousy behavior, and when they see it, they avoid it with other options. That is what killed Tri-County Mall and much of the retail in that area. The local government failed to protect their families by allowing bad behavior to move in and take power with some woke view of the world from a progressive perspective. 

Putting a billion dollars into the same bad behavior will not succeed in Tri-County. Case in point in Over-The-Rhine in downtown Cincinnati where Vine Street repurposed itself to give the illusion of a safe space. The problem is, the surrounding areas are still hives of gang activity and bad conduct up and down Liberty Street and around Findley Market. Instead of crime happening on those streets, gangs like the Glacier Gang follow millennials back to their homes in the suburbs of Sycamore Township and Mason and rob them there. It’s not something they are talking about on the news because they are afraid that people might stop going to downtown Cincinnati for a night out, but it’s a real problem that always stifles economic growth. Bad behavior kills the making of money. 

Oh, I’m sure people reading this who are in denial will say that such judgments are “racist” or are coming from the mind of “white supremacy.” Well, I’m none of those things. I would tell anybody who wants to know to interview any mom-type outside of the I-275 loop and ask them what they think of Tri-County. They’ll say openly that they don’t want to get robbed, raped, or groped because many moms over the last decade who have shopped at Tri-County Mall have been harassed in some way by gangs of youth who didn’t respect the shopping experience. Was getting raped an exaggeration on the part of the moms? Maybe, but it’s how they felt while going to the mall, so they instead turned to online shopping to avoid the threat altogether. Then once Liberty Center opened, they went there instead or made the drive over to Kenwood. With that said, Liberty Center has its own problems. It needs a government bailout as we speak because it’s not hitting the targets it needs to financially. Much of that is due to the changing market of box stores compared to online shopping. It’s a challenging environment these days under perfect conditions. But then-Governor DeWine of Ohio shut down the state economically, which hurt Liberty Center immensely. They still haven’t opened their playground there over liability concerns. The government often gets in the way of positive economic growth, which is undoubtedly the case at Liberty Center. 

To show how stupid government can be, just think of the Springdale City Council, knowing all I have said here but refusing to admit to themselves because of their progressive politics that somehow a billion dollars of investment will change anything. Who in their right mind will invest in a restaurant or store in this new complex knowing that the people who will be giving them money will likely bring trouble with them? And who is going to live in these new apartments? People who don’t care about getting their cars broken into? Or harassed as they are walking down the sidewalk with a gang of kids playing rap music out of the trunk of their car and selling pot out of the front seat? No, you can’t put lipstick on a pig and pretend it’s a flower. It’s still a pig, and until the government puts value on good behavior in their society, they will always see a loss of revenue 100% of the time. It’s a fundamental law of economic activity which progressives choose to ignore. But it certainly doesn’t make it any less relevant. 

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Mike DeWine and Joe Biden are One in the Same: It’s all about Trump in Ohio

Vote for Jim Renacci

It is way beyond coincidence that Joe Biden and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine did precisely the same thing in reaction to the Omicron Covid variant making its way through America presently.  Both progressive executive branch personalities applied federal troops to assist with what they say would be crowded hospitals due to a surge in illnesses.  And, of course, both of them are wrong.  It is a sad state to say that the highly liberal Joe Biden and the worst president in the history of our republic are just like that so-called Republican Mike DeWine, but that is the case.  They are reading from the same playbook, which leaves me to drool over the primary election in May of 2022, where I can’t wait to cast a vote for Jim Renacci to primary DeWine.  Ohio would have probably done better to elect a Democrat for governor because at least we would have known what we were getting instead of this old establishment tyrant that emerged under Covid.  DeWine was a disaster as governor, and the costs are so enormous as to what he cost us in our state that we will still be talking about the damage decades from now.  After the much-criticized speech by Joe Biden in response to public pressure to say something about Omicron, the thick plot of corruption and malice was evident to anybody with eyes to see it.  Mike DeWine was never a republican.  He was always a progressive to complete communism.  How do we know?  Well, when a governor sets up a system where he decides what time a restaurant must close or whether or not we can attend church, we can know that we have the wrong guy in public office as they are obsessed with central authority any way they can get it.  And thankfully, in Ohio, our legislature took that power away from him.  We must remove him and replace him with a Trump Republican, Jim Renacci. 

Ironically, and I don’t see how anybody could think of Jim Renacci this way, many people think he’s a RINO too.  Well, I know Jim, and he’s no RINO.  I am fully in support of Jim Renacci without any reservation.  People have been asking me why I’m not supporting the cowboy hat-wearing Joe Blystone.  After all, he’s probably more my kind of guy.  I like Blystone a lot.  Not for governor this time around, but I could vote for him for any number of positions.  I think Jim Renacci gets the RINO label because people know he’s wealthy, and they assume that corruption comes from that wealth.  I see Renacci as a business guy like Trump, who is entirely in the Trump corner, and it will take that to beat the DeWine machine in the primary.  There is no room for a weak-kneed approach on this issue.  Getting rid of DeWine is a mandate we must all get behind.  The fight we are fighting is against hard-left Democrats.  Mike DeWine has obviously been on Dr. Fauci’s inside tract of authority thinking for a long time. Otherwise, he never would have hired the abortion supporting Amy Acton as his chief health director, which essentially ruined Ohio during Covid.  DeWine was always on the progressive side of things, and he showed most recently just how much so being entirely in lockstep with Joe Biden.  But there are many Republicans who still think DeWine is a conservative, and they will vote for him in the primary.  Whoever runs against him will need something significant in their corner, like a Trump endorsement, to pull off an upset against the machine. 

If I were Joe Blystone and wanted to help do something good for Ohio, I would get involved in the Renacci campaign.  If it’s a matter of wanting to be governor of the state for the sake of some name recognition, well, that’s another thing.  But if Joe wants to help Ohio, he would get behind Jim Renacci and support the campaign to beat the DeWine machine, the real villain.  Many would say, why not do it the other way around.  Why not have Renacci support Blystone or some other independent-minded challenger?  Well, it’s because of Trump.  Trump is connected to Renacci in a big way.  Few candidates in the United States can call up Trump and get his attention as Renacci can, and it’s essentially the only way to generate the kind of votes it will take to beat DeWine in the May primary.  Blystone certainly won’t win against the machine on his own.  There are not enough Republican voters who will crawl out on that branch without some massive effort to generate participation.  Primary voters are not the same as those in general.  They tend to be the type of people who give to campaigns, and over the years, lots of people have given money to Mike DeWine, and they are going to be slow to admit what a terrible investment it was.  When it comes time to vote, Trump will have to get involved to generate interest in voters who usually don’t vote in primaries. That’s the only way to beat DeWine.

I’ve met Trump on many occasions.  But one of those was when Renacci was with him.  That is actually how I met Renacci is when he was with President Trump coming off Air Force One.  I am 100% sure that Trump will run for re-election in 2024.  I am part of the America First Policy Institute, so I am seeing all the work going on behind the scenes getting ready for the new social media company Trump is getting ready to put out, and what kind of positioning will launch AFPI influence into the 2022 elections and then setting up 2024 for Trump.  Trump is a winner.  He will not leave this life, allowing what happened to him and his supporters in 2020.  He will burn down the whole house of progressive cards if it takes that to win again. I’ve seen it in his eyes. I’ve seen the same thing in Jim Renacci’s eyes. I’ve felt it in handshakes with both people.  I know their hearts, so it is up to us to put the right people in the right places for what is coming, not necessarily what we have seen.  In the next 12 months, the political landscape will change dramatically, and the best person poised to make the best of it is Jim Renacci.  There is room for people like Joe Blystone in this new world.  But the game for governor means we must build a team of Republicans.  Renacci knows the game and can pull them into his camp under a Trump endorsement.  And Renacci is independent enough to appeal to Blystone voters.  Renacci proposes to govern like Ron DeSantis in Florida, which we can all get excited about. 

I’m looking forward to pulling the lever for Renacci.  I don’t think it will be an issue, but this far out, there seems to be a lot of people on the fence still, which I would say, look at Joe Biden.  That is the enemy that must be defeated.  Mike DeWine is just like Biden. We have the power to do something about it right now, to remove one of these detrimental political characters and send a powerful message to the political establishment.  Renacci is not an establishment person, no more so than Trump is.  What makes Renacci particularly good is that he doesn’t need the money or the job like Trump.  He just wants to do something good for the country and use his influence to do it.  It would be my advice to understand the strategy and get behind Renacci because it will take everything we all have to knock off Mike DeWine, even with all the problems he has brought to Ohio. It’s a numbers game, and while many people complain about DeWine, they don’t typically vote in primaries.  We need a way to make them want to vote in this one.  Splitting the vote between political activists in the minority in a primary will only help the Joe Biden’s of the world, like Mike DeWine.  So vote for Jim Renacci, and let’s make history in 2022 as Trump launches his ambitions for our benefit.

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

The Ohio Jim and Joe Show: For governor, in the May 2022 primary it’s all about Trump

Jim Renacci picks Joe Knopp as a Running Mate in Ohio

I didn’t know much about Joe Knopp when I attended the special press conference of Jim Renacci on Thursday, December 2nd, 2021.  I knew I liked Jim Renacci and supported him emphatically to run for governor of Ohio.  The current governor, Mike DeWine, had not shown that he was a conservative during his first term, and his Covid response was a disaster against the Constitution.  He was the first governor in all of the nation to attempt to alter election laws and shut down our economy, and we have all seen enough.  He had to go, and Jim was the best replacement.  But this particular event was a bit of a surprise.  Jim was going to announce his Lt. Governor.  Naturally, I was thinking of the apparent picks; it would have to be a conservative woman of some kind because that’s what everyone does these days.  But no, instead, Jim was thinking outside the box when he announced that he was putting Joe Knopp on the ticket, another privately successful person.  The more I thought about it and got a chance to meet Joe, the more I liked him.  He was, after all, the producer of the Trump movie, The Trump I Know.    

About halfway through the Joe Knopp introduction, I started putting everything together.  Joe was the guy who produced the movie showing all the great Trump women who came out right before the election in 2020.  It told the story that nobody covered about Trump, all the little things he does behind the scenes that made him such a great president, and how he treated women in his campaign and organizations.  It all came to an excellent little focus during the press conference, especially during the question and answer session where reporters asked what Renacci planned to do about Ohio being the number 1 state in all of America for corruption.  Sometimes we all start accepting dysfunction to such an extent that we think of it as reality.  But the reason the media hated Trump, as the Swamp itself does, was because of these independent business guys, people like Trump, and his friend Jim Renacci.  Joe Knopp wanted to eliminate the dark money cookies that all the Swamp creatures get to eat off of.  Columbus, Ohio was every bit as much of a swamp as Washington D.C., Just on a different scale, and essentially, Governor DeWine is like the Joe Biden in the executive branch.  A deeply compromised person who has become rich off dark money hated people who challenged that structure.  From the media to the politicians, it was all an addiction to dark money that they considered such a threat.  So much so that they would have destroyed President Trump if they could.  But the Trump women that Joe Knopp captured in his film so beautifully told the absolute truth, which is what voters saw.  And in Ohio, we were going to get to make the same kind of decision in favor of the Jim and Joe Show. 

This is a different kind of race for the governor.  As Renacci will say, he’s not running against Mike DeWine; he’s running for Ohio.  But this is a primary race that would generally be protected from challengers because they are typically low turnout elections. The people who show up are usually inspired by dark money. That’s how people like Mike DeWine get power and keep it.  And it’s everything that’s wrong with Ohio.  So to run against Mike DeWine is running for Ohio.  But we’re talking about swamp creatures who are the only benefactors.  We need in Ohio essentially what Trump was able to do at the federal level, and it takes people who are independent of that dark money to make it happen.  Playing a conventional game of politics that sets up a specific media narrative would not make Ohio any less corrupt.  It’s essentially the media that is in on it all, they set the parameters of the dark money game, and they all feed off each other.  No, what we want in Ohio is freedom from those kinds of people.  Jim Renacci is independently successful and is personal friends with President Trump.  And so is Jim’s pick for Lt. Governor. 

Of course, the media narrative of the Joe Knopp announcement was that he was a Christian filmmaker, which is true.  But that doesn’t begin to tell the whole story of who Joe Knopp is.  It’s like saying that Steven Spielberg is a liberal film director.  That may be an aspect of who Steven Spielberg is, but it can’t be argued that Spielberg films generally reach out to all audiences.  And that was certainly the case with Joe’s movie, The Trump I Know.  The media doesn’t like people who make Christian movies that are every bit as good as Academy Award-winning films made in Hollywood.  Joe is very much a product of Hollywood and a realization that the political left has, which makes them very uncomfortable, that they don’t control the entire movie-making industry.  So to emphasize that Joe is a Christian for them is an attempt to limit his reach not only in the primary but also in the general election.  Yet, all this conventional thinking forgets is that for the first time in the history of America, especially under the DeWine administration, churches were closed while abortion clinics were open.  And DeWine put the abortion activist Amy Acton on his staff to essentially run Ohio for an entire year.  Voters have had some cold water thrown in their faces, where the government interrupted their religion and showed the fangs of the state’s power.  Ohio voters are primed to vote for an honest Christian crusader who loves President Trump and pledges to attack corruption without becoming consumed himself.  Yes, picking Joe Knopp was an intelligent move for Jim Renacci.  It’s not business as usual, and that’s the point. 

I left the Renacci event happy.  Finally, we would have a positive choice in Ohio by a few really good people who were independently successful and beyond the corruption of dark money.  And to have a chance to remove DeWine and replace him with Renacci with such staff, people like Joe Knopp start to repair what has been broken in Ohio after the Covid shutdowns by DeWine.  The best justice for all the bad things DeWine did would be to replace his place in the Swamp with the drain of Renacci and Knopp.  These are people that real conservatives in Ohio can truly cheer for and feel good about voting for.  Many of the years in the past when the voter turnout has been low, partly because the candidates are always swamp creatures like DeWine, which nobody gets excited about, options like these didn’t seem possible.  But Renacci and Knopp, well, there’s something that people can get excited about.  It’s great to have a choice finally, and in meeting Knopp, I can only say that he is one of the nicest people I have met this year.  Such a good person, and such a nice family.  To have people like that to vote for in an election is truly a treasure, and I think Ohio will enjoy the option.  True, the dark money monster is out there, but I think these guys have a good chance of getting new voter turnout activated.  And for that to be an option is a huge opportunity that will make 2022 a year of justice to remember.

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

I Support Josh Mandel for the Ohio Senate: It’s all about making elevator rides uncomfortable

I Support Josh Mandel for Ohio Senate

The upcoming senate race for Ohio to replace the Rob Portman seat is coming up fast.  There were some good elections in 2021, but that’s all behind us now.  It’s time to go or get off the pot for endorsing someone for the Ohio Senate Race of 2022.  I like many of the candidates; I think they all have some great attributes.  The key to something like this, which still has many months of campaigning, is to pick the person who will best serve that seat a few years from now, not necessarily where politics is presently.  And I think, especially after reading The Nixon Conspiracy by Geoff Shepard and The Real Anthony Fauci by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that the political world of tomorrow will be much different than what it has been over the past decade.  Picking candidates for the climate we are coming into is essential because the political terrain will be robust with political stunts, media hype, and the ability to shame candidates on the senate floor and still ride the elevator back to the parking garage after.  It’s not going to be for the political lite but rather those who can most withstand betrayal and scandal and support the Trump America First Agenda without hesitation. And my pick to be that guy is Josh Mandel. 

I like Jane Timken a lot, but after meeting with her a few times and watching her campaigning now for several months, she’s too conventional. She’s a bridge-builder, and we’re talking about a senate that needs to get rid of people like Mitch McConnell in the leadership and who will instantly harass Chuck Schumer right out of the gate.  Even sitting in the bathroom stall, they need to shame all the comfortable senate members like Lindsey Graham.  Retaking the Senate as a Republican majority is a war, including even the RINOs who are there now who have not been protecting the American Constitution the way they need to.  Jane talks about herself being a fighter, and I think she is, perhaps for some time in the past or the future.  But not for the 2022 race extending past 2025. She’s just too nice for that environment, for what has to be done.  I have nothing against her, she has done an excellent job with the Republican Party in Ohio, and I think she can work the Trump endorsement that she no doubt would get once the primary is over. Still, she’s just too conventional to excite people into action.  

The other guy I had been rooting for whom I was happy to meet is J.D. Vance.  His problem is that he was a Never Trumper, and in a Trump-heavy election, that is coming back to bite him.  He has a lot of money pouring in to support him, a lot of the big conventional money would rather have a Trump hater than a Trump copy, so J.D. Vance is raising a lot of money and has a shot to keep things close.  But what it comes down to is he’s too nice of a guy.  Like Jane, he might make a great senator in a different time when people played nicely together, and a legislative agenda was more important.  But these are not those times; what matters is America First and nothing else, and the ability to fight with peers on the senate floor the way Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene are in the House.  Radicals have overtaken the Democrat Party, I would say for the last 40 or 50 years. 

The masks of communism are off now, but the radicalism is deep in their culture, especially as it extends into the media and global investment brokers.  To undo all that, it will take a lot of political theater and members on the Hill who will write legislation endorsed by the Trump White House and fight for it on the floor, perhaps even physically.  It’s not what you see on TV that anybody must worry about; it’s what happens in the halls, the offices, and during the commute that requires aggression and boisterousness.  The Democrats are the enemy, and the fight has to be taken to them.  J.D. Vance is a nice guy who does pretty well on Tucker Carlson and can come up with some one-liners.  But when it comes to fighting, he’s not the guy for the battlefield.  Like I said, maybe during a different time.    

The rest of them in the field, such as Mike Gibbons, are to the left of J.D. and Jane, and I don’t consider them relevant in this race.  They may make some noise, but they don’t have what it takes for this Senate seat that essentially needs to pressure Sharrod Brown’s supporters to fall off the earth.  None of this hand-holding that Rob Portman has started with the Brown camp is what Ohio voters have been wanting.  Democrat progressives need to be destroyed.  There were three things that Josh Mandel did that solidified my opinion about him.  He worked with Darby Boddi at Lakota in gaining the support of the growing number of angry moms there, and he did a fantastic job on 55 KRC with Brian Thomas to talk about it. I personally spoke to Josh at a Republican event privately and on stage in front of a really big audience with big-time Republican members in the audience such as Jim Jordan and Frank LaRose, about his commitment to the election fraud that robbed Trump of the Executive Branch in 2020.  And the third thing was an event at the Solid Rock Church in Monroe where he had the Tea Party religious right showing great support.  He appeared on stage with Jena Ellis from the Trump legal team and was very evangelical.  Now, that particular assemblage of the electorate is only about 30% of the total conservative vote, but they are passionate, and when they are winning, they are contagious.  When Trump gives out endorsements in the summer of 2022 after this primary race is over, it’s going to be Trump for Renacci for governor and Mandel for Senate, and these people will be the ground troops who fill the crowds. 

When people wonder if Josh Mandel can win the general election, as he obviously can win the primary, the answer to that will be yes.  Even though he will come across as weak and vulnerable in a general election to Democrats and media members, the people who actually vote will put everything on the table for a hard-core Trump supporter, especially as Trump does many campaign stops in Ohio during that election season.  Any scandal that follows Josh Mandel around, as he is a little on the wild side, won’t matter just as it hasn’t for Trump.  Mandel will have the evangelicals, and they will be his foot soldiers to success.  People in Ohio will vote for someone attached to Trump’s hip, and none of the candidates in this race has more openly embraced Trump than Josh Mandel by sticking to the election fraud issue more.  Trump will reward Josh with an open endorsement as he will be campaigning for Renacci anyway.  At that point in the race, the other candidates would be nowhere near as exciting to Ohio voters as someone who isn’t afraid of political stunts and sticking to them when the pressure is most significant.  And when it comes to taking the fight to the Senate floor in Washington D.C. I asked Josh the same thing. I asked the other candidates how prepared they were for the battle to come.  Only Josh Mandel gave me the correct answer about actually showing light in his eyes when the talk of fighting liberals personally and directly came up.  And I’m convinced that with Josh Mandel, there will be many uncomfortable elevator rides for the opposition in the years to come.     

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Jim Renacci, The DeSantis of Ohio: Even the Disney Company has benefited from federalism

Jim Renacci for Governor of Ohio

Well, thank goodness for federalism.  If you have read the new book from Geoff Shepard, The Nixon Conspiracy: Watergate and the Plot to Remove the President, you can see clearly that what happened to Trump and Kennedy is not new tactics.  In the climb to global power, foreign and domestic enemies have thought that they could control the world by controlling the presidency.  They make a mistake in viewing the presidency as a kind of American king, which was always wrong.  But the plot to remove Trump is just the same old power that has been around for a while, and in knowing what we know now and comparing it to the Nixon Conspiracy, there are a lot of ah-ha moments in that book which is very telling.  What has protected America from a complete takeover by these crazy powers, which we might call the “deep state” or the “globalists,” is our very good government balance of federalism where local and state powers are a priority.   The federal government has very little power within the borders of the country.  We could spend hours and hours talking about the vast Covid conspiracies or the quandaries of the “deep state” and their intentions of menace.  In essence, what we have learned after the Trump presidency and the global Covid protocols is that federalism is the way to go all over the world.  A competitive check on powers among the states has shown many economic lessons they had previously taken for granted.  And in America, Governor DeSantis of Florida has proven to be one of the very best governors of a state, where Ohio’s Mike DeWine has shown himself to be the worst.  Both call themselves Republicans, but only DeSantis has truly embraced federalism and the magic of capitalism to solve problems that came from so many directions.  And to this day, Florida is thriving where Ohio is not.  If only Ohio could have a governor like DeSantis.

But wait, Ohio does have such an opportunity.  Jim Renacci is running for governor and looks poised to primary DeWine in May of 2022.  Jim is offering to be the DeSantis of Ohio, using the model of federalism that has evolved out of Covid, where governors of states have shown just how much power they had.  During the Covid lockdowns, which Mike DeWine started even among the blue state governors, the fundamental philosophy of the governors of all states had a measurable distinction in the success and economic recovery of the states.  In red states where governors were strong, the economic impact of Covid had a much less impact.  Cases being cases, all the states dealt with their issues, but in blue states where lockdowns and tyrannical power went to the heads of the governors, such as in New York and Michigan, death by Covid and the rapid spread of the virus had no improvement.  Statistically, they look to have performed worse than in states that were more free and open with much less government intrusion.  And these were valuable lessons.  No longer was federalism debated in a college classroom advocating Marxism and more centralized authority as a capitalist utopia boomed outside the windows preparing for a big college football game on the weekend.  Now all the rules of economic theory were put to the test by the two primary ways of approaching government, and the red states clearly won.  Blue state governors, which Mike DeWine operated as one even though he called himself a Republican, showed the severe cost in misery, economic downturns, and the dangers of letting health departments run the general policy of a state. 

On the other hand, DeSantis decentralized the problem, took away the federal government’s power to stick its nose in people’s business, and promoted an environment where people at the local level could solve Covid problems and economic challenges through their own innovations.  By protecting the diverse state of Florida from centralized mistakes made by the federal government and protecting people with executive orders from further centralized authority mishaps, DeSantis led Florida to a very successful economic recovery coming out of the government-made pandemic.  And the correct measure has been in the reaction by the very liberal woke company Disney in what they have been forced to admit, even if reluctantly.  Due to the severe and lingering lockdowns in California, the Walt Disney Company has moved several thousand employees from the Anaheim offices to Orlando because Florida has been open and is a much more stable business climate where the government can’t interrupt their business operations so frequently.  With DeSantis, companies can at least trust the governor will keep the government out of the company’s management. With Disney going woke for such a long period of time, much of that wokeness came out of mitigation of knowing that for decades, a centralized government coming out of the White House intended complete authoritarian control, similar to what they have in communist China.  So they did what most companies did, appease the tyrants with wokeness so that they could survive.  But in Florida, where the Disney presence is a massive part of the state’s economy, actively and passively, the reality of the situation benefits the entertainment company tremendously.

From the beginning of Covid, Disney led the way just like Mike DeWine by adopting all the government rules and regulations, imposing mask mandates, and all kinds of ridiculous and unscientific protocols, which has hurt their business tremendously.  For them, if everyone had to impose the same restrictions upon themselves, then it made sense.    But because of DeSantis not following all the rules, but in protecting people from those rules, all businesses in Florida did not have to wear dumb masks or socially ridiculously distance themselves.  That left the Disney Company hanging out there alone, and losing money because of it, by their own choice.  When it came time for the unconstitutional vaccine mandates, which the Disney Company wanted to impose, DeSantis had created a business climate where that Biden Executive Order would be challenged in court protecting businesses from an overreaching government that was just spitballing in the wind regarding ways to manage a virus they had in fact through Dr. Fauci released upon the world.  So because of DeSantis, the people of Florida were protected from that level of stupidity, and even the Disney Company had to recognize the benefit.  They announced last week that while they reviewed the legal circumstances, they would not be imposing the vaccine mandate on their employees for the time being.  Essentially, they were putting their finger to the wind and seeing how these court cases play out, which is great for everyone involved.  But if not for DeSantis, there would be no check on federal power, no matter how well-intentioned.  Ultimately, when mistakes are centralized, everyone suffers.  When errors are separated by federalism, then not everyone has to suffer.  That is the benefit of a great governor like DeSantis.

That DeSantis model is now out there, and there is history that can be studied for centuries on the positive impact of federalism during a mass international crisis.  Nobody can put this genie back in the bottle; it’s out, and it’s out forever.  All those who have been pushing governments toward more centralized government, as they were even in the Nixon White House, have seen through Covid the root cause of their massive failures.  They had hoped, like Disney, to hide those failures by forcing 100% submission to their cause. Still, because power was decentralized through federalism within the states of America, to compete, even the mighty Disney Company had to see reality for what it was.  They benefited greatly from DeSantis as governor; even if they didn’t vote for him, his policies made Disney a better company.  And that approach is what is needed in Ohio.  With Mike DeWine, we will never have such a governor.  But with Jim Renacci, we have a chance to have perhaps someone better than Ron DeSantis.  Trump helped pave the way for DeSantis.  And DeSantis has helped pave the way for people like Jim Renacci, whom I think can actually do better in Ohio than DeSantis has been for Florida.  And the time is coming quickly for us to be able to vote for him in the primary.  Which is something we can all look forward to with great zeal!

Rich Hoffman

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