Threat to Collective Bargaining Right Rejected by Ohio Voters

OHIO ELECTION RESULTS

• Ohio repeals law restricting unions; Miss. blocks ‘personhood’ amendment (By Aaron Blake and Rachel Weiner, Washington Post) Ohioans voted Tuesday to repeal a Republican-backed law that restricted collective bargaining for public workers, while Mississippi voters blocked an amendment that would have defined a fertilized egg as a person.
• Ohio Voters Reject Law Limiting Public Unions (By Caitlin Huey-Burns, Real Clear Politics) Ohio voters on Tuesday gave Democrats and President Obama a welcome shot of the arm in the key battleground state by rejecting Republican Gov. John Kasich's signature achievement: a law that curbs collective bargaining rights for public employees. Voters resoundingly defeated the measure, 63 percent to 37 percent.
• Ohio voters reject Republican-backed union limits (AP - CBS News) The state's new collective bargaining law was defeated Tuesday after an expensive union-backed campaign that pitted firefighters, police officers and teachers against the Republican establishment. In a political blow to GOP Gov. John Kasich, voters handily rejected the law, which would have limited the bargaining abilities of 350,000 unionized public workers. With nearly 95 percent of the votes counted late Tuesday, about 61 percent were to reject the law.
• Elections may signal a pause in conservative trend (By Paul West, Washington Bureau, LA Times) AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, in Columbus, Ohio, to cheer a badly needed victory for organized labor and its Democratic allies, called the results a defeat for "those who spend their time scapegoating workers and pushing a partisan agenda."