Dem
51
GOP
49
There is a special election in Ohio on Aug. 8 in which the voters are being asked if they want to raise the threshold for passing citizen initiatives from 50% +1 to 60% + 1. The measure (called Issue 1) would also make it much more difficult to get measures on the ballot in the first place, in addition to making them harder to pass if they do make it. It is a brazen attempt by the Republican-controlled state legislature to get rid of the whole pesky initiative process. In particular, there is an initiative on the November ballot that would expand abortion access and the legislators want to make sure it doesn't pass. We discussed this a week ago.
August special elections tend to be sleepy affairs, but one Democratic group, the Progress Action Fund, wants to defeat the measure. It made a bed-oriented ad to encourage people to get out of bed and vote down Issue 1. Below is the ad. It is only 31 seconds, but definitely NSFW.
Longtime fans of Saturday Night Live will recognize that ad is a pretty obvious remake of a classic sketch from 1976.
Issue 1 is not about birth control but about killing off the citizen initiative process. But if the ad scares enough people, it could drive up turnout. It is definitely not your generic political ad for a ballot measure. There is one small error in it, but most people won't notice it. The guy in the tie says he is a congressman. Since this is an Ohio issue, he should have said: "I'm your Ohio state senator." But that's a quibble. The ad has a lot of punch. (V)