Cleveland Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam (and their family) are waging a political pressure campaign for Ohio taxpayer funding for a domed stadium in Brook Park (”Haslam family has spent $6.5M in less than two years,” Oct. 30). I won‘t criticize their $6.5 million funding of Republican candidates at state and federal levels; privileged Americans have always tilted the political scale in favor of wealth. But I draw a line at their funding opposition to Ohio ballot issues that the citizens of this state have overwhelmingly wanted: keeping simple majority rule for passing constitutional amendments last year, and Issue 1’s 2024 amendment banning gerrymandering.
Currently, Ohio Republicans’ 14-year gerrymandering romp permits the most extreme fringes of the Republican Party guaranteed electoral wins that do not reflect the wishes of the vast majority of Ohio citizens. While the Browns may be a public asset, there is nothing about the Haslams’ use of financial largesse to try to kill ballot campaigns that serves deep public interests. Using their wealth to subvert the manifest wishes of Ohioans has soured me on providing taxpayer funding for their domed-stadium ambitions.
Name withheld by request,
Pepper Pike
The writer is a nurse educator and 77-year resident of Ohio.