A trade association for state doctors passed over one of its own this week when it issued its endorsement in the Ohio governor’s race.
The Ohio State Medical Association’s political arm said it’s backing Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire entrepreneur, because it believes the Republican has a “clear vision to improve healthcare across our state.”
The group, which represents the state’s physicians and has 8,000 active members, snubbed Democratic nominee Amy Acton, who is a licensed medical doctor. She has spent much of her career in public health and education rather than treating patients.
Ramaswamy touted the endorsement in a recent social media post, saying, “Their process was rigorous, and it speaks volumes in this race — for obvious reasons.”
Ramaswamy has his own connections to the medical world. He made his fortune in the biotech space, and his wife, Dr. Apoorva Ramaswamy, is a throat surgeon at a cancer hospital in Columbus.
OSMA officials declined Signal Statewide’s request to talk about the endorsement. But Dr. Gary Katz, president of the OSMA, issued a statement that said after discussions with Ramaswamy, the group believes his vision better aligns with its Statehouse legislative priorities. Those include protecting doctors’ exclusive rights to practice some types of medicine in what’s called “scope of practice.” For example, the OSMA has fought against a Republican bill that would allow some nurses to provide care without being directly supervised by a physician or podiatrist. Backers say the bill will help address Ohio’s doctor shortage. Among those who have testified in favor of the bill are rural health care providers and Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group.
The statement also said Ramaswamy expressed concerns about a Republican bill that would increase the amount of damages that patients can receive if they win a medical malpractice lawsuit. The current caps – which set a range from $250,000 to $415,000 – were set in 2005 in landmark tort reform legislation. State Rep. Brian Stewart wants to set a new range of $500,000 to $830,000 to adjust for inflation. Supporters like the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence say the current limits, which also apply to civil lawsuits, artificially cap the damages sexual assault survivors can receive in a lawsuit.
Acton responds to losing endorsement
Asked about the group’s endorsement on Wednesday, Acton pivoted to criticize planned federal cuts contained in President Donald Trump’s signature spending bill that will cut Ohio’s Medicaid funding by $33 billion over the next 10 years. (The OSMA’s statement doesn’t reference the Medicaid cuts, which are a top concern for hospitals and others in the healthcare industry.)
“My opponent, Mr. Ramaswamy, has said Medicaid and Medicare are mistakes, as rural hospitals right near here are collapsing. This is a crisis,” Acton said, speaking with reporters during a campaign stop in Rio Grande.
Acton also said she has the support of “thousands” of individual doctors. She also has been endorsed by the Ohio Nurses Association, a major union.
In response to the OSMA endorsement, a pro-Acton doctors’ group gathered more than 1,000 signatures from doctors around the state opposing the endorsement. Some are OSMA members, the group said.
“It’s not that we’re rejecting the OSMA. It’s that we’re saying the political arm of the OSMA doesn’t represent all physicians in Ohio,” said Democratic state Rep. Anita Somani, a Columbus-area OGYN and OSMA member.
DeWine promises answer to sloppy data around rape examination kits
Over a series of articles published in the 2010s, reporters (including one we’re proud to call a colleague) made a startling discovery: Thousands of sexual assault examination kits, which produce important forensic evidence in rape cases, had been sitting for as long as decades on police evidence locker shelves awaiting lab analysis. The reporting drove changes to state laws, including requirements that law enforcement agencies get such kits analyzed within 30 days and reveal to the state the depth of any backlog.
But last year, only 61 law enforcement departments reported sexual assault kit data to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, as was first reported by the Columbus Dispatch. About 940 did not.
Of local police departments that reported data, most kits – 210 of 223 – were analyzed by labs within 30 days of the examination, as is required, suggesting fairly widespread compliance. But that data set doesn’t include a supermajority of local law enforcement agencies in Ohio, which either failed to report or didn’t conduct any examinations in the first place.
Steve Irwin, a spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson, said the matter “appears to be a reporting issue, not a compliance issue” because the AG’s office knows that at least some agencies that didn’t report data to the state are still submitting rape kits to the state crime lab for testing.
“We will be putting together a group to make sure there is not a compliance issue and to make recommendations to streamline the statute and reporting,” Irwin said.
Gov. Mike DeWine, who was attorney general from 2010 to 2019, takes credit for his use of the bully pulpit to strongarm local police agencies into processing their rape kit backlogs. It produced evidence that led to hundreds of indictments.
He said at an event this week that the agencies’ failure to submit data traces back to ambiguity around what must be reported and difficulty in reporting it. He plans to put a proposal forward to lawmakers during the lame-duck session, an unusually productive legislative window that runs from Election Day in November to the end of the term around Christmas. We’ll keep our eyes out for details.
DeWine didn’t explain the apparent ambiguity. Irwin declined to speak for the agencies. And the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police didn’t return inquiries.
The Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence declined to speculate on the matter. But spokeswoman Taylr Ucker-Lauderman said in a statement the organization, which helps train law enforcement on best practices around responding to alleged sexual assaults, supports the testing of all sexual assault kits for useful evidence even if no criminal case is pursued.
“Survivors go through a long forensic examination to provide this evidence, and it can be a tough experience,” she said. “Clear, standardized practices help preserve information that can be important to an individual case, and it can also reveal connections across cases over time.”
Judge who lost legal license can run for re-election
Last month, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that Judge Jon Ickes, a Republican, would be suspended from practicing law for two years, given his alleged conflicts of interest with a witness and use of a racial slur in front of a Black defendant, among other inflammatory comments.
But Ickes can remain on the ballot for re-election, the court ruled this week.
His suspension occurred months after he won his primary. But Ohio law requires judges to be licensed attorneys. Kimberly Ontko, a magistrate running against Ickes as an independent, filed a lawsuit asking the judges to either force Ickes off the ballot or essentially discount votes on his behalf.
The opinion of the court – controlled 6-1 by Republicans – didn’t address the overarching issue of a judge who’s technically ineligible to be a judge. But it found the court lacks the power to do what Ontko is asking, and her filing fails on procedural grounds anyway.
Fallout from the victory of a judge without a legal license is unclear. But if Ickes wins and his suspension forces a vacancy, Ohio’s next governor would pick the replacement.
In the news
Fracking Ohio’s lone national forest. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced the sale of 2,800 acres of the Wayne National Forest, the only of its kind here, to out-of-state oil and gas companies. This mirrors the ongoing sale of mineral rights under state parks and wildlife areas to the industry, as Jake reports. Read more.
Self-driving trucks are cruising Ohio roads. Trucks that drive themselves are whizzing between Indianapolis and Columbus, with human backups at the ready. Jake reports that the fully driverless vehicles are confined to a corporate park — for now. Read more.
Legal immigrants to lose health care. About 3,500 legal immigrants in Cuyahoga County will likely lose Medicaid Oct. 1. Local organizations who serve immigrants, refugees and people granted asylum are working on ways to keep providing health care to the Cuyahoga County residents. From Signal Cleveland’s Celia Hack. Read more.
Vivek Ramaswamy’s data center policy promises Ohioans free electricity. Is that really possible? Vivek Ramaswamy promised that if he’s elected governor, he will require data centers to provide “completely free electricity” to nearby residents as a condition of being approved. Andrew asked experts about the plan, who described a mechanism Ramaswamy proposed to connect data centers’ private power plants with residents as highly complex, at best. Read more.
How Ohio college students can register to vote on campus or back home: Though potential changes around voting by mail have sparked confusion ahead of the Nov. 3 election, nothing is changing about voting in Ohio. Residents have until Oct. 5 to complete or update their voter registration. Read more.
Husted’s political director had Nazi soldiers in his profile photo. Jon Husted’s campaign, after being contacted by The Washington Post, said it would part ways with the political director. By Liz Goodwin. Read more.
