Snollygoster is the new Ohio politics podcast from WOSU Public Media. Every week, hosts Mike Thompson and Steve Brown dive into the week’s biggest stories in Columbus and around the state.
This week, controversy takes over the Ohio House as Speaker Cliff Rosenberger announces he’s resigning amid a FBI probe into his overseas travel with two lobbyists for the payday lending industry.
Listen to Snollygoster on theWOSU Public Media mobile app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
In this week's episode:
Rosenberger Is Out
Wow, that was fast. Within four days of reports about him traveling in Europe with lobbyists for the payday lending industry, House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger announced he planned to resign.
Rosenberger maintains he followed the law, so why’d he resign so quickly? And what does his resignation mean for proposed payday lending reforms? Steve and Mike chat with the Dayton Daily News’ Laura Bischoff, who’s led the reporting on the controversy.
Dennis Kucinich, Outsider Candidate?
The Democratic candidates for Ohio governor met for another debate, and the former U.S. Rep. Kucinich stayed on the attack against former Consumer Financial Protection director Richard Cordray. It was the last debate before the May 8 primary, and Kucinich "staked his claim to young voters" by calling for gun control: "Young people of Ohio, I'm with you; I hear your concerns."
John Kasich GPS
Our weekly segment following our Governor brings us back home to Columbus, where the Republican was actually on our air for a taping of NPR’s news quiz "Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me." Kasich was game to play, but host Peter Sagal was ready withsome sharp jokes: "Given how much time he's been spending in Iowa and New Hampshire, we're going to try and stump him with questions about... Ohio."
Kasich scored some laughs for telling a story of how he got into politics, but was heavily booed by the audience for previously proposing to cut money for public broadcasting. His response: "Well, if I'm elected president, we'll double the budget." We'll hold you to that, Governor.
