By , ,
Published December 23, 2015
Tuesday morning, Mitt Romney visited a group of volunteers at an Ohio call center working to keep a state bill limiting the collective bargaining rights of about 350,000 Ohio state workers on the books. But what could have just been another stop on the Romney schedule has since drawn an onslaught of accusations that he is "flip-flopping" his stance on Ohio Governor John Kasich's collective bargaining legislation.
When asked about his position on SB-5, a bill scaling back collective bargaining for public employees that was passed by a Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Kasich in April, Romney said he didn't have one.
But in June Romney seemed to be singing a different tune, writing on his Facebook page, "My friends in Ohio are fighting to defend crucial reforms that the state has put in place to limit the power of union bosses and keep taxes low. I stand with John R. Kasich and Ohio's leaders as they take on this important fight to get control of government spending."
Ohioans head to the polls on November 8th to decide if the law should be repealed. A Quinnipiac poll out Tuesday morning indicates state voters continue to overwhelmingly oppose SB-5 57 to 32 percent.
In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said, "This kind of hypocrisy from Mitt Romney is breathtaking. Romney can't take back his support of [this] issue simply because he read the Quinnipiac poll this morning."
The Perry campaign joined in on the attack. "Mitt Romney's finger-in-the-wind politics continued today when he refused to support right-to-work reforms signed by Ohio Governor John Kasich -- reforms Romney supported in June."
Perry Campaign Communications Director Ray Sullivan said, "Mitt Romney needs to realize that when you try to stand on both sides of an issue, you stand for nothing."
Governor Romney said in a follow-up interview that his position is clear.
"I am not speaking about the particular ballot issues," he said. "Those are up to the people of Ohio. But I certainly support the efforts of the governor to rein in the scale of government."
Another Ohio ballot measure volunteers were calling about at the phone bank Romney visited was Issue 3, which proposes to amend the state constitution to make an individual healthcare mandate illegal. Romney he did not have a position on that measure either but that he was "certainly supportive of the Republican Party's efforts here."
Fox News' Joy Lin contributed to the report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ohio-dems-gov-perry-accuse-romney-of-flip-flopping