Bernie Moreno: Bad News For Ohio
Welcome to Bad News Bernie: your brand-new, weekly one-stop-shop for the latest news (spoiler alert: it’s usually bad) about Bernie Moreno. From refusing to pay his employees the overtime they’d earned, to his support for a national abortion ban and his record exploiting his insider connections to enrich himself, one thing is clear: Moreno is out-for-himself and Bad News for Ohio.
NEED-TO-KNOW THIS WEEK:
- A new website – BernieTheLemon.Com – exposes Moreno, in his own words, for his record putting himself before Ohioans.
- New reporting from the New York Times highlights Moreno’s “remarkable wealth” and lucrative assets – including a $2.3 million Aston Martin Vulcan (“one of only 24 ever made”) and properties worth up to $24.7 million altogether.
- Moreno enters the general bruised and with significant baggage with national Republicans noting that “Bernie’s not looking too hot.”
🍋 BERNIETHELEMON.COM: A new website – BernieTheLemon.Com – uses Bernie Moreno’s own words to show Ohioans his long record of putting himself first. Check out the highlights – err, lowlights – of what you can expect from this used car salesman trying to sell Ohioans a lemon: Moreno would vote for a national abortion ban without exceptions; Moreno refused to pay his workers the overtime they earned, then destroyed the evidence to get away with it; Moreno exploited his insider political connections to boost his businesses and enrich himself. Visit BernieTheLemon.Com for more, and see what they’re saying:
Associated Press:
💰 OUT FOR HIMSELF: New reporting from the New York Times highlights Moreno’s “remarkable wealth” and lucrative assets – including a $2.3 million Aston Martin Vulcan (“one of only 24 ever made”) and properties worth up to $24.7 million altogether. Reminder: multimillionaire Moreno has already dumped $4.5 million of his personal wealth into his campaign to try to buy this race.
😬 “BERNIE’S NOT LOOKING TOO HOT:” As Moreno enters the general with significant baggage, here’s a reminder that Moreno’s so-called “allies” were hand-wringing about Moreno’s seemingly unlimited baggage and record of looking out for himself: “Bernie’s not looking too hot,” “he won’t do what’s best for Ohioans and Americans, he’ll do what’s best for Bernie Moreno,” “this is a guy [Moreno] that does what is in his own best interest, his self-serving interest, including not treating his employees fairly and evidently being willing to destroy evidence.”
🗞️ WHAT OHIOANS ARE READING / WATCHING:
- New York Times: “In Ohio, Mr. Moreno’s Republican opponents…repeatedly went after him for a lawsuit filed by an employee of one of his car dealerships, who sued him in 2017 for failure to pay overtime. The judge in the case determined that Mr. Moreno “either did not retain or shredded” monthly reports on overtime hours…Mr. Moreno did lose the suit and was ordered to pay $416,160 to his employees.”
- NBC: “…characterizing Moreno as an unprincipled businessman who mistreats employees, citing past lawsuits over workplace discrimination and overtime pay against his companies.”
- Gary Peters, Morning Joe: “…Moreno, who refused to pay overtime to his employees, they had to sue him, and then he destroyed evidence to try to get out of it. He is all about himself…”
- NPR: “The Ohio Democratic Party has been pushing a narrative that whoever emerged from this brutal campaign would do so with a lot of baggage. They’ve attempted to draw attention to Moreno’s positions on immigration and on abortion.”
- AP: The Ohio Democratic Party wasted no time after Tuesday’s vote launching an anti-Moreno website that included some of Republicans’ own intraparty attacks against the nominee, including LaRose’s.”
- David Niven, CBS News Hour: “Bernie Moreno, whose career was as a car dealer and who has some, you know, legal entanglements with underpaying his staff”
- Business Insider: “The former car dealership owner has also faced several lawsuits stemming from his time in the industry, including being sanctioned by a Massachusetts judge for shredding documents that may have been relevant to a wage theft lawsuit he was facing.”
- Columbus Dispatch: “He was also dogged by legal trouble from his car dealership days, including over a dozen lawsuits in Massachusetts that accused him of not properly paying overtime to his employees.”
- Cincinnati Enquirer: “Moreno’s campaign was sidetracked down the stretch when reports surfaced that he had settled a series of wage theft lawsuits and was once caught shredding documents.”
- NBC: “Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the other GOP candidate in the race, emphasized Moreno’s reversals on several policy positions and rehashed the stories about the lawsuits he had faced and describing him as untrustworthy.”
🐤 TWEET OF THE WEEK:
🎶 CODA: “As Ohioans begin kicking the tires on Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, it won’t be long before they find out he’s a lemon” – check out BernieTheLemon.Com for more. 🍋
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