i'll be in san francisco speaking about my book "jack kennedy: elusive hero." in the morning and in the evening. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" live from columbus, ohio. where workers' rights are the big issue in america and a big issue here tonight. it's the eve of the historic election to determine the fate of middle class americans and in the state of ohio. and republicans are trying to cheat their way to the upset. other news tonight, the herman cain story will not quit. we now have a name and a face. accusing herman cain of sexual misconduct. her accusations are graphic and explosive. the cain camp is denying them. we'll bring you the story later on in the show. the real story is here in ohio. and this is the only place

you're going to see it. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. good evening, folks, it's one of the most important stories of the year. the attack on workers' rights by republican-controlled state houses across this country. from wisconsin, to florida, to right here in ohio, the middle class is being squeezed by lawmakers and governors who want to do away with public unions for political gain. it is about power. john kasich made his intentions clear when he ran for governor. speaking to a group of ohio republicans back in march of 2009, kasich said, "we need to break the back of organized labor in the schools." he also made clear what he thinks of public safety workers, like police officers.

>> have you ever been stopped by a policeman who was an idiot? i have this idiot pull me over on 315. goes back to the car, comes back, gives me a ticketer says you must report to court, if you don't report to court, we're putting a warrant out for your arrest. he's an idiot. >> kasich campaigned on economic development, but when he took office early this year, ohio republicans basically what they did was stage an attack on organized labor. senate bill 5 was signed into law by governor kasich on march 31st. the law limits collective bargaining for public employees in the state of ohio. kasich said it was needed to fill an $8 billion budget gap. but the savings for senate bill 5 were never specified. the governor didn't skip any opportunities to brag about what he did. >> probably nobody in this room thought it could be done, did you? you heard this before. campaign rhetoric. baloney.

the members of the legislature along with the team in my administration have done something that the people in washington ought to understand. we look problems square in the eye and we didn't blink. >> kasich's senate bill 5 changes the way more than 360,000 public employees negotiate their contracts in this state. it bans collective bargaining for benefits. it eliminates automatic pay increases. it makes it illegal to strike and most of all does away with arbitration. how in the hell can you have collective bargaining if you don't have an arbitrator when there's an issue at the table? these people are fired up about that. the bill forces public safety workers, basically, to beg for important resources. kasich's politicians have the ultimate say on approving requests for safety equipment and staffing levels which doesn't sit well with state rescue workers.

>> when i leave home for my shift, i want my kids to know that i have every bit of safety equipment i need to come home the next day. >> the firefighters here, we didn't cause the economic downturn in ohio. i know that the teachers didn't. i know the police officers didn't. i know all the other hardworking public employees did not cause the economic problems here in the state of ohio. >> so what did they do here in ohio? well, the grassroots coalition of senate bill 5 opponents launched the we are ohio campaign on april 9th. more than 10,000 people attended a rally here in columbus. in less than three months, the group delivered 1,298,301 signatures to the ohio secretary of state. 1 million more signatures that was needed to put it on the ballot.

the ballot signatures put senate bill 5 on the ballot this november and written up as issue number 2, giving voters tomorrow the final say on where they're going to go on this issue. kasich tried to boost support for issue 2 by running to his former employer, fox news. >> you're getting demonized. you're getting beaten up. you have literally millions of dollars of ads now, what, $60 million i think -- >> i would think it would be closer -- >> they're busing in union people from around the country. i know, because i met one of the bus drivers. unions are giving free weekends in ohio for people that will come and protest you. >> not even sean hannity's made up numbers are helping kasich. the law has generated so much negative attention even prominent republicans are against it in the state. republicans like republican mayor of lancaster, ohio, david smith, and retired ohio supreme court judge republican andy douglas, are opponents of senate bill 5. even right wing talk show host bill cunningham says he's voting no on issue 2.

a recent survey by ohio voters shows issue 2 losing by 25 points. so this is where we stand at this hour. this isn't a pro union or an anti-union issue. this is an attack on the middle class workers of america. it affects you and your state as well. because it sets the template on what is going to happen in other states around this country. and here's where we are. i take you right back to the chart we've seen so many times. you have a radical governor here in ohio who is asking middle class workers, give me a little more. give me your pension. give me your health care. and by the way, don't bother me at the negotiating table, i'm going to fix those rules, too. we went into a couple of wars that weren't paid for. we had big pharma, we had bush tax cuts. now we fast forward ten years later and now the radical governors, not only kasich, but walker and snyder and scott and

christie, well, hell, they just want the middle class workers to suck it up and pay a little bit more. i want you to take a look at this graph that i show quite often. this is the income gap that we have seen over the last 30 years in this country. the red line is where the republican governors are. they want legislation and they want tax breaks for corporations of the wealthiest americans that is going to help those red liners. you know where middle classers are? middle classers are down on the blue line. that's where their income has gone over the last 30 years. if you want to make it a union issue, okay, we'll do that tonight, too. we'll show you how important unions are to this country. here's another graph. union household membership over the last 30 years has declined in america. that's the red line. the blue line shows you where the income has followed, along with a lack of union membership across america. so you can see it's all about, you know, union membership, fine. the bigger picture here, karl

rove even said it, this is the last bashing for the liberals and this country to stand up. if they can knock down the foundation of organized labor in this country, they will put up the sign that says mission accomplished. they've already done it with the supreme court of citizens united. this is how you fight back against citizens united. you come together and you don't give up. and we want you to get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. how would you vote on issue 2? here in ohio? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we also want to hear from you on twitter. tell us what you think on @edshow.

a man sitting over here said he wants to start tweeting right now because he wants to see it tonight. joining me tonight, afl-cio president richard trumka, herald shapeburger, president of international association of firefighters. and former governor of the state of ohio, mr. ted strickland. gentlemen, great to have you with us tonight. governor, let's visit with you, first. i appreciate you being here. why didn't ohio see this coming in 2010? what was it? where was the disconnect? >> you know, people were hurting and are hurting, and i understand that. we all understand that. i met a young man on the sidewalk walking here this evening who is homeless and hungry. across this country, people have lost their jobs. let me tell you, ed, the

firefighters and the nurses and the teachers and the police officers didn't cause this dilemma. it was -- it was human greed and it emanated from wall street and now, and now these good folks surrounding us and across our state are being made scapegoats and we're putting a stop to it in ohio and want to send a message across this country that they pushed us as far as they can push us and we're going to be pushing back. >> mr. trumka, senate bill 5, i mean, is it a deliberate attempt to undermine the unions and organization and really knock down the final wall now that we have seen citizens united passed? >> there's no question about it. i mean, they know that these people have a voice. when they come together and they talk, they can change things, and see, that's what this is really all about, ed. this isn't just about kasich, this isn't about ohio. this is about whether typical people can change this economy for the better so that we can

all make a decent living. that's what this is all about. and that bill 5 was to try to stop that, prevent us from having power, break our back so they could have the playing field all to themselves. they got a surprise. >> is it the most egregious thing about this, it ends arbitration? >> i think there are several things. it ends collective bargaining. without collective bargaining, you don't have a ladder into the middle class. yes, it doesn't culminate at arbitration. once you take bargaining away and give a guy like kasich absolute right to control firefighters, to control nurses, to control police officers, you end up with a system that doesn't work. middle class america gets hurt and gets hurt badly. this bill will hurt public safety, it will hurt public education and it will hurt the middle class. >> talking about safety. what are the safety concerns here connected in this bill? >> first of all, this bill prevents our members from being able to negotiate the kind of turnout gear and equipment that

allows them to do the very difficult and tough job that they perform every single day, communities across the state. it prevents them from making sure we have enough firefighters on the rigs that can do an adequate job and go home safe after their shift. this goes right to the heart of making sure we can maintain good, essential, public safety services in this community. >> your men an women have been banging on stores down the stretch. when you go to a home in ohio, do they know what the issue is? do the people get it? >> they do get it. they understand now, what this really is all about is those who really want all of the power. that those who are really trying to take this country back 100 years, where all the wealth, all the rich, all the power was in the hands of a very few, and the people of ohio are listening to all of our members, all of these workers. they're listening to these

firefighters out here telling them that this is about trying to keep our neighborhoods safe. this is about a strong middle class and this is about giving average workers the dignity of work. >> governor strickland, one of the things that governor kasich has told the media time and time again, that if this stays in place, it will help him make up the budget gap. what will it do to the budget? you know the numbers. >> he did not have an $8 billion budget gap to fill. that's the beginning. but listen, these are good folks here. firefighters, nurses, you know, they don't make a lot of money. they just want to make enough to have a middle class lifestyle. >> let's cut to the chase on that. we're talking -- we're talking the average firefighter in this state makes just over $40,000 a year. herald, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> so basically the governor is asking middle class americans to pay more. i mean, to cut on the health

care, cut on the pension, also you don't get the raises that you would get in the past. and he thinks that he's going to balance the budget of this state on the backs of middle classers. i'm asking you, could it be done in this stays in place? >> no. there's a double standard here, ed. when this governor came to office, his gave his chief of staff nearly $50,000 more than i gave my chief of staff. he gave his staff raises, some of them up to 40%, and at the same time, he wants more from firefighters and nurses and teachers and police officers. it's just simply out of balance. there's no fairness in what they're proposing to be done through this draconian legislation. >> while the governor is suggesting that the problems are in the cities with their revenues, what he really did is take his budget and take $700 million away from local communities, communities that now are facing layoffs, putting people out of work and this is all an ochestrated effort. >> mr. trumka, what has this done to the union movement in america?

has this galvanized a lot of workers maybe you haven't seen in the past? >> this is growing. we're together like we've never been together before. they understand, he wants these people to pay for tax cuts for the rich. we've already given too much. it's brought us all together and we're all saying that the economy works fine for the top 1%, but it needs to work for us and for middle class america and we won't settle for less until it does. >> richard trumka, herald schaitberger, governor strickland, thanks for joining us tonight. i appreciate your time. remember to answer tonight's question on the bottom of the screen and share thoughts on twitter using #edshowissue2 i'll tell you why republicans think shared sacrifice doesn't apply to them. and in other big news today, a fourth woman accusing herman cain of sexual harassment goes

public. she's giving specifics and she wants the republican front-runner to come clean and fess up. this is "the ed show" live in ohio. stay with us. [ monitor beeping ] [ sponge ] you've suffered some real damage. cheesy crusting. 3rd degree noodle trauma. the prognosis is bleak. you may need to soak overnight. nurse...! dawn power clean? it'll never work. [ female announcer ] dawn power clean with micro-scrubbing enzymes can give you the power of an overnight soak in just 5 minutes. [ sponge ] i give you a sparkling clean bill of health. it's a scientific miracle! [ female announcer ] dawn does more. [ sponge ] so it's not a chore. oh, we call it the bundler. let's say you need home and auto insurance. you give us your information once, online...

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coming up, republicans are pulling out all stops to keep their union busting law. dirty tricks are being played down to the wire. while union busting governors are taking it out on the middle class, republicans in congress, they're not doing anything to help. anybody here think john boehner is doing his job right now? well, he says he is. we'll ask congressman tim ryan and congresswoman betty sutton what they think. a fourth woman comes forward with a sexual harassment claim against herman cain and she's

speaking out. this is "the ed show" live from columbus. stay with us.

welcome back to "the ed show." from columbus, ohio. not only is governor john kasich undermining the middle class in this state, republicans in the congress aren't doing anything for working americans at all. ohio's john boehner, speaker of the house, seems to think everything is just great. >> the founders gave us a committee of 535 people. frankly, it was designed not to work.

my job is to make it work. and it is working. >> speaker boehner, the people here in ohio don't think it's working. the american people know republicans are willing to sabotage the economy to hurt this president. by a 50% to 44%, americans agree republicans in congress are playing politics by blocking obama's proposals. among independents, the percentage is even greater. the numbers are staggering. let's bring in congresswoman betty sutton and also congressman tim ryan both of ohio. great to have both of you with us tonight. thanks so much. congresswoman, is this a do-nothing congress, in your opinion? >> well, the congress isn't focused on what it needs to be focused on. that is putting america back to work. >> why, is this a strategy, do you believe they're trying to sabotage the economy? >> i think that they've said as much. their main goal is to keep this president from getting elected.

and the way they are going about it is letting people fall off the cliff. and it's not acceptable. tomorrow in ohio, we're going to send a message. we're going to send a message. >> tim, i'll ask you the same question. is this a plan being played out by the republicans to sabotage the economy? >> well, this is what mitch mcconnell said they were going to do from the very beginning. we're going to make obama a one termer regardless of what it does to anyone else in the country. that's exactly what they're doing. no jobs bill. tried to pass something for teachers and firefighters in the senate, nada. and right down the line. any time there's an attempt to try to get the economy moving again, the republicans are sitting on their hands because they know at the end of the day it may help them politically, regardless of who goes down with the ship. >> is this the way it's going to be the next year. >> i'm sorry? >> is this the way it's going to be for the next year, this bickering back and forth going into november, 2012 and nothing is going to be done if they're out to sabotage the economy? >> tomorrow when we win with maybe 60%, that this may -- this

may -- this may shift the agenda. if we get our people out to vote tomorrow, if the people that are as energized as this tonight tomorrow and they get out the vote, we have a huge vote. we will reshape the debate, not only in ohio but in the country. there will be a lot of representatives who have to go up for re-election next year that will be police, fire, teachers, social workers and everyone else. >> congresswoman, do you think this will get speaker boehner's attention? >> i think absolutely. at a time when elected officials from the congress, to the statehouse, should be working on putting america back to work, kasich has decided to attack our firefighters, our police officers, our teachers, our nurses? these people are not the enemy. our workers, they're our heroes. they're our neighbors, they're our friends. we need to get people back to work. and this is the day that we make our stand. tomorrow we make our stand for

the middle class. >> earlier today, white house press secretary jay carney was asked about president obama's place on this. >> the president supports the collective bargaining rights of americans and strongly believes who should vote no on 2. >> is this going to have any effect on 2012, congressman? >> without a dout. the last 30 years, you've showed the stats, they've divided middle america. who's in a union, who's not in a union, who's in a public union, who's in a private union, who's black, who's white, who's gay, who's straight. they divided us right down the middle. we're now united. >> you know, we've been in a class war for a long time, but it's only been the upper 1% using all their power and money to look out for themselves. it's time that the 99% -- >> the country is watching ohio. no doubt. congresswoman betty sutton, and congressman tim ryan of ohio. thanks for joining us tonight.

next, the latest on today's explosive development for the herman cain campaign. and later, since republicans are down in the polls heading into tomorrow's vote, they're trying every dirty trick in the book. john nichols of "the nation" joins me. stay with us.

welcome back to "the ed show." live from columbus, ohio. where republican governor john kasich is trying to spin his assault on public workers as something positive. more on that coming up. but there is other news of the day. how will republican presidential candidate herman cain spin this one? today, sharon bialek became the first woman accusing herman cain of sexual misconduct to go public and provide specific allegations against him. mrs. bialek worked for the national restaurant association education foundation and sought mr. cain's help to find work after she was fired from the summer of 1997. cain agreed to meet with bialek in washington and following dinner and drinks, bialek says cain grabbed her in a sexually explicit manner. >> he suddenly reached over and put his hand on my leg, under my skirt and reached for my genitals. he also grabbed my head and brought it toward his crotch.

i was very, very surprised and very shocked. i said, what are you doing? you know i have a boyfriend, this isn't what i came here for. mr. cain said, you want a job, right? >> the cain campaign denies all allegations of harassment. joining me now is democratic strategist and former candidate for congress, krystal ball and msnbc political analyst and republican strategist joe watkins. great to have both of you with us tonight. >> thanks, ed. >> joe, you first. when does herman cain become collateral damage for the republicans? i mean, how many more women have to come out before this is a problem for the party? what do you think? >> well, clearly if you're a candidate for the republican nomination for the presidency, you don't want this to be your daily exercise. answering the newest allegation. and what makes this more difficult is the fact now there's a face on this allegation. so it is still an allegation. it's her word against his. we haven't heard his side of the story yet.

if you're a candidate for the presidency, you really want to be talking about how you put americans back to work. this puts herman cain in a difficult position, but i guess we'll all wait to see what he has to say tomorrow with regards to her allegation. >> krystal, this accuser says she wants to give a voice to other women who might have been harassed by cain. is her statement today a game changer in your opinion? >> absolutely. and keep in mind, ed, i mean, herman cain's favorability's dropped nine points among republican voters over the past week. so his narrative that he was holding steady and having this great fund-raising results was not really true. people were already starting to sour on him. now he can no longer play the role of the victim because we have an actual victim. we have actual allegations. he can go longer say -- >> this is an allegation. >> we can no longer say he was hiding behind the fact these were anonymous women, not willing to come forward. now we have a face, a name, we

have specific allegations and i think that it's game over for herman cain. >> i don't know that it's game over yet, ed. >> game over, joe? >> this is the kind of thing that happened to candidates in the past. candidate bill clinton faced allegations when he was candidate for presidency in 1992 and a woman came up and held a news conference similar to this one and dealt with those charges and was able to move on to essentially win the democratic nomination and of course win the election for president. i wouldn't say this is a game changer in that regard. clearly -- >> say we move on from this. then are we going to focus on his flip-flopping on abortion, flip-flopping on negotiating with terrorists, his economic plan that's devastating for middle class american, his rhetoric if you don't have a job, blame yourself? is that what we're going to move on to? in that scenario, it's not good for herman cain either. >> ed, you raise a good point when you talk about family values and the republican party caring deeply about it.

we all care about fairness. it's not -- we don't want anybody to be wronged. we like justice as americans. but, again, these are allegations and we'll have to see whether or not -- what the candidate has to say about it. >> i'll tell you what, there was certainly a certain standard for anthony weiner that he had to get out right away. and now that you've got one of your own, i mean, it's one then two then three, now four. now a press conference. it's drip, drip, drip. how are the republicans going to get the media talking about and the rest of the country talking about jobs when they have herman cain, a herman cain story, joe, coming out every other day? >> you're right, ed. you raise a good point. it's tough. you don't want this to dominate the news media. it would be better to talk about how you put americans back to work. we have 14 million of our fellow americans not working right now. much rather see them working and talking about plans to get them back to work rather than talking about this. >> nobody's throwing herman cain under the bus. i mean, they're all willing to

say, well, this is just a private matter and it really doesn't matter. when do they start becoming credible? i think that is the key question at this point. krystal ball, joe watkins, great to have both of you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. one ohio republican says he shouldn't have to share and sacrifice because he earns his paycheck. i have a lot of ohioans here with me that earn their paychecks, too. we'll hear from them coming up. stay with us. ♪ [ male announcer ] you never know when a moment might turn into something more. and when it does men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day, so you can be ready anytime the moment's right. ♪ [ man ] tell your doctor about

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esresehahiy. l,the. why didn't you support the idea of legislators cutting their pay 5%? >> because it's not merited. i earn my pay. i think that was just political baloney. so they can say in an ad, gee, you know, they didn't support a pay cut. well, no, i don't support a pay cut. republicans earn their money.

apparently democrats don't. they feel they should be paid less. they may be true. maybe we'll just cut the democrats' pay. >> that was ohio state representative lou blessing saying republican state legislaors shouldn't participate in shared sacrifice because they earn their pay. do lou blessing and their republican buddies earn their pay more than these folks sitting behind me? more than firefighters, more than police officers, more than teachers, more than nurses? mr. blessing is more than happy to force working americans to participate in shared sacrifice by making them pay more with their health care and pensions and taking away their collective bargaining rights. meanwhile, members of the general assembly earn a minimum of $60,584. and 62 of the 70 members who voted for senate bill 5 earn more than the minimum because they get leadership bonuses as much as $34,000.

governor john kasich earns almost $150,000 a year. that's $10,000 more than what ted strickland was earning when he was governor. kasich is still eligible for an automatic 3% annual raises which senate bill 5 eliminated for public union workers. republicans in ohio are no different than any of the other republicans across this country. they think shared sacrifice means sacrificing middle class americans, need to do more than the top 1% or 2%. joining me now is sue taylor, she is the president of the ohio federation of teachers. jack real is the president of the columbus firefighters union local 67. jim gilbert, president of the fraternal order of police, capital city, lodge number 9. sean grayson, the general counsel for afscme number 8. sue, to you think the republican legislators earn their pay as opposed to you folks?

>> i don't know one teacher or one children's service worker who went into our job to get rich. and if merit pay and pay for performance is based on whether i believe i'm doing my job like it is for governor kasich, then there's something wrong with their system of merit pay. because we go into teaching and we go into working with children from troubled homes because we want to make a difference in their lives. we want to make society better. >> jim, what about the arrogance of that sound bite, of that republican saying that democrats apparently don't earn what they make? >> i would welcome them to come out and work on any of our streets in the inner city of columbus, cincinnati, cleveland, toledo, or dayton. ride in a police car eight hours and deal what we deal with and ensure we go home to our families safe at the end of our shift. >> what will this do to the forces? >> it's a concern for me. they're not changing collective

bargaining for police officers or firefighters. it eliminates collective bargaining for supervisors, street supervisors with their firefighters and police officers doing the same job ensuring the safety of the citizens of ohio. >> jack real, you and i have talked about this as it comes down to the wire. what's the most egregious thing in this bill people need to know? >> the most egregious thing in this bill, it takes away our ability to have a voice with our employer. we lose collective bargaining, we lose the opportunity or binding arbitration of collective bargaining, we lose the opportunity to sit down with our employer about anything and discuss it. most of the time for us that's a safety issue. staffing. >> what does it say about the demeanor of this issue and when you hear an elected republican say something like that about earning? he earns his but other folks don't? >> he's out of touch. that's what it boils down to. as we heard earlier, an average firefighter in the state of ohio makes $42,000 a year and works

25% more than every other worker in the country. those guys are making $60,000-plus for part-time employment. he's out of touch with what the working class has. >> sean grayson from afscme. if kasich had to do it over again, do you think he would? >> the leadership of the ohio house said they're going to ignore this vote and ignore the vote of the people and even if issue 2 is defeated, they're going to come back with more of the same in the next legislative session. we have to make this victory large enough to make that something they don't contemplate let alone try. >> what about the comment about he earns his and democrats don't? >> i tell you, you know, collective bargaining works. collective bargaining has worked in this state since 2008. public servants across this state have given back taxpayers

over $8 billion in losses in pay and benefits and unpaid furlough days and increases in health insurance cost. they know that ohio is hurting and they have sacrificed. what this comment says is, we don't have to sacrifice. public employees are not an atm machine. you can't keep going back to their wallet time and time again and expect them to be able to perform their jobs. >> sean grayson, thanks so much. folks, what it all comes down to, i mean, no matter what side of the issue, if you're a fair minded american, you see this is really about fairness. this is about who's pulling their weight in our economy. pro issue 2 groups are getting so desperate, they're lying to ohioans. john nichols has the latest on that. stay with us. we're right back in columbus.

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you're watching "the ed show" live from columbus, ohio. coming up, john nichols of "the nation" magazine of voter suppression in the state. what to expect from the polls tomorrow. we'll hear from the crowd here in ohio. stay tuned.

welcome back to "the ed show." we're coming to you live from outside the firefighters union hall in columbus, ohio, ahead of tomorrow's historic vote on repealing senate bill 5. the anti-collective bargaining folks have been using every dirty trick in the book to try to win the vote. the latest offense is this flyer which appears to be a nonpartisan advertisement for a new hotline to fight misinformation about issue 2. but when you call the hotline,

this is what you're going to hear. >> welcome to the issue 2 answer line. after this message, you can speak with a real person, but only if you choose to. our state legislature recently reformed ohio law to protect our public services. a yes vote on issue 2 keeps this important update. a no vote repeals the change and leads to higher taxes and layoffs of public workers. >> let's bring in john nichols, washington correspondent of "the nation" magazine. john, what do you make of this atline gimmick? >> it's part and parcel of everything they've done throughout this campaign. there's one gimmick after another to try to deceive the people. you saw from the start of this, when you file 1.3 million signatures, it's obvious where the sentiments are. it's only deception that's going to turn this around. >> what other tricks are they playing to fool the voters? >> almost every newspaper in ohio has called out the advertising that has been done on television by the yes on 2 folks. also, liz cheney's, dick

cheney's daughter, politifact called the mailings out again and again and again. >> what are we seeing as far as voter suppression? >> shutting down early voing in ohio is a big deal. this is a state that's had early voting for a long time. people know to vote on friday, saturday, sunday, monday, and they haven't been able to. there are people in toledo who went to their local elections board, knocked on the door and found the board's door locked on saturday. >> john, great to have you with us as always. let's bring in maureen reedy, she's a ohio 2002 teacher of the year. and david who's the president of the cleveland teachers union. great to have some teachers with us tonight. here on "the ed show." near and dear to my heart. maureen, tell us what does senate bill 5 do to the teacher in the classroom?

>> well, really, the issue here is silence and suppressing the teachers' voice. i've been teaching for 29 years, ed, and my voice is my students' voice. my students don't go to the administration to advocate for what they need. i do. i talk about increased needs for technology to prepare my students for the 21st century. more resources for special needs students. and, you know, really, our voice is our students' voice, and to silence and suppress us is taking away our students' voice as well. >> mr. cokey, you're the president of the cleveland teachers union, and governor kasich made it very clear how he felt about teachers unions, he wanted to get organized labor out of the classroom. would it be a better product if organized labor was out of the classroom? >> absolutely not. you know, maureen said it best. teachers are the professional advocates for kids. whether it's class sized or

services for kids wit disabilities, i tell you, nothing is hand given to us. these are things we fight for and advocate for. >> what's the average teacher in cleveland, ohio, make? >> the average teacher is i believe right around $50,000 a year. >> and so this would obviously force them to lose discretionary income and also bargaining rights, correct? >> correct. correct. i mean, it is basically aimed at taking away the voice of the teachers and really balancing the budgets on the backs -- >> maureen, i've seen some of the commercials here in ohio. governor kasich has commercials running with all the kids saying if we're going to keep kids in ohio, we have to support senate bill 5. what's your response to that? >> i'd like to say, if you want to keep quality teachers in ohio, you need to vote no on issue 2 to repeal senate bill 5. >> do you think -- you think the

governor has been an honest broker through all of this? >> i think the governor has made a broad sweep in taking away the voice of teachers, the experts in the classroom. you know, we are on the front lines with students every day. we deal with the vulnerable students, the fragile students. sometimes our classrooms are the only safe and secure place for students during their day. and so he's attempting to take our voice away. take the voice of the expert away from advocating for what our students need to best learn and what we need to best teach. and that's wrong. >> maureen reedy and david quolke, i appreciate your time tonight. thanks for coming in. rush limbaugh has thrown his weight around the pro issue 2 effort. we'll see what this crowd thinks of his anti-union rant. i want healthy skin for life.

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tonight in our survey, i

asked, how would you vote on issue 2 in ohio? 4% of you said yes. 96% of you said no. and here's a note for you twitter fans. "the ed show" is trending in columbus. coming up, rush limbaugh weighs in on issue 2. and not only is he offensive, his facts are flat-out wrong, again. we'll be right back.

polling indicates ohioans by a substantial margin want to overturn the new law, which means if this is true, that people in ohio want to pay higher taxes to pay higher salaries to state workers, state workers who will earn twice what their private sector counterparts -- this is what the polling is telling us. you live in ohio and make $45,000 a year, you are in favor of paying taxes sufficiently

the economic policy institute found when you factor in total compensation including wages and benefits, public employees in ohio earn 3.5% less on an hourly basis than their private sector counterparts. governor kasich, now, the last time we were here in ohio, i asked you to come over here and get on the program. you never even called me back. you never even -- i mean, i mean, you could have used a fax machine, you could have used old technology. you could have sent me an e-mail, you could have tweeted me, could have done anything. you could have gone over to sean hannity's program for the umpteenth time and say, i'm afraid of ed, i don't want to talk to him. so governor, governor, this is reserved for you. reserved for governor john kasich. you missed tonight. we'll be here tomorrow night not only at 8:00, but 11:00 eastern

time. so governor, here's what i need you to do, governor kasich. be a man. stand up. win, lose or draw. if your side wins, we'll interview you. come on, dude. tell us where it's all going. why in the world -- are you still under contract with fox news? that's what it is. i got it. dog-on contracts will do it every time, won't they? joining me now, governor, is rob barrett, a police officer here in columbus who you called an idiot. rob, i got to ask you, have you gotten any smarter since kasich said you were an idiot? >> no. not at all. >> how offended were you by that when you saw that ta