On March 4, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt officially became president of the United States. At the time, the new president faced a massive financial crisis and depression. The nation had an outstanding 24.9 percent unemployment rate, and faith in the financial system was nearly nonexistent. But with a Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and 64 percent Democratic majority in the Senate, FDR managed to pass a series of laws within 100 days of inauguration that helped set the economy on track.   

Issues 50 and 51 are levy renewals, so there’s no tax hike, and mental health and senior services stay the same. These are levies that even fiscal conservatives have not opposed. The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) has taken no position on it.   

In an era when judges often give the final word against Republican extremism, Democratic judges are more important than ever. That’s why we endorse Martha Good and Bruce Whitman for Ohio’s First District Court of Appeals.   

Judges play an understated role in the U.S. While legislators write and pass the laws and mayors, governors and presidents enforce the laws, judges interpret the laws. In a sense, this can be just as important as writing the law. Sentencing in particular can decide the weight of a law.   

One of the most striking developments in the past two years is the rising extremism of the Republican party. From privatization to social issues to Senate Bill 5, Republicans have taken Ohio in a hard turn to the right. Here at CityBeat, we’ll take the alternative. We support the Democratic takeover of the Ohio General Assembly.   

Ohio is a swing state, but there is very little in our state government that reflects that right now. Republicans dominate the General Assembly. Republicans dominate the governorship and other executive positions. The Ohio Supreme Court is no different. It is currently dominated by Republican justices in a striking 6-1 margin.   

This year, there is a surprising amount of choice in the Hamilton County offices. In the past, a lot of the seats have been uncontested, typically held by powerful Republican incumbents. This year is different. In addition to offering a differint perspective than the extremist Republican status quo, each of these candidates offers credibility and new ideas.    

We like how Democratic Commissioner Todd Portune tried to keep funding for mental health and elderly services the same with a very minor tax hike that would have made up for property values dropping. We like his support for the streetcar. We like how he can rein in the two Republicans on the Board of Commissioners.   

CityBeat recently covered Cincinnati Public School’s (CPS) financial problems and what makes the levy renewal a necessity for the school (“Battered But Not Broken,” issue of Oct. 3). Under the broken state funding system for schools, CPS has to rely on levies to sustain and improve its education program. If CPS doesn’t get this levy renewed, it will be down $51.5 million — or approximately 11 percent of its budget — in 2015. That’s a hard hit to take after a decade of budget cuts at CPS. The school district has already cut about 22 percent of its total staff in the last 10 years and closed down 17 buildings. It shouldn’t have to do more.   

Imagine if you had to take every other year at your job off to defend all your career decisions. Every other year would be completely unproductive. Essentially, you would be unproductive half the time.