An Ohio sheriff is under fire for a social media post in which he said people with Kamala Harris yard signs should have their addresses recorded so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if the Democrat wins the presidency. Good-government groups called it a threat and urged him to remove the post.
Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski, a Republican in the thick of his own reelection campaign, posted a screenshot of a Fox News segment that criticized Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris over their immigration record and the impact on small communities like Springfield, Ohio, where an influx of Haitian migrants has caused a political furor in the presidential campaign.
Likening people in the U.S. illegally to "human locusts," Zuchowski wrote on a personal Facebook account and his campaign's account: “When people ask me... What’s gonna happen if the Flip-Flopping, Laughing Hyena Wins?? I say ... write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards!" That way, Zuchowski continued, when migrants need places to live, “we’ll already have the addresses of their New families ... who supported their arrival!”
Local Democrats filed complaints with the Ohio secretary of state and other agencies, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio wrote to Zuchowski that he had made an unconstitutional, “impermissible threat" against residents who want to display political yard signs.
Many residents understood the Sept. 13 post to be a “threat of governmental action to punish them for their expressed political beliefs,” and felt coerced to take down their signs or refrain from putting them up, said Freda J. Levenson, legal director of the ACLU of Ohio. She urged Zuchowski to take it down and issue a retraction.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, meanwhile, called Zuchowski’s comments “unfortunate” and “not helpful.”
Zuchowski defended himself in a follow-up post this week, saying he was exercising his own right to free speech and that his comments “may have been a little misinterpreted??” He said voters can choose whomever they want for president, but then “have to accept responsibility for their actions."
Zuchowski, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, spent 26 years with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, including a stint as assistant post commander. He joined the sheriff’s office as a part-time deputy before his election to the top job in 2020. He is running for reelection as the chief law enforcement officer of Portage County in northeast Ohio, about an hour outside of Cleveland.
The sheriff did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. His Democratic opponent in the November election, Jon Barber, said Zuchowski's post constituted “voter intimidation" and undermined faith in law enforcement.
The Ohio secretary of state's office said it did not plan to take any action.
“Our office has determined the sheriff’s comments don’t violate election laws,” said Dan Lusheck, a spokesperson for Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose. “Elected officials are accountable to their constituents, and the sheriff can answer for himself about the substance of his remarks.”
That didn't sit well with the League of Women Voters, a good-government group. Two of the league's chapters in Portage County wrote to LaRose on Thursday that his inaction had left voters “feeling abandoned and vulnerable.” The league invited LaRose to come to Portage County to talk to residents.
“We are just calling on Secretary LaRose to reassure voters of the integrity of the electoral process," Sherry Rose, president of the League of Women Voters of Kent, said in a phone interview. She said the league has gotten reports that some people with Harris yard signs have been harassed since Zuchowski's post.
In this undated photo released by the Portage County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Bruce D. Zuchowski poses. Zuchowski, is under fire for a social media post in which he said people with Kamala Harris yard signs should have their addresses recorded so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if Harris wins. (Portage County Sheriff's Office via AP)
In this undated photo released by the Portage County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Bruce D. Zuchowski poses. Zuchowski, is under fire for a social media post in which he said people with Kamala Harris yard signs should have their addresses recorded so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if Harris wins. (Portage County Sheriff's Office via AP)
The path for the NFL's Washington Commanders to return to the nation’s capital is clear after an on-again, off-again saga in Congress ended early Saturday with a postmidnight reprieve.
The U.S. Senate passed a resolution to transfer the land including old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia. The D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act passed by voice vote at roughly 1:15 a.m. after more than a year of lobbying and support from Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., district Mayor Muriel Bowser, Commanders controlling owner Josh Harris and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
“We are extremely grateful that our elected officials have come together on a bipartisan basis to give Washington, D.C., the opportunity to decide on the future of the RFK Stadium site," Harris said. "This bill will create an equal playing field so that all potential future locations for the home of the Washington Commanders can be fairly considered and give our franchise the opportunity to provide the best experience for all of our fans.”
The RFK Stadium land provision was part of Congress’ initial short-term spending bill Tuesday before it was torpedoed by President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the latter of whom amplified misinformation about the site on his social media platform X. Two versions of the House's slimmed-down bill, including the one that passed Friday night to avoid a government shutdown, did not include it.
Giving the local government control of the land for the next 99 years allows for the decaying husk of the old stadium to be torn down and the site redeveloped for any number of things. One of the possibilities is a football stadium and surrounding entertainment options at the franchise's former home.
Bowser called it “a win for D.C., for our region and for America.”
“Everybody loves a good comeback story — and that’s D.C.’s story,” she said.
All that awaits is President Joe Biden's signature to become law. Comer went as far as saying that Senate passage of the bill is “a historic moment for our nation's capital.”
“If Congress failed to act today, this decaying land in Washington would continue to cost taxpayers a fortune to maintain,” he said. “Revitalizing this RFK Memorial Stadium site has been a top economic priority for the city, and I am proud to have partnered with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to get this bill across the finish line and to the president’s desk. This bipartisan success is a testament to the House Oversight Committee’s unwavering effort to protect taxpayers and our full commitment to ensuring a capital that is prosperous for residents and visitors for generations to come.”
Playing in Washington again is no sure thing. The Commanders are considering places in the district, Maryland and Virginia to build a stadium in the coming years.
Their lease at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, runs through 2027. Harris called 2030 a “reasonable target” for a new stadium.
The team played at RFK Stadium 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) east of the Capitol from 1961-96 before moving to Maryland. Harris and several co-owners, including Mitch Rales and Mark Ein, grew up as Washington football fans during that era, which included the glory days of three Super Bowl championships from 1982-91.
Part of the way the provision got into the bill initially involved an agreement between the team and Maryland to tear down the current stadium in a timely fashion and redevelop the site with a project of equal economic impact, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press earlier this week on condition of anonymity because the deal was not being publicized.
After the Senate greenlit the RFK Stadium land transfer, Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, both Democrats, said they continued to believe their state's partnership with the team should continue long into the future.
“After working to level the financial playing field, and receiving assurances that should the team move they will redevelop the existing site in a manner that meets the needs of the community, tonight we supported the proposed land transfer legislation,” Cardin and Van Hollen said. "We have always supported the District’s effort to control its own land, and through regional discussions and cooperation, our concerns with this proposal have been addressed.”
The team has played games in Maryland since 1997 and practices in Ashburn, Virginia, not far from Dulles International Airport.
A return to the district would be another victory for Bowser, who on Thursday celebrated the start of an $800 million downtown arena renovation that is keeping the NBA's Wizards and NHL's Capitals in town. At that news conference, she took aim at Musk for sharing incorrect information on X, formerly Twitter, about taxpayers footing the bill for a new stadium.
“It was stated that the (continuing resolution) contains $3 billion for a stadium,” Bowser said. "All wrong. There are no federal dollars related to the transfer of RFK, and in fact the legislation does not require or link at all to a stadium. We’re talking about how the District can invest in removing blight.”
Musk reshared an inaccurate post saying: “Buried in the 1,547-page omnibus bill is a provision to facilitate a $3 billion NFL stadium in Washington, D.C." with the message, “This should not be funded by your tax dollars!”
The bill specifically prohibits the use of federal funds for a stadium on the site, “including training facilities, offices, and other structures necessary to support a stadium.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
FILE - A vehicle pushes up pikes of snow after trucks dump their loads of snow in the parking lots of RFK Stadium in Washington, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
