Third-place honors in the under 35,000 circulation category of the Columns category of the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize competition were awarded to Charita Goshay, a columnist with The Canton Repository in Ohio.
Third-place includes a curved glass plaque and a cash prize of $500.
In submiting her contest entry, Goshay said her goal with these columns was to “make voters aware that their wishes were being ignored and undermined by the very people they elected to represent them.”
First column:
Is ambition causing Frank LaRose to squander his potential?
This column about Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose reads in part:
“Somehow, somewhere, a talented young politician who made a name for himself for his bipartisanship and for being a conscientious conservative has lost the plot.
“LaRose, who once was chided by some fellow Republicans for having a casual dinner with a Democrat, seems to have abandoned his reasonableness out of fear of being tagged as a RINO, or looking weak in the age of Donald Trump, whom someone recently likened to a velociraptor constantly testing the fences.
“But LaRose didn't need to change who he was; he only needed to stay true to it.”
Second column:
Ohio Assembly mocking democracy in the Heart of it All
In this column Goshay speaks out against members of the Ohio Assembly “who have decided they're going to unravel the results of the Nov. 7 election following the approval of Issues 1 and 2.”
She notes that the new laws will legalize recreational marijuana and codify reproductive health choices in the state constitution — laws that were passed by a majority of voters.
Goshay wrote: “The voting machines hadn't even cooled off before opponents of the approved measures declared war.
“At least one legislator has proposed that the Ohio House be given the power to interpret the new laws rather than judges, whose job it is to — wait for it — interpret the law.
“Sure. We don't need no stinkin' three branches of government.”
Third column:
Ohio's House Bill 6 bribery case is the scandal that won't go away
Last December, Goshay wrote about the arrest of former Public Utilities Commissions of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo “for allegedly accepting $4.2 million in bribes from FirstEnergy in exchange for bestowing favorable treatment, including helping the utility secure House Bill 6, a law which has you on the hook for a $1.3 billion bailout of its outdated nuclear power plants.”
She goes on to write: “Rather than handcuffs and a perp walk, Randazzo was allowed to surrender following his recent 11-count federal indictment on bribery and fraud charges.
“You, on the other hand, would have been frog-hopped into a police van — live — on TikTok.”
Among the judges' comments: