Vice President Joe Biden calls SB 5 vote a victory for the middle class at stop in Euclid

[The Straight Story]

Vice President Joe Biden calls SB 5 vote a victory for the middle class at stop in Euclid

EUCLID, Ohio -- President Barack Obama, heartened by last week's ballot-box repeal of a state law that aimed to overhaul labor rules for public employees, launched his 2012 Ohio campaign via proxy here Tuesday.


Vice President Joe Biden and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis met with firefighters in this inner-ring Cleveland suburb and spoke to about 500 supporters crammed into Fire Station No. 2.

The event -- treated as a political rally, not as official White House business -- was the first Ohio stop for the president's re-election team. The timing of the visit signaled Democrats' renewed optimism in an always crucial swing state that Obama won by four points in 2008.

Firefighters were among the large coalition that united this year to defeat Senate Bill 5, the Republican-backed law. Issue 2, as it was known on the ballot, failed 61 percent to 39 percent.

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/11/vice_president_joe_biden_calls.html