Still, in two- or three weeks, many, like the Terminator, will be back. They’ll return to Columbus, resuming the Capitol Square fire-sale of Ohio’s assets to the oil-and-gas lobby (really, who needs state parks?) and the hounding of transsexual Ohioans, and refugees. True, there are glimmers of hope: Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has finally said aloud what’s long been obvious: As long as DeWine’s governor (he’ll leave office in January 2027), Ohio won’t execute anyone.
On the policy side of state government, there are things to fault about DeWine’s stewardship. But as to the death penalty, and the governor’s defense of Springfield’s Haitian refugees, history will judge Mike DeWine with respect.
Not so the General Assembly, which, unless it reaches a come-to-the-altar moment, has long been an embarrassment, thanks in part to the idiocy of term-limits and to ... well ... idiocy in general.
The House Bill 6 scandal (2019′s passage by the legislature of a ratepayer-funded bailout of FirstEnergy Corp.), but for the sheer scope of that rip-off, is – as far as Statehouse pat-a-cake with campaign donors goes – not necessarily an outlier.
(Footnote: Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican expected to become House speaker next month, voted “yes” on HB 6; Sen. Rob McColley, of Napoleon, southwest of Toledo, expected to succeed Huffman as Senate president, voted “no” on HB 6.)
Also at issue are the Statehouse bonds Republicans have fashioned, and are tightening, with self-identified Christians by pouring public money into church-related schools and by requiring Ohio’s 600-plus school boards to allow public school pupils released-time during the school day for religious instruction.
Current Ohio allows, but doesn’t require, school boards to do so. That is, General Assembly Republicans may deny taxpayers local control of their schools, just as GOP legislators have already fettered city and village home rule, which is – correction, has been – a keystone of the Ohio Constitution. These are the same “conservatives” who decry “big government.”
What’s really at issue isn’t Statehouse deference to faith – each General Assembly voting session opens with prayer – but deference to a focused bloc of voters in Ohio Republicans’ primaries. GOP primaries, not November elections, are where, effectively, many General Assembly seats are filled.
According to Gallup, “Two decades ago, an average of 42% of U.S. adults attended religious services every week or nearly every week. A decade ago, the figure fell to 38%, and it is currently at 30%.” On Sundays, more and more Americans seem to prefer La-Z-Boys to pews. Mandating released-time instruction won’t change that.
On private-school vouchers, forget for the moment – many legislators have – what Ohio’s constitution says: “No religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state.”
The GOP majority in Ohio’s 135th General Assembly seemed to think it should legislate as if Ohioans are still living in the 1950s, when father knew best, everyone loved Lucy, and an army of blue collar workers toted lunchpails to factories and mills. That was yesterday’s Ohio, not today’s. A representative legislature would take notice. Ohio’s hasn’t.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.
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