SUDDES: Time for constitutional reform of secretary of state’s office

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.

Credit: LARRY HAMEL-LAMBERT

Credit: LARRY HAMEL-LAMBERT

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.

Last week’s score in Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s frantic quest for a U.S. Senate seat: Drag Shows, 1; LaRose, 0.

That’s one way to interpret last Sunday’s Ohio Supreme Court ruling in a case originating northwest of Columbus, in Logan County’s seat, Bellefontaine (“bell fountain”), best known for having the oldest concrete street in America (1893).

Last year, “a drag queen dressed as an elf” took part in the city’s Christmas parade. (You have to wonder how that image went over with our stodgy Supreme Court.)

That gender-bending seemingly prompted circulation of a petition proposing a Bellefontaine anti-drag ordinance. It would have forbidden holding drag shows on public property “or any location viewable by a minor,” or admitting minors to drag shows “appealing to sexual interests.” No word about fashion-sense or minimum sequin-count.

Foes of the proposed ordinance challenged its eligibility for the ballot because the anti-drag forces, after gathering enough signatures, changed wording on the petitions’ cover pages. The Logan County Board of Election deadlocked 2-2 on the cover-page challenge, which then landed the dispute on LaRose’s desk. (Ohio’s secretary of state breaks election boards’ ties.)

LaRose, an Upper Arlington Republican, decided to keep the anti-drag ordinance on Bellefontaine’s ballot. Opponents of the ordinance sued. And by a 7-0 vote, the Supreme Court (which is 4-3 Republican) reversed LaRose and killed the proposal.

(The whole episode called to mind the antics of an earlier Ohio secretary of state, Republican Ted W. Brown, who in 1972 refused to allow incorporation of the Greater Cincinnati Gay Society on public policy grounds, a decision disgracefully upheld 4-3 in 1974 by Ohio’s Supreme Court even though the legislature by then had decriminalized sexual activity between consenting adults.)

Ohio election laws are complicated, and secretaries of state – Ohio’s chief elections officers – besides being required to break election boards’ ties, issue all manner of election directives, help tinker with the wording of statewide ballot issue summaries, etc. Ohio’s secretaries of state also oversee the incorporation of businesses and the like, something that could just as readily be done by the state Commerce Department, a Cabinet agency reporting to Gov. Mike DeWine.

De facto, the secretary of state’s duties mean that whoever holds that office draws tons of publicity. Thus, LaRose is likely No. 3 in statewide politics’ ink-and-airtime sweepstakes, behind only fellow Republicans (No. 2) Attorney General David Yost and (No. 1) DeWine.

Moreover, by the very fact of being chief elections officer, an Ohio secretary of state oversees his or her own campaigns’ election law compliance and for that matter a campaign for any other office he or she might seek.

LaRose is now seeking Republicans’ U.S. Senate nomination for a seat now held by Cleveland Democrat Sherrod Brown. Republicans competing with LaRose for the senatorial nomination are state Sen. Matt Dolan, of Chagrin Falls, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians, and Colombia-born Bernie Moreno of Westlake, a successful entrepreneur.

Unlikely though it is, it’s time for the legislature to consider constitutional reform of Ohio’s secretary of state’s office to nudge it into the 21st century. One option: Requiring elections to that job to be held in odd-numbered (i.e., non-statewide-election) years.

Another could be to forbid an incumbent secretary of state to run for another office until “x” years after leaving the secretary’s job. Arguably, letting an incumbent secretary run for another office is like appointing the quarterback of one of the teams competing in a football game to be its referee. Government-wise, that could induce political temptations and (more) publicity stunts, two of the last things Ohio’s Statehouse needs.

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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