Ohio’s State house has become a three-ring circus
If you enjoy a circus, the Ohio’s Statehouse offers three rings, with anti-consumer and pro-gun acts. (Funny thing: Pro-Life legislators seem unfazed by the Pro-Death role handguns play in Ohio suicides and fatal firearms accidents.)
Ring 1: The destinedto-fail stunt by four House Republicans, two of them lame ducks, seeking to impeach Republican Gov. Mike DeWine because they think his antiCOVID-19 measures are an unconstitutional power grab. Failing for 20-plus years to fix Ohio’s unconstitutional school funding “system” is OK. But DeWine’s quest to save Ohioans’ lives? Hey, that crosses a line.
The impeachment‘s GOP sponsors are Rep. John Becker, a lame duck from suburban Cincinnati’s Clermont County; Rep. Candice Keller, another lame duck, from Middletown; Rep. Nino Vitale, of Urbana; and Rep. Paul Zeltwanger of Warren County’s Mason.
Earlier this year, Clermont County voters defeated Becker’s bid for the GOP nomination for county commissioner.
And voters in the 4th Senate District rejected Keller’s bid for the GOP nomination for state senator. After 2019’s killings in Dayton’s Oregon neighborhood, Keller said in a Facebook post that “homosexual marriage, and drag queen advocates … violent video games … acceptance of recreational marijuana” are partly to blame for mass murders.
The pro-impeachment quartet represents counties that heavily backed President Trump. And when American Independent Party segregationist George C. Wallace of Alabama ran for president in 1968, he drew roughly 12% of Ohio’s statewide vote. But Wallace drew 25% of Warren County’s vote, his best showing in an Ohio county; 24% of Clermont’s; 19% of Butler’s.
Becker represents part of Clermont; Keller represents part of Butler; Zeltwanger represents parts of Warren and Butler. Any surprise some Republicans in those areas still have a tough time accepting the 20th century, let alone the 21st?
Ring 2: The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has a vacancy because then-Chair Samuel Randazzo resigned to spare DeWine a distraction while DeWine fights the pandemic. Randazzo hasn’t — repeat, hasn’t — been accused of any wrongdoing. But the resignation followed an FBI search of his house in Columbus.
In 1982, the legislature (Democratic-run House, Republican-run Senate) passed a PUCO “reform” designed to defeat a statewide ballot issue that would have let Ohio voters elect PUCO members. That legislature’s maneuver requires governors to pick qualified PUCO appointees from a list compiled by a nominating council. Lists of PUCO prospects sent to governors always seem to include a person that governor was rumored to want on the PUCO. At the Vatican, that’d qualify as a miracle. In Columbus, it’s business as usual. That “process” gives governors political cover for one of the most significant appointments he (someday, she) makes. And as Ohioans’ electric bills remind them, governors don’t appoint boat-rockers to the PUCO; somehow, they’re never … qualified.
Ring 3: The legislature continues to stall repeal of House Bill 6, the 2019 bill that sparked federal corruption indictments, to bail out Lake County’s Perry nuclear power plant and Ottawa County’s Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, plants FirstEnergy Corp. once owned.
Pending in a House committee is HB 798, to postpone — not repeal — HB 6. Whether a postponement will pass is anyone’s guess. But outright repeal is the only sure way to protect consumers.
If the legislature doesn’t repeal HB 6, here’s the message that’ll send: It doesn’t matter who spent how much, on whom or what, to pass HB 6. After all, “Money,” as legendary California Assembly Speaker Jesse (Big Daddy) Unruh said, “is the mother’s milk of politics.”
By that standard, HB 6 suggests that Ohio’s Statehouse is a dairy barn.