Door closing on statewide ballots; who snuck in?
A few surprises may be in store at today’s deadline for candidates to file for statewide office.
For instance, two more Democrats apparently are joining the race for Ohio governor, bringing the total to seven. And four announced candidates for the state’s top office have yet to actually file — including Republican Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and Democrats Connie Pillich and Joe Schiavoni, although all say they will.
A new entrant, Cleveland physician Jon Heavey, said he will file his candidacy petition Wednesday, while Paul Ray, a little-known newcomer from Alliance, already has filed to make the May 8 Democratic ballot, according to the secretary of state’s office.
It will be several days before elections officials validate petition signatures and confirm whether the candidates are official.
Heavey, who declined to comment on how serious an effort he will mount, has loaned his campaign $1.5 million, according to campaign finance filings.
The Rocky River resident practices at the Cleveland Clinic. In 2007 and 2008, as an Army surgeon with the rank of major, he has deployed to Iraq. He also holds a master’s degree in business from the Yale School of Management, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Heavey and Ray, who could not be reached, join a race already crowded with experienced candidates.
Former U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, who raised $2 million in 57 days, ex-Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O’Neill and former congressman and Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich filed Tuesday afternoon.
The campaigns of Pillich, a former state representative from suburban Cincinnati, and Schiavoni, a state senator from suburban Youngstown, said they would file Wednesday.
On the GOP side, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has filed for governor. Taylor won’t file until Wednesday, her campaign said.
A Green Party candidate for governor, Constance Gadell-Newton, also has filed.
Wednesday also is the filing deadline for U.S. Senate and Congress, including the glut of hopefuls seeking the 12th District seat of former GOP Rep. Pat Tiberi.
The Ohio Republican Party’s candidate screening committee will meet in private Wednesday night to consider endorsements. The party’s State Central Committee is scheduled to meet Friday to consider those recommendations.
Candidates who also have filed for other statewide offices:
Attorney General — Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, a Republican, and former U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach, a Democrat
Auditor — Former U.S. Rep. Zack Space, a Democrat from Dover, and Ohio Rep. Keith Faber, R-Celina
Secretary of State — Ohio Rep. Kathleen Clyde, D-Kent
Treasurer — Sandra O’Brien, an Ashtabula County Republican; Rep. Robert Sprague, R-Findlay; and Rob Richardson, a Cincinnati Democrat
Supreme Court — Justice Mary DeGenaro, a Youngstown Republican, and Craig Baldwin, a Licking County Republican, Melody Stewart and Michael Donnelly, both Cuyahoga County Democrats
A citizens’ group pushing the most recent plan to create a ward-based Columbus City Council and limit campaign contributions wants its issue on the May primary ballot.
Everyday People for Positive Change delivered more than 42,000 petition signatures in support of its proposed charter amendment to the Columbus city clerk on Tuesday. The group needs nearly 18,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot.
The initiative, though, still might face a substantial hurdle: Former city attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer wrote a memo to council members last year, saying the proposal violates the city charter’s “single-subject requirement.”
“We won’t be bullied out of our constitutional right,” said Jonathan Beard, the organization’s treasurer.
Beard said his group’s attorneys interpret the case law that Pfeiffer cited differently, and intend to sue if the city won’t allow the initiative on the ballot. The council will have to act by early March after the Franklin County Board of Elections certifies the signatures or risk forcing a special election, he said.
Under city law, petitions can contain only one proposal. They cannot address “multiple or unrelated subject matters or questions of law.”
Council President Shannon G. Hardin said the council will wait for an opinion from new City Attorney Zach Klein, the former council president who was elected city attorney in November, before deciding whether to put the proposal on the ballot.
The group’s proposal is a comprehensive overhaul of the way the council handles elections, Beard said. It would expand the council, divide most seats into districts, institute term limits for council members, limit campaign spending and create new rules for appointing members to vacant seats.
Under the proposal, the seven-member council would expand to 13 seats. Instead of electing every member at-large, voters in 10 districts would elect their own representative and the remaining three members would be voted on citywide.
Two of the districts would have a majority black population, he said.
District boundaries would be drawn by an apportionment board appointed by the council under requirements outlined in the proposed charter amendment. The group included a map of the initial district borders in the proposal because it faced criticism for not having a map during the 2016 campaign for a similar ballot initiative, Beard said.
That proposed charter amendment overwhelmingly failed in a special election in August 2016, after facing an opposition campaign by the Franklin County Democratic Party, which holds every elected office in City Hall.
“Columbus residents have repeatedly opposed Mr. Beard’s proposal in the past to divide up the city,” Hardin said. “I don’t think this proposal is any different from that. However, I don’t think the city shies away from important conversations like governance.”
The latest proposal also would cap campaign contributions from political parties at $5,000 and from corporations and individuals, including money from other candidates, at $1,000. The city currently does not have any limit on campaign contributions.
Beard said the group learned from its mistakes during the 2016 campaign. The city came up with its own proposal after that campaign, appointing a charter-review committee that recommended the city add two members to the council, and divide into districts while continuing to elect members citywide.
The committee’s plan was pulled last summer, though, as the council decided whether to place it on the November ballot.
“The last time, we knocked on the door,” Beard said. “This time, we are going to kick it in.”