State Supreme Court races could affect districts after 2020

CThomas Suddes

ampaign donations have consequences. And last week’s Ohio campaign finance filings are revealing. A General Assembly member who wants to become (or stay) Ohio Senate president or Ohio House speaker (along with the governorship, Ohio’s most powerful jobs) can donate some of her or his cash to other legislators, who’d be expected to elect their generous pal Senate president or House speaker. Finance filings are one barometer of who’s where in the horse race.

Senate President Larry Obhof, a Medina Republican, reported raising $99,189 and a campaign fund balance of $161,524. But due to term limits, he must leave the Senate in December 2020.

Sen. Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican who wants to be the next Senate president, reported raising $444,744 and a campaign fund balance of $446,100. The only other GOP state senators reporting six-figure balances were Matt Dolan of Chagrin Falls, who reported raising $306,212 and a fund balance of $243,486; Jay Hottinger of Newark, who reported raising $77,880 and a fund balance of $161,140; and Lou Terhar of suburban Cincinnati, who reported raising $16,950 and a fund balance of $120,299. It looks as if the Senate’s next president may be from Lima.

The Friends of Larry Householder committee for the Republican House speaker of Perry County’s Glenford reported it had raised $1.42 million and had a roughly equal fund balance. Among 16 donations of $13,292 each (Ohio’s annual limit for a person’s or PAC’S donations to a General Assembly candidate) were donations from PACS for health insurer Anthem and the Ohio State Medical Association as well as from PACS for contractors, CPAS, hospitals and Realtors; and for members of the unions representing firefighters, public school employees and operating engineers. Many operating engineers work on highway projects — likely to increase, thanks to Ohio’s gas tax increase.

In theory, Democrats could wrest Ohio’s House from Republicans. But the GOP likely has a lock on the state Senate. And bigcheck donations shouldn’t be a shock. The legendary Democratic speaker of the California Assembly, Jesse “Big Daddy” Unruh said, “'Money is the mother's milk of politics.” (Unruh, a rootin’ tootin’ liberal, also said this, according to biographer James R. Mills: “The biggest difference between the zealots on the left and those on the right is that the ones on the right smell better.”)

Next year, besides electing or re-electing a president, Ohioans also will elect 16 U.S. House members, 99 Ohio House members and half of the state Senate’s 33 members. Also on 2020’s ballot: Two of the Ohio Supreme Court’s seven seats, now held by Republican Justices Judith L. French of suburban Columbus and Sharon L. Kennedy of Butler County.

Including French and Kennedy, Ohio’s sevenmember Supreme Court now has five Republican justices and two Democrats. If, in 2020, Ohio Democrats’ Supreme Court candidates unseated French and Kennedy, the court, now 5-2 Republican, would become 4-3 Democratic.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that federal courts may not block gerrymandering by the states. But that ruling implied that state courts may block gerrymanders.

After 2020’s Census, Ohio will redraw its congressional and General Assembly districts. That’s why, amid the shrieks and yelps of Ohio’s 2020 presidential ballyhoo, Ohio’s statewide Supreme Court campaigns will be less visible. But they’ll be high-stakes.

In 2015, Ohio voters amended the Ohio Constitution to reform the way that Ohio draws General Assembly districts (“apportionment”). Among other features, the 2015 apportionment reform says, “The Supreme Court of Ohio shall have exclusive, original jurisdiction in all cases arising under this [reapportionment] article.”

In 2018, Ohio voters amended the Ohio Constitution to reform the way that Ohio draws congressional districts (“redistricting”). Among other features, the 2018 redistricting reform says, “The Supreme Court of Ohio shall have exclusive, original jurisdiction in all cases arising under this [redistricting] article.”

And the voters of Ohio pick the seven justices of the Ohio Supreme Court.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com