Democratic senator leaves hearing over lack of masks

COLUMBUS » An Ohio Democratic state senator said Wednesday he left a committee hearing because so many members of the public weren’t wearing masks.

Sen. Cecil Thomas, a second-term lawmaker from Cincinnati, tweeted a picture showing several people in the Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee without masks. At the time, the committee was hearing a Republican proposal to limit the governor’s powers to issue public health orders.

“We are in the middle of a pandemic with a virus that is highly transmittable,” Thomas said in his tweet. “My daughter has a severely compromised immune system and I won’t sit there and put her health at risk.”

Though the committee room was set up for social distancing with some chairs turned around to make them unavailable, some members of the public just turned the chairs around and sat down, said committee chairperson Sen. Kristina Roegner, a Republican from Hudson in northeastern Ohio. Chairs will be removed in the future to only allow a set number of people in the room.

“I appreciate the interest and willingness of people wanting to testify about this important bill,” Roegner said.

Across the Senate, staffers are being instructed to remove chairs from committee hearing rooms in similar fashion to only allow the maximum number of people in a room that ensures social distancing, said Senate President Matthew Huffman, a Lima Republican. No standing will be allowed.

“I think that will minimize, but certainly not completely eliminate the concerns,” said Huffman, who contracted the coronavirus late last year and experienced mild symptoms.

The bill allowing lawmakers to rescind a governor’s public health orders is similar to one Republican Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed last year and stems from GOP frustration at several of DeWine’s orders —like a statewide mask order and the current 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The bill will reduce the “chaos” associated with the multiple orders in the past year, Huffman said.

The goal is “to allow governor to do these things in a state of emergency, but then have some analysis,” Huffman said.

Mask wearing has been a partisan issue in state legislatures nationally and in Ohio for months, with many Republicans declining to wear masks, while some Democrats have unsuccessfully pushed measures to require them in the General Assembly.

In Ohio’s Republican-controlled House on Wednesday, GOP lawmakers — many without masks —rejected Democratic motions to require Statehouse staff to wear masks and to allow virtual testimony on bills, including by lawmakers.

“My daughter has a severely compromised immune system and I won’t sit there and put her health at risk.” — Ohio Sen. Cecil Thomas

“Barring virtual testimony, refusing to require masks and stifling opposing voices is antithetical to our role as the People’s House,” said Rep. Emilia Sykes of Akron, the top House Democrat.

House Speaker Bob Cupp, a Republican also from Lima, said the virtual testimony motion was premature and left a lot of questions for members, including the logistics of virtual voting. Cupp also questioned whether the Statehouse has the proper infrastructure to support widespread virtual testimony.

While he himself wears a mask when on the House floor and encourage members to do so, Cupp said he can’t enforce a rule on other members to do the same.

“Obviously there is a wide divergence of opinion about wearing masks and I would say the vast majority of members of the House, whether they wear masks or not, do not want a rule forcing everybody else to do that,” he said.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new coronavirus cases in Ohio did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 6,160 new cases per day on Jan. 19 to 4,260 new cases per day on Feb. 2.