Ohio is ready for female leadership at Statehouse
Don’t cry for her, Ohio: Hillary Rodham Clinton — lawyer; senator; secretary of state; mom; wife, and, oh yes, Democrat — is running hard for president.
Whether the Evita of the Ozarks will or won’t win the 2016 Democratic nomination, then the White House, is anyone’s guess.
If she does move into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., it might be with Ohio’s help. Clinton won Ohio’s 2008 Democratic presidential primary, though Clinton’s rival — fellow Democrat Barack Obama — ran strongly well in Ohio. And Obama was nominated and elected.
Given the craftiness of Hillary and Bill Clinton, it’s little wonder that the national group boosting Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy is called Ready for Hillary. And, in truth, the United States is past due for a female president.
If Golda Meir could lead Israel (as, valiantly, she did) and if Margaret Thatcher could transform Britain (as, for good or for ill, she did) then yes, the White House is ready for Hillary or any other capable candidate for president, of either party, who happens to be a woman.
Calling that to mind is a column, published here a couple weeks ago, on possible candidates for governor of Ohio in 2018.
That column, in a clueless oversight, failed to mention that Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, a suburban Akron Republican who earlier served as state auditor, is a possible 2018 contender for the governorship. Taylor, a CPA, a former Ohio House member, is director of Ohio’s Insurance Department and thus a member of the Cabinet of her fellow Republican, and running mate, Gov. John R. Kasich.
Ohio, lamentably, has yet to elect a female governor. For that matter, neither the Ohio Democratic Party nor the Ohio Republican Party has yet to nominate a woman for governor.
This year, obviously, win or lose, Gov. John R. Kasich, the Republican incumbent, is the GOP candidate. His Democratic challenger is Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald. If Kasich wins a second term, the Ohio Constitution forbids him to seek a third consecutive term. So the 2018 Republican gubernatorial nomination would be up for grabs.
As that earlier column indicated, and assuming they’re re-elected this year, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, and Secretary of State Jon Husted, both suburban Dayton Republicans, may run for governor in 2018. So too may State Treasurer Josh Mandel, a Lyndhurst Republican and U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was Ohio Republicans’ 2012 U.S. Senate nominee. Mandel failed to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
As to male-female equity in politics, Ohio actually had a decent start. It was the first state to elect a woman to a state Supreme Court, Greater Cleveland’s Florence Allen. Today, Ohio’s Supreme Court is composed of four women, including Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, and three men.
Almost as soon as women secured the right to vote in 1920, Ohioans elected women to the General Assembly. Beginning in 1940, voters repeatedly sent Greater Cleveland Republican Frances Payne Bolton to Congress.
Then momentum seemed to fizzle. Not till 1970 did Ohio elect a woman to statewide executive office (Democratic State Treasurer Gertrude Donahey).
And not until 1995 did a woman, Republican Jo Ann Davidson, now Ohio Casino Control Commission chair, become speaker of the Ohio House. Every House speaker since Davidson, term-limited out of the House in December 2000, has been male. And that boys’ club known as the Ohio Senate has yet to elect a woman to be Senate president.
That’s why, whether Ohio is or isn’t ready for Hillary, Ohio is ready for something approaching real diversity in its Statehouse — more than ready.