Fight to get new House speaker still ugly
High school student council campaigns have more dignity than the Ohio House’s speakership fight. The GOP holds hold 65 seats in the 99-seat House (plus the vacant seat Republican ex-Speaker Clifford A. Rosenberger held). But House Republicans can’t govern their way out of a paper bag. We’re talking Profiles in Jell-O. And House Republicans’ deadlock has real-world consequences for Ohioans.
First and foremost is House Bill 123, to protect Ohio borrowers who take out payday loans. Its sponsors are Reps. Kyle Koehler, a Springfield Republican, and Michael Ashford, a Toledo Democrat. A committee chaired by Rep. Louis Blessing III, a suburban Cincinnati Republican, sat on the Koehler-Ashford bill for 13 months, then approved it 9-1 on April 19.
But the last time the House passed any bills at all was April 11. And if the deadlock continues, it could also delay updating Ohio’s aging election equipment.
Here’s what the state’s chief elections officer, Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, wrote in December: “The last time Ohio replaced its voting machines, the iPhone hadn’t been released, people still rented movies from Blockbuster, and social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat didn’t exist.”
Husted, according to a bullet-point list from his office, believes “it is important to have new machines in time for the 2020 presidential election (and that) ... new voting machines should be in place and operating (in time for) the 2019 elec- tion” so voters and election officials get used to the new gear before 2020. Husted wants the state to provide, statewide, new precinct count optical scan (PCOS) voting machines, his office indicated.
On April 11, the Senate passed SB 135, sponsored by Sen. Frank LaRose, a Hudson Republican the GOP’s nominee for secretary of state. (The Democratic nominee is Rep. Kathleen Clyde, of Kent.) As passed by the Senate, the bill’s estimated costs, the non-partisan Legislative Service Commission reported, is $114.5 million. The House Finance Committee unanimously approved LaRose’s bill last week, poising it for a House vote – if the Ohio House were voting on any bills. Which it’s not.
Reason: Rosenberger, from Clinton County’s Clarksville, resigned in April. And House rules appear to forbid the House to pass bills when the speakership is vacant. The House may change the pertinent rules this week.
When Rosenberger resigned, he said he believes himself under federal investigation. In mid-May, FBI agents searched Rosenberger’s Clarksville home and a storage locker in nearby Wilmington. The FBI is said to be probing a junket Rosenberger took to London. The junket included payday loan lobbyists. In fairness, travel broaden the mind, according to the old saying.
Rosenberger would have had to leave the House on Dec. 31 because of term-limits. Two Republicans were already jockeying to succeed him: ex-Speaker Larry Householder, of Perry County’s Glenford, and Rep. Ryan Smith, of Gallia County’s Bidwell. Rosenberger’s resignation sped things up.
Smith says he has 40-some votes from among the 65 House Republicans. Becoming speaker now might give him a jump on Householder, who in January could have the votes to become speaker (if House Republican candidates he supported in May’s primary win House seats in November). For now, Householder is in Somebody-Besides-Smith mode.
At this writing, the House is supposed to decide whether to make Smith or someone else speaker (through Dec. 31) or rewrite rules so Speaker pro tempore Kirk Schuring, a suburban Canton Republican, can lead the House (also through Dec. 31). There’ll be even more Statehouse show biz this week, but the real issue, the only issue, is power: Who gets it. How it’s used.
The last time the House passed any bills at all was April 11. And if the deadlock continues, it could also delay updating Ohio’s aging election equipment.