COLUMBUS — The General Assembly’s marathon Dec. 14-15 session, which ended close to dawn, may or may not be one for the record books for the greatest volume of hot air ever exhaled in a confined space.
But there was at least one notable feature amid the dreck: The Senate’s attempt to ram through a combined 2,188-page bill to give Republican Gov. Mike DeWine control of the state Education Department — and to forbid transgender girls to play on scholastic sports’ female teams.
Giving the governor control of the state Education Department (to be renamed the Education and Workforce Department) would make the State Board of Education and state superintendent of public instruction, which the board hires, fundamentally irrelevant to what goes on in Ohio’s K-12 classrooms and career centers. And truth to be told, that’s pretty much exactly what Substitute House Bill 151 aims for — pushing aside or at least shaking up the state’s education bureaucracy.
The sausage-grinding that crafted HB 151 is a dismal but fairly common Statehouse procedure: Lashing two bills together to get them passed as a package.
In this instance, the key feature was that state Senate Republicans evidently thought they had a deal with House Republicans to pass the combined bill. Trouble is, either someone didn’t tell enough House Republicans, or a lot of them were in an independent mood: That’s because 11 House Republicans voted “nay,” as did all House Democrats present, on the Education Department/transgender athletes’ bill.
Result: With 50 House ayes required, and 11 House Republicans opposed, HB 151 only drew 46 “ayes,” killing the measure. Technically, the bill could be revived by a Senate-House conference committee, but that’d have to happen by Dec. 31, which is highly unlikely. Barring that, the bills will have to start their dreary procession through the Statehouse all over again in 2023.
The 11 House Republicans who voted “nay” on the Senate’s version of jury-rigged HB 151 were Reps. Thomas Brinkman, of Cincinnati; Bill Dean, of Xenia; Ron Ferguson, of Wintersville; Sarah Fowler Arthur, of Ashtabula; Jennifer Gross, of West Chester; Mark Johnson, of Chillicothe; Kris Jordan, of Ostrander; Jena Powell, of Laura; Jean Schmidt, of Loveland; Dick Stein of Norwalk; and Rep. Derek Merrin, of suburban Toledo. Merrin is expected to become House Republicans’ leader (House speaker) on Jan. 3.
If a tune ran through the minds of Senate Republicans after House Republicans torpedoed HB 151, it probably wasn’t “Kumbaya.” When the 2023 General Assembly session gets going, relations among Republicans — who run both the state Senate and the Ohio House — could prove lively.
The dynamics of the new, 2023-24 session will itself be unusual. First off, Merrin must leave the House in December 2024 because of term limits. That’ll make him a one-term speaker, which means that backroom politicking to succeed him in January 2025 has almost certainly begun, if only in winks and nods.
Also in December 2024, also because of term limits, Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican and a power player at the Statehouse, must leave the Senate, which suggests some internal politicking in that chamber, also in 2023 and 2024, over its future leadership.
During the arguably passive speakership of retiring House Speaker Robert Cupp, also a Lima Republican, Huffman de facto seems to have become the legislature’s go-to Republican. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out with 2023-24 Speaker-designate Merrin.
Add to those dynamics the fact that Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who turns 76 on Jan. 5, is also term-limited. On the one hand, that’ll limit the governor’s clout, but on the other hand, it gives DeWine more freedom than if he were facing re-election.
Example: There are 126 men and one woman awaiting execution on Ohio’s death row, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s most recent (October) monthly fact sheet.
DeWine hasn’t recently flat-out said whether he opposes or favors the death penalty; historically, he supported it. But Ohio hasn’t executed anybody since he became governor in January 2019.
And here’s what DeWine told Statehouse correspondents Dec. 15, The Columbus Dispatch reported: “We’ve had no executions, and I don’t anticipate any.”
Thomas Suddes, a member of the Cleveland.com editorial board, writes from Athens, where he works as an assistant instructor at Ohio University.. His column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
