Ohio lawmakers’ unscrupulous 2023
Back in 2021, experts said the bribery scandal that finally sent former House Speaker Larry Householder to the slammer this pass June helped make Ohio the number one state in the nation for public corruption.
Upping Larry was seemingly on the minds our most power-thirsty elected leaders in 2023.
That would explain why they schemed, hoodwinked and bamboozled with all their might during a misguided quest to earn Ohio the dishonor of being the nation’s most antidemocratic state of 2023.
Thanks to voters, they had to sashay away (for now at least) without that crown. We recognized the antic of out of touch Republicans plotting to rule the Statehouse with an iron fist of intolerance for what they were.
The flim-flam and sleight of hand designed to suppress the will of public — Democrats, Independents and yes, Republicans — was soundly rejected.
A very busy year for the unscrupulous
It is amazing that they had so much time to try to crush democracy. But bad golly, Miss Molly did they.
When Republican politicians weren’t rigging voting districts against the will of the people and attacking DEI, knowledge, and most recently vulnerable trans children (urge Gov. Mike DeWine to veto House Bill 68), they busied themselves trying to convince Ohio voters they know what’s best generally and for wombs specifically.
It doesn’t matter that many of these same “authorities” on the female reproductive system cringe at the thought of female menstruation and have never heard the word “ova.”
With all this in mind, below are the top four times in 2023 Ohio lawmakers tried to pull a fast one on Ohioans and failed.
1) Aimed daggers at the heart of our democracy
Ohio’s flipped its travel and tourism slogan back to
“The Heart of its All” just in time for GOP lawmakers to try to drive an ice pick into our democracy with Issue 1.
It found its way on the single-issue August special election only months after lawmakers and Secretary of State Frank LaRose pushed for an end to most special August elections.
The Reason: special elections are typically too costly and voter turnout is low.
They tried to catch Ohioans sleeping and it blew up in their faces.
If voters hadn’t seen though the hypocrisy, antiabortion lawmakers would have successfully murdered the 111-year-old right Ohio voters have to majority rule when it comes to citizen-led constitutional amendments. Moreover, it would have made it all but impossible for voters to get constitutional amendments like the one on abortion passed in November on the ballot.
Voter turnout far exceeded expectations. The cost — $20 million and a bunch of sold souls — did not.
2) Frank LaRose and his shell game
Ohio’s chief elections officer worked overtime in 2023 to suppress voters rights. It was particularly sinister that LaRose chirped out of both sides of his month about August’s Issue 1.
He wrote two Dispatch guest columns claiming the amendment was about protecting Ohio’s constitution from outside special interest groups and from corrupt players like Householder.
At a Lincoln Day dinner in June — presumably when he thought he was out of ear shot of the masses —, LaRose told the truth.
He admitted Issue 1 was about keeping voters from deciding if abortion access should be enshrined in
Ohio’s constitution.
3) Threatening the second branch of government
To flip things on their head perhaps, truth telling was oddly the name of the game after voters approved the abortion and reproductive rights constitutional amendment and the legal adult-use marijuana initiated statute in November.
Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, made it clear that he very much did not respect the will of the voters on either issue even though both issues were approved by about 57% as predicted by poll after poll.
“This isn’t the end. It is really just the beginning of a revolving door of ballot campaigns to repeal or replace Issue 1,” Huffman said. Issue 1 in November was the abortion amendment.
Despite how loudly Ohioans spoke with their votes, House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, said the abortion conversation was not over.
I will have to give it to Stephens for squashing a squad of lawmakers’ ill-conceived plan to strip the judicial branch of its constitutional right to rule on cases involving abortion access.
“This is Schoolhouse Rock-type stuff. We need to make sure that we have the three branches of the government,” he said.
4) Sneakily trying to make weed go up in smoke
Days before marijuana was to be made legal, Ohio senators and Gov. Mike DeWine tried to sneak changes by voters that would have effectively gutted Issue 2 as it was approved in November.
Their original plan would have stripped out the right to grow marijuana at home, significantly increase the tax rate, shift who gets the proceeds from the state’s new legal marijuana program and restrict the use of marijuana to private residences, among other things.
After much public outcry from rural, suburban and urban voters alike, some — not all — of the proposed changes were dialed back.
Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, introduced a bill that is far closer to what voters approved in Issue 2. We will see what Stephens and the House does.
Stay tuned and keep your eyes open. There are bound to be big shenanigans in 2024.
If voters hadn’t seen though the hypocrisy, anti-abortion lawmakers would have successfully murdered the 111-year-old right Ohio voters have to majority rule when it comes to citizen-led constitutional amendments.