Householder's sinister plot shows 'vulnerability' of Ohio Constitution | Frank LaRose

Just weeks before the FBI arrested Larry Householder on federal corruption charges, the then-speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives was plotting another scheme.

This one would allow him to extend his term in office — and presumably keep his powerful grip on the speaker’s gavel — for 16 more years.

Householder planned to call it Ohioans for Legislative Term Limits, a deceptive name for a constitutional amendment that would more than double his term in office. It should come as no surprise that FirstEnergy Corporation, the company at the center of Householder’s racketeering scandal, agreed to bankroll the amendment campaign.

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Given the speaker’s powerful position, opposing the effort would’ve been difficult.

Fortunately, the scheme died with Householder’s arrest and eventual conviction, but it demonstrates the vulnerability of Ohio’s founding document, our state constitution. All it takes to ratify an amendment is a well-funded, dishonest political campaign and a simple majority vote.

It shouldn’t be that easy.

Many years ago as a state senator and again last fall, I proposed a solution to raise the vote threshold needed to amend the state constitution to 60 percent.

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The idea is pretty simple: an act as serious as amending our founding document should require broad, bipartisan consensus. The United States Constitution can’t be amended without agreement from 75 percent of the states.

Likewise, if an idea isn’t popular enough to unify three-fifths of Ohio voters, it doesn’t belong in our state constitution.

This shouldn’t be controversial, but partisan activists have resorted to hysterical hyperbole, as though I’ve proposed the end of democracy itself. These protests almost always come from those who know they can’t get 60 percent of Ohioans to agree on their political ideology, and it’s nothing new.

To borrow a line from the great American poet and philosopher Billy Joel, I didn’t start the fire. It’s been burning for a while.

Well-funded special interest groups have tried for decades to amend their political agendas and even business models into our state constitution.

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These attempts to bypass our legislative process should be a unique exception, not the norm. That’s why, six years ago, a bipartisan committee of public policy and legal experts recommended that Ohio raise its constitutional amendment threshold to 55 percent. Committee members noted at the time that only one of 12 citizen-initiated amendments, casino gambling, received less than 55 percent of the vote and most received more than 60 percent.

As Ohio’s chief elections officer, I’m concerned that failing to raise this bar will result in a never-ending parade of constitutional amendment campaigns.

Already this year, we’re facing a potential effort to amend abortion rights and a minimum wage increase into our state constitution. Before we vote on these issues, we should decide on whether to raise the amendment threshold.

The General Assembly is currently considering a resolution to put that question before Ohio voters on an August ballot. Last year, I asked lawmakers to eliminate August special elections because, instead of being used for exceptions and emergencies, local governments too often used them to hike taxes when no one’s looking. A statewide vote on protecting our constitution is a unique exception. Given the passionate debate around the amendments currently being circulated, I have no doubt Ohioans will turn out in record numbers.

If they choose to keep the amendment threshold at a simple majority vote, so be it.

Just remember that Larry Householder and FirstEnergy almost got away with a scheme to amend our constitution and keep control of the Statehouse for 16 more years. Imagine what they could have done.

Changing our founding document shouldn’t be that easy.

Frank LaRose is Ohio's secretary of state.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: LaRose: Sinister plot shows why Ohio constitution must change