Thomas Suddes: Sleeper House speaker threw wrench in how Ohio's gears and levers will work
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Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com
Ohio House Democrats helped elect a Republican to be House speaker Tuesday, in a demonstration that practical politics still run the Statehouse, unlike Washington’s made-for-TV bluster.
The 32 Democrats in the Ohio House joined 22 of the House’s 67 Republicans to cast 54 votes (of 50 needed) to elect Republican Rep. Jason Stephens, of Lawrence County’s Kitts Hill, House speaker for 2023 and 2024.
More:In a surprise move, Ohio House picks Jason Stephens as next speaker
With two Republicans absent, the remaining 43 House Republicans voted instead for suburban Toledo Republican Rep. Derek Merrin for speaker. In November, Merrin had won the GOP caucus’s backing for the speakership, but the vote that counted was Tuesday’s.
Two facts stand out
It’s unclear what specifically shifted in Stephens’s favor after November’s tally, but two demonstrable facts seemed to be in play. The first, revealed by Tuesday’s rollcall, is that a number of the House’s senior Republicans supported Stephens, rather than Merrin.
More:Four things to know about Ohio's new House speaker, Derek Merrin
The second fact is that, thanks to term-limits, had Merrin been elected speaker, he could only have served one, two-year term. But Stephens is eligible to serve three terms.
And the potential continuity of GOP leadership counts for a great deal in an Ohio House that, over the last eight ears, has had had four speakers and an acting speaker.
Who voted for Stephens and who didn't?
Besides Stephens himself, also voting to make him speaker were these other 21 House Republicans: Reps. Cindy Abrams, of suburban Cincinnati; Sara Carruthers, of Hamilton; Jon Cross, of Kenton; Al Cutrona, of Canfield; Jay Edwards, of Nelsonville; Haraz Ghanbari, of Perrysburg; Brett Hillyer, of Uhrichsville; Don Jones, of Freeport; Jeff LaRe, of Canal Winchester; Mike Loychik, of Cortland; Kevin Miller, of Newark; Scott Oelslager, of Canton; Thomas Patton, of Strongsville; Gail Pavliga, of Atwater; Bob Peterson, of Sabina; Tracy Richardson, of Marysville; Monica Robb Blasdel, of Columbiana; Jean Schmidt, of suburban Cincinnati; William G. Seitz, of Cincinnati; D.J. Swearingen, of Huron; and Bob Young, of North Canton. (Absent were Republican Reps. Adam Holmes, of Nashport, and Gayle Manning, of North Ridgeville).
Merrin and the House’s remaining 42 Republicans voted for Merrin for speaker.
Yes, as some yowls from Merrin supporters highlighted, in a 99-member House split between 67 Republicans and 32 Democrats, it was the 32 Democrats who were decisive in the election of a Republican speaker.
What if anything that means in terms of ideology is anyone’s guess, because in today’s General Assembly, the central day-to-day question isn’t conservatism vs. liberalism, but — thanks to term-limits — “What’s my next job?” And that make for very short-term thinking.
More:Who is Jason Stephens? The new Republican Speaker of the Ohio House
Nonetheless, it’s interesting that among those House Republicans who supported Stephens for speaker are some of caucus’s most senior members (Oelslager, Patton and Seitz); among its most conservative members (Schmidt); and among its most successful fundraisers (Edwards).
Add to that the fact that former House Speaker Robert Cupp, a Lima Republican, and a genuine gentleman, was nowhere near as — assertive— as the Senate GOP, led by President Matt Huffman, also a Lima Republican.
What could this mean long-term?
A new speaker, with the potential to serve a half-dozen years — potentially the first six-consecutive-year speakership since Republican Jo Ann Davidson’s (1995 through 2000) — should be well-positioned to rebalance the Statehouse lineup.
And that’s really what’s in play with any Statehouse leadership team, not ideology or “philosophy” or” values,” but who gets to call the shots, and how, in an Ohio that, were it an independent nation, would be the world’s 21st largest economy, the nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission, the General Assembly’s research unit, reported in 2020.
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How all the gears and levers will work in the Ohio House — for that matter, in the state Senate — this new session will become obvious after Republican Gov. Mike DeWine submits a proposed 2023-25 state operating budget by Jan. 31.
What’s telling is not how much gets spent, or where it gets spent, but what it gets spent on.
By tradition, Ohio’s House gets first crack at a governor’s budget. And the House rewrite of DeWine’s budget will be as good a signal as any of what Speaker Stephens is for — and against.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: What does it mean that Rep. Jason Stephens is Ohio's new speaker of the House?
