Rotunda Rumblings
Biden’s ballot blues: A top Ohio Republican lawmaker said Wednesday he thinks that President Joe Biden will appear on the ballot here this November, despite an obscure state law that threatens to block him over the scheduled date of this year’s Democratic National Convention. Andrew Tobias and Jeremy Pelzer write that Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman said he believes the issue will be addressed either legislatively or administratively by the Democratic National Committee. He even went as far as to say he thinks a lawsuit would succeed were the law to prevent Biden from qualifying. The comments are something of a softening from last week when Huffman called the issue a “Democratic problem,” leading some Democrats to believe he wouldn’t help them.
Spousal rape: The Ohio General Assembly is two roll call votes away from passing a bill, years in the making, to close exemptions in state criminal law for those who commit sex crimes against their spouses. As Jake Zuckerman reports, however, the Senate president and judiciary chairman both declined to offer clear answers as to whether a vote is coming anytime soon on the bill that already has passed in the House.
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Puppies: A bipartisan pair of state lawmakers introduced legislation that would return to Ohio cities the power to prohibit puppy retailers within their borders. Zuckerman reports that the bill would reverse a “preemption” law passed in 2016 after two cities passed legislation to excise Petland locations from town. A sponsor said Petland is “notorious” for buying from high-volume breeders known as “puppy mills,” which can pose serious health complications for the animals.
Housing crisis: Ohio has a wide range of housing problems, from skyrocketing property costs and property taxes to a need for more housing in general. Jeremy Pelzer reports that the Senate Select Committee on Housing on Wednesday unveiled a list of 23 recommendations to solve them, including speeding up building permit applications and making it harder for local residents to challenge local housing development decisions, among others. Many of the panel’s recommendations will now be introduced in a series of bills or potential administrative rule changes.
Camper concept: To provide temporary housing to about 250 families displaced by last month’s Indian Lake tornado, state and local officials are considering an unorthodox idea: have the state buy hundreds of RVs. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, Senate President Matt Huffman said earlier this month that the Ohio Controlling Board may soon be asked for the $8 million or so needed to buy the campers, though a spokesman for Gov. Mike DeWine said no final decision has been made yet.
Impeachment hearing: Hours after swearing in its members for an impeachment trial of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas, the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted along party lines to dismiss the charges forwarded by U.S. House of Representatives Republicans who wanted to remove him from office. Sabrina Eaton reports that U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, voted to dismiss the charges, while U.S. Sen. JD Vance, a Cincinnati Republican, opposed doing so.
Internet subsidies: Ohio Congress members on Wednesday urged passage of bipartisan legislation that would extend a soon-to-expire federal program that subsidizes broadband internet service for more than 1 million Ohioans, Eaton reports. Funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is expected to run out at the end of the month unless Congress extends it. If that happens, the internet bills of the Ohio households participating in the program are likely to rise by around $30 per month.
Crypto deal? A long-delayed bid to write a new law for stablecoins is getting a push from an unexpected lawmaker: crypto-skeptic Sherrod Brown. The Senate Banking Committee chairman told Bloomberg News that he’s open to advancing such legislation in a package with a bill authorizing banks to do business with marijuana businesses and another measure clawing back compensation for executives at failed lenders. The Cleveland Democrat subsequently told Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer that he’s waiting for Republicans and Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee to finish negotiations on their legislation before moving forward. He cautioned that such legislation would have to protect consumers and address the problem of cryptocurrency being used to fund terrorism.
Trade issues: Brown on Wednesday quizzed U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai about efforts to hold Mexico and China responsible for undercutting U.S. companies on products including steel and solar panels. She assured Brown they are priorities. When Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey asked about her agency’s review of Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel, she said she couldn’t discuss the process because of confidentiality rules but said USTR understands how ownership changes can result in lost jobs. “I just want to acknowledge that these types of transactions are actually things that we have seen for a long time and continue to live with the consequences, and I think that that is something that we at USTR are very thoughtful about,” she told Casey.
Joint vow: Huffman told reporters on Wednesday that, despite a months-long impasse, he’s “reasonably hopeful” that state lawmakers will pass some sort of bill to alter the state’s new recreational marijuana law before dispensary license applications are sent out in early June. Huffman said “higher-ups in the House” (whom he declined to name) have told him they want to pass marijuana reform legislation by then, rather than seek changes via administrative rules. “I think most reasonable people, including people in the industry, believe that it’s it would be better to have it clarified in law,” Huffman said.
Ain’t no sunshine: A state database with the names and addresses of Ohioans who died early in the 2020 COVID-19 crisis is protected health information that’s not required to be released under the state’s open-records law, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. As Laura Bischoff of the Columbus Dispatch reports, the court ruled 5-2 against now-retired Dispatch reporter Randy Ludlow, who filed the suit after the Ohio Department of Health refused to provide the information.
Conventional wisdom: As Milwaukee prepares to host the 2024 Republican National Convention this July, Sarah Volpenstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel takes a look at what the city can learn from Cleveland’s experience during the 2016 RNC. Her conclusion was that Milwaukee businesses should “temper expectations,” noting that while Cleveland saw an overall bump in tax and business revenue, as well as “a positive spotlight on the city,” businesses near what’s now called Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse actually lost customers – including in Ohio City, which became a “ghost town” during the convention.
Full Disclosure
Five things we learned from the Feb. 21, 2024 ethics disclosure form filed by Desiree Tims, the Democratic nominee for Ohio House District 38, about her 2023 finances:
1. Tims’ income sources last year included Innovation Ohio (a left-leaning think tank that she leads) and Ohio State University, where she is a lecturer for the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
2. She is director of Battleground Research, a Columbus-based firm that collects information on political candidates and their opponents.
3. At some point last year, Tims owed more than $1,000 to American Express, Capital One, Capital One Auto, Chase, and Edfinancial Services, a student-loan servicer.
4. She serves on the boards of the Dayton-based African-American Community Fund and Red, Wine and Blue, a Democratic advocacy group that focuses on engaging suburban women in politics.
5. Her only listed investment of more than $1,000 is a Vanguard mutual fund through Acorns, a micro-investing company.
On The Move
Lauren Blauvelt, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, made Time’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2024, along with Dua Lipa and Argentinian President Javier Mieli, for her work as co-chair of Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, which proposed and ran the campaign to successfully enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution last year.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) endorsed U.S. Sen. Brown’s reelection. A spokesperson for the public service worker union said it has nearly 100,000 Ohio members.
Birthdays
Emma Cardone, director of advocacy for Ohio Hospital Association
Former state Rep. Mark Fraizer
Secretary of State Frank LaRose
U.S. Rep. Bob Latta
State Treasurer Robert Sprague
Thomas J. Moyer, former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court (1939-2010)
Straight from the Source
“This is for the very worst cases. This is not an overall (requirement for every domestic violence allegation). I do understand that it is difficult to claim domestic violence in many cases. It is almost the worst situation that our law enforcement goes into. It is the most dangerous situation for our law enforcement because they don’t know what they’re facing.”
-State Rep. Sara Carruthers, a Cincinnati-area Republican, during a Wednesday press conference about the newly introduced House Bill 486, a domestic violence victim protection bill known as Aisha’s Law. The proposal has passed the Ohio House three times but gone nowhere in the Senate. Many of the provisions in the bill, such as a referral to domestic violence advocacy services and an offer of emergency protection orders, are for victims who are assessed to be at the highest risk for potentially being killed by their partners.
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