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THE
BUDGET…AND NOT MUCH ELSE
With both the House and the Senate now in recess until after Labor Day,
this would typically be the time of year when P.a.C.E. would publish
our General Assembly Voting Record, providing you with a yardstick by
which to measure the job performance of your legislators and the entire
General Assembly on issues of importance to Ohio’s business community.
However, we won’t be publishing one this summer, because there
weren’t enough votes cast on bills of interest to the Chamber to
make any pro-business scores meaningful.
Those of you who read the Ohio Chamber’s weekly Legislative Update
know that the Ohio General Assembly spent the vast majority of its time
during the first six months of this year patching holes in the budget
for the recently-concluded fiscal year and hammering out a new budget
for the next biennium.
The time the General Assembly spent dealing with budgetary matters,
particularly in the House, left little for consideration of business
priorities such as reforms to Ohio’s civil service (HB 94), unemployment
compensation (SB 92), and workers’ compensation systems
(HB 223).
Of all the bills on which the Ohio Chamber adopted a “oppose”
or “support” position, just six in the Senate and three in
the House even made it to the floor for a vote. By way of comparison,
when we published our P.a.C.E. Voting Record in the summer of 2001,
there were 12 Senate and six House votes to include. Beyond simply the
small number of votes, five of this year’s Senate bills passed
by votes of 33-0, 33-0, 33-0, 32-1, and 27-5 – hardly controversial
pieces of legislation. Similarly, the closest vote in the House was
88-10.
The sole close Senate vote of 2003 was on S.B. 80, a civil justice
reform bill sponsored by Sen. Steve Stivers (R). S.B. 80 is one
of the Ohio Chamber’s top legislative priorities for this session.
The bill caps jury awards for non-economic damages and punitive damages,
provides a ten-year limit on the time for filing product liability claims,
and limits contingency fees for plaintiffs’ lawyers. The bill passed
19-13 and will now go the House, which will consider – and hopefully
pass – it later this year.
Though the legislature is only scheduled to be in session this year
for a maximum of six more weeks, there is still optimism that some significant
work will yet be done to make Ohio a better place to do business.
Despite the fact we won’t be publishing the P.a.C.E. Voting Record
this summer, you can still check out up-to-date individual business
voting records scores online at www.OhioBusinessVotes.org.
UP, UP, BUT NOT AWAY
Now that the General Assembly is in recess and Independence Day but
a memory, several members of the House are contemplating their immediate
political futures. Many of these representatives will use the next few
weeks to decide whether or not to run for the Senate next year.
How do we know this? Because in both elections since the onset of term
limits in 2000, at least five sitting House members have succeed term-limited
senators. In 2000, it was Reps. Ron Amstutz (R), Steve Austria (R),
Bill Harris (R), Jeff Jacobson (R), Jim Jordan (R), and Priscilla Mead
(R). In 2002, it was Reps. Kevin Coughlin (R), Teresa Fedor (D), David
Goodman (R), Ray Miller (D), and Kirk Schuring (R). While it’s
not solely because of term limits, only nine of the 33 current senators
never served in the Ohio House.
This election cycle there are seven term-limited senators: Sens. Scott
Nein (R), Lou Blessing (R), Doug White (R), Bob Gardner (R), Jim Carnes
(R), Leigh Herington (D), and Greg DiDonato (D). And, once again, we
expect to see House members lining up to attempt to succeed them. In
fact, there are sitting members of the House – some facing term
limits themselves, others not – in each of these seven districts
who are rumored to be contemplating Senate candidacies.
The time is fast approaching for these House members – and anyone
else considering a run for office in 2004 – to make up their minds.
What’s the rush? Well, as candidates, they need to begin lining
up grassroots support, raising funds, securing commitments, and meeting
voters at county fairs, parades, and other summer events. Their political
parties are anxious for them to make a decision, too, so that alternatives
can be lined up in the event they opt out and early decisions about
2004 political strategies can be formulated. Furthermore, in the case
of House members who aren’t themselves facing term limits, a decision
not to run for re-election also often sets off a chain reaction involving
potential candidates for other offices, as well.
In addition, the clock is ticking. Legislation introduced earlier this
year by Rep. Merle Kearns (R) that would have moved next year’s
primary from March to May passed the House but stalled in the Senate.
That means the 2004 primary will be held on March 2 – and the January
2 filing deadline is already less than six months away.
While representatives seeking to move to the Senate are commonplace,
a senator running for the House is more unusual – though not unheard
of. In each of the previous two elections there were term-limited senators
choosing to run for the House. In 2000, Kearns and Sen. Tony Latell
(D) did so. In 2002 Sen. Scott Oelslager (R) ran for the House. This
time around, only Sen. Lou Blessing (R) is said to be considering this
option.
If Blessing does run and get elected to the House, he’d be the
only current legislator to serve in the House, the Senate, and the House
again – and quite possibly the first to ever do it without a break
in office.
As current General Assembly members and others officially announce candidacies
for new offices, we’ll make certain you know. And look for previews
of some of these contests in future issues of The Political Edge.
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