COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Republican Party is once again being accused of trying to make it harder for citizens to have their voices heard, a charge the party denies, as it has done three times before.
The Ohio State House has been particularly chaotic over the past week as lawmakers debated how to get President Joe Biden on the ballot, with lawmakers repeatedly failing and the Democratic National Committee stepping in to solve the problem.
“The Biden campaign will be announcing today that they have a path through the Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee to get Joe Biden on the ballot and they’re going to ensure that Joe Biden gets on the ballot,” said Senate Minority Leader Nicky Antonio, D-Lakewood.
See below for a rundown of Biden’s voting furor.
Democrats say they will avoid problems with Ohio votes for Biden by holding virtual roll call before deadline
Related: Democrats say they will avoid problems with Ohio votes for Biden by holding virtual roll call before deadline
Even with Biden now in position to appear on the ballot, there’s still work to be done in the special session, which is why Laura Irvin made the two-and-a-half hour drive from Lorain County to testify against House Bill 1.
“We, the vast majority of Ohioans, who want fair districts, know what you’re trying to do,” Irvin told lawmakers on the Government Oversight Committee.
The governor’s proclamation had two parts: addressing Biden and dealing with foreign contributions to the campaign, which the Ohio Board of Elections has already reported as illegal but Republicans say there is no mechanism for enforcement.
Republican lawmakers have proposed bills that they say would affect the oversight of donations, but opponents say Republicans are just trying to make it harder for people to access the polls.
HB 1 authorizes the Attorney General’s Office to oversee investigations of suspected cases of foreign donations if the cases are reported by the Ohio Elections Commission (OEC).
“This bill gives the attorney general very broad powers to intervene in frivolous complaints to the OEC,” said House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington. “When she intervenes, she transfers prosecutorial powers that previously rested with county prosecutors to the attorney general. The attorney general must ultimately also approve the ballot language, so she has a conflict of interest, which is important to remember.”
Each person who testified against HB1 on Wednesday shared concerns that Attorney General Dave Yost would “play favoritism.”
According to Ohio law and multiple bipartisan prosecutors we contacted, Yost could petition the court to freeze his campaign finance accounts to allow for an investigation into “foreign interference.”
The bill also gives the attorney general new power to investigate the campaigns of statewide and state board of education candidates.
“This isn’t about foreign money. This is about killing the referendum, harassing the people who are organizing the referendum, donating to the referendum, legitimate volunteers, legitimate donors,” Russo said.
But Irvin is most concerned about House Bill 271, the Senate’s foreign currency bill that would make it harder for grassroots movements to access the ballot.
“They want to silence our voices,” Irvin said.
HB 271 was actually an unrelated bill when it passed the House, but the Senate amended it to add language about donations.
Lawmakers added it to a campaign finance bill, SB 215. In early March, Republican senators passed a bill banning foreign contributions to state and local election campaigns, both in the form of direct contributions from overseas and donations to groups such as political action committees (PACs).
The bill also prohibits lawful permanent U.S. residents, also known as green card holders, from making donations or expenditures on ballot issues or candidates.
The law would require any group rallying around a cause to register as a PAC, which would mean they would have to disclose information to the government and would make it much harder to gather signatures.
Under the original bill language, any group seeking to appear on the local or statewide ballot would be required to register as a PAC, but state Sen. Rob McCauley (R-Napoleon) said HB 271 has been amended to require registration only for statewide ballot campaigns.
“If you raise and spend money to support a signature gathering or voter campaign, you have to report the funds,” McCauley said.
Irvin sees this as a direct result of 2023.
“They’re definitely upset because they keep losing,” she said.
Republicans were 0/3 in favor of ballot proposals such as protecting abortion rights, legalizing recreational marijuana and abolishing majority rule.
“This has been an issue for a long time. We definitely saw an overreaction last year on three ballot issues,” said Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima. “I’ve said tens of millions of dollars have been spent.”
Ahead of the November 2023 election, the leading abortion rights group, the Ohio Coalition for Reproductive Rights (OURR), has raised three times as much money as its opponents.
Since then, many Republicans like Huffman have cited this as one of the reasons Bill 1 passed.
According to data from the state’s campaign finance disclosure portal, 501(c)(4)s spent about $11.5 million on groups that advocate for abortion access and maintaining majority rule on election ballot issues. OURR and Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, the organization’s former name, received about $6.4 million. One Person, One Vote received about $5.1 million. Another $550,000 went to the redistricting reform group “Citizens Not Politicians.”
The foundation is not required to disclose its donors, but since 2016 it has received more than $200 million from Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, according to the Associated Press.
But Huffman said the bill isn’t just about last year.
“I think now is a good time to do something, whether it’s on the minimum wage or redistricting or any other ballot issue that may be on the ballot before the end of the year,” the president said.
That’s why redistricting reform is so necessary, Irvin said. Proposals to end unfair redistricting are likely to appear on the November ballot.
Right now, politicians like Huffman are drawing the maps, but they directly benefit from the process.
In a one-on-one interview with me after the November election, Gov. DeWine said he wished he had never been involved in the map-making process and that it was a “mess.”
How can Ohio lawmakers be held accountable for fraudulent redistricting?
Related: How can Ohio lawmakers be held accountable for fraudulent redistricting? Governor DeWine speaks out
Redistricting isn’t the only issue on the ballot, it’s likely to also include minimum wage reform: As advocates prepare to put a proposition to raise Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 on the November ballot, Republicans have introduced their own wage hike bill to “dodge” the constitutional amendment.
Related: Ohio Republicans introduce bill to block November ballot measure that would raise minimum wage to $15
This is an absurd situation, Russo says, because if Republicans really cared about foreign contributions, they would actually embrace a number of Democratic proposals to disclose the source of campaign funds. As former House Speaker and now-convicted Larry Householder learned the hard way, “dark money” can be used maliciously and go undetected (that is, until the FBI wiretap a friend’s phone and a whistleblower goes to a fast-food restaurant with a special agent).
The will of the people
Still, this is something of a repeat of the August special election.
The first bill of the summer would raise the threshold for passing a constitutional amendment from a 50%+1 simple majority to 60%, meaning 40% of Ohioans could choose the law.
This was directly related to suppressing our first issue on abortion in November.
Related: Ohio Secretary of State LaRose acknowledges that the effort to make it harder to amend the constitution is “100% about abortion.”
Law enforcement, labor unions, teachers, social justice groups and others across the political spectrum opposed the bill, arguing that it doesn’t just affect abortion. Raising the vote to 60 percent would also make it harder to pass issues like redistricting, minimum wage increases and local bonds. Some Republicans argued that this was a big government ploy and a power grab.
After the measure was defeated, abortion and recreational marijuana were put on the ballot in November.
Dozens of Republicans in the state Legislature have spoken or proposed legislation to block the abortion amendment from taking effect. Click here to see a timeline of key statements and proposals.
While state legislative leaders have reversed course and said they currently have no plans to overturn Measure 1, lobbyists told me that one anti-abortion group is planning a new constitutional amendment to overturn Measure 1 in November, and another group is planning a 15-week ballot initiative.
Related: Advocates are working to announce a total abortion ban after Ohio Supreme Court rejects anti-abortion arguments
On marijuana, many of my fellow citizens have contacted me to speak at state legislative meetings and to hold online rallies to protest the Senate’s major restrictions on marijuana policy.
After facing backlash, McCauley asserted that he didn’t believe voters truly knew everything they were voting for and that he was not acting against the will of the people.
Related: Republican infighting keeps marijuana off store shelves months after legalization
These are just a few of the many examples, which is why Irvin is fighting so hard for redistricting reform.
What’s next?
It’s unclear whether those bills will pass by the end of the special session on Thursday, but lawmakers have said they will continue to work on them before recessing for the summer.
And there’s still no permanent solution to Biden’s fiasco: DeWine has asked lawmakers to fix the arbitrary 90-day deadline by the end of the week.
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