Term limits' grip must be broken

Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial

Friday, June 27, 2008

 

Gov. Ted Strickland will spend some of his enormous political capital this year to campaign for fellow Democrat Barack Obama. Over the long-term, Strickland would do the state an enormous favor by investing some of his remaining capital in a quest to free Ohio of the curse of General Assembly term limits.

 

Term limits, adopted by Ohio voters in 1992, were a Republican weapon aimed at 20-year Ohio House Speaker Vernal G. Riffe, an Appalachian Democrat. Trouble was, the late Mr. Riffe was retiring in 1994, anyway, so now Republican legislators are bruised by a club originally brandished at Democrats.

 

 

http://www.cleveland.com/editorials/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1214555433201560.xml&coll=2

The general idea seems good, but the reality not so much. I would say that the only way I'd vote for a repeal would be if it was combined with the removal of redistricting from the political parties. I'd develop a very specific formula that determines districts completely ignoring any issues besides equal sized districts by population.

 

The problem is that state gov't in Ohio barely gets any attention and it is very easy for those elected to never leave.

It has become that the lobbyists know a huge amount more about government than do the elected legislators.  Consequently, they manipulate the legislators to produce some bad policy.

 

Exception would be the electricity/energy bill.  First Energy and the other electric companies did not get what they wanted.

The general idea seems good, but the reality not so much. I would say that the only way I'd vote for a repeal would be if it was combined with the removal of redistricting from the political parties. I'd develop a very specific formula that determines districts completely ignoring any issues besides equal sized districts by population.

 

This is a very good point.  They need to take the redistricting out of the hands of the legislators and make all the district competitive.  But I do think that trying to keep them aligned as closely as possible to the political boundaries that exist in people's conscience is important.  People know what city and county they live in, while they are generally clueless as to what State Senate or State Rep district they live in.

 

The problem is that state gov't in Ohio barely gets any attention and it is very easy for those elected to never leave.

 

I think this is more of a Cincinnati phenomenon, and I don't think it holds true elsewhere in the State.

It is absolutely stunning the difference between Virginia and Ohio (esp. SW - I guess). When big political issues are raised the state reps show up in the newspaper and on radio/tv constantly. Oddly enough state power seems far more in your face in VA than I ever felt it in Ohio.

... They need to take the redistricting out of the hands of the legislators and make all the district competitive. But I do think that trying to keep them aligned as closely as possible to the political boundaries that exist in people's conscience is important. People know what city and county they live in, while they are generally clueless as to what State Senate or State Rep district they live in.

Ohio law requires that the district boundaries follow existing municipal/local government boundaries.  They still manage to pull off a certain amount of gerrymandering.  I think that Ohio just has a bias toward Republicanism.

Nah . . . it is just that they wrote the lines in '00. The Dems wrote them in '90, but got bowled over by the GOP onslaught after the bad Celeste years.