Politically Speaking

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently said it is time for Ohio to take elected officials out of the process of drawing state legislative and congressional district lines. But voting rights activists see DeWine as part of the problem, not the solution.

House Bill 458, which sets strict voter ID requirements, is now the law of the land in Ohio, beginning with the May primary. It's going to take a lot of public education to make sure Ohioans know the new rules before they go to the polls.

Accuracy in Media, a self-appointed "media watchdog" group, traps school administrators in conversations videotaped surreptitiously and cherry-picks their responses to make it appear they are endorsing teaching Critical Race Theory in their classrooms.

The trial of former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio GOP chairman Matt Borges dwarfs previous public corruption trials Ohio. But there is nothing in state or federal campaign finance law to prevent that record from being broken.

Dolan, a 58-year-old whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team, may be the first to jump into the race, but he will not be the last.

The appointment of the long-time Hamilton County prosecutor to the Ohio Supreme Court might be construed as a retirement job, but Deters is not likely to treat it that way.

For some time now, the Republican leadership of the Ohio General Assembly has been hoping the U.S. Supreme Court would give them what the Ohio Supreme Court would not.

Republicans in the Ohio General Assembly want a constitutional amendment on the May 2023 primary ballot that would require a 60% vote for passage of citizen-initiated constitutional amendments. And Frank LaRose is their mouthpiece.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Ohio's chief elections officer, wants to amend the state constitution to require constitutional amendments brought by petition initiatives to garner 60% of the vote to be approved. Voting rights advocates and conservative groups alike are crying foul.

Gov. Mike DeWine won an easy victory Tuesday night in what will almost certainly be his last campaign in a long career. But it is a victory tainted by the fact that he spent that campaign hiding from not only his opponent, Nan Whaley, but the people of Ohio.