Model Red
I live in Ohio, the supposedly “model Red” state. We are Republican. There’s a “super-majority” in the state legislature GOP, and all of the elected state officials are Republican as well. There’s a majority of Republicans on the “non-partisan” State Supreme Court (four to three). That includes the son of the current Republican Governor. Democratic US Senator Sherrod Brown stands as the sole elected state-wide Democrat.
Not surprisingly, in a state that voted 53% for Trump in 2020, the majority of the Congressional seats are held by Republicans. But in a state where 45% voted for Biden in 2020, only five (33%) of the fifteen Congressional seats are held by Democrats. That’s the results of extreme Gerrymandering by the Republican legislature, the Republican Governor and the Republican Secretary of State; as ratified by the Republican State Supreme Court. It’s all in spite of a state Constitutional Amendment, passed in 2018 with 75% approval, restraining the legislature from Gerrymandering.
It Takes Two
In fact, the Republicans are so “in charge” in Ohio, that the House Republicans (with 66 seats) have split into two factions. One, the “normal” Republicans (take over the State Board of Education types), aligned with minority Democrats (all 32 of them, less than 33%) for legislative control. Meanwhile the other “crazies” faction (anti Trans, DEI, CRT, LGBTQ and other alphabet things) represent a majority of their Party.
There’s an old phrase; “it takes two to tango”. Well, it takes two to check and balance a legislature, and a state executive branch as well. But Ohio, the “model Red” state really is a flawed model of unchecked partisan governance. Here’s two recent examples. This month, two exciting state-wide initiatives which passed with 57% majorities. Issue One, guarantees women the right to determine their own health care, including getting abortions. It reinstates the “rules” of the Roe v Wade US Supreme Court decision.
New Issues, Old Tactics
Immediately after the passage of Issue One, the “crazies” wing of the Republican Party vowed to maintain Ohio’s strict abortion laws. That included the six-week limit which virtually banned abortions. “Cooler” Republican heads seems to have prevailed. But even they are talking about the need for “compromise” with the brand-new Constitutional Amendment. For those who thought that “black letter law” enshrined in the State Constitution would be the final word, the fight isn’t over. And with a State Supreme Court that disemboweled the anti-gerrymandering re-districting amendment, nothing in the Constitution may be sacred. A battle was won on Issue One, but the “war” for women’s health rights will go on.
And Issue Two was the proposed law to legalize recreational marijuana. Ohio already had a pretty lax “medical marijuana” law: for $200 almost anyone could get an online medical marijuana card. But as of December 7th, everyone over twenty-one will be allowed to purchase “weed”. The wily Republicans in the legislature probably will “accept” the legalization in the newly passed law. What they want to control is the immense tax monies to be divided. Ohioans will get to “smoke-up”. But where the tax money goes; regular state sales tax plus a 10% state “fee”; that’s a different matter.
Show Me the Money
And those are only two recent examples of Republican legal “arrogance”. The former Republican Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, took a $60 MILLION bribe from First Energy Corporation. He made sure the Legislature passed (and the Governor signed) a law guaranteeing billions of state dollars to cover First Energy’s cost of aging Ohio nuclear plants. Householder is now serving a twenty-year Federal sentence. But multiple other Ohio leaders, implicated in the bribe distribution, have skated free, so far. (The Lieutenant Governor, John Husted, and Governor DeWine were subpoenaed in a civil case).
But the “cash cow” of the Ohio Republican Party is education. In the past, even the chief of the National Association of Charter Schools called Ohio the “Wild West” of charter schooling (Cleveland). The state freely provided money earmarked for public education to private charter schools. The most egregious example was the online program ECOT (Education Center of Tomorrow), which generated huge payouts to its top executives, and misappropriate $117 million of Ohio education money. ECOT went under, and the money was never returned to the State.
William Lager, the founder of ECOT, was a heavy contributor to Ohio Republicans with over $800,000 in donations (OCEASF). And he managed to personally distance himself from the financial collapse, maintaining his fourteen million dollar home in Florida.
Help the Rich
Charter schools are still “a thing” here in Ohio, but the new “cash” is in the nearly unlimited school voucher program. Republicans supposedly passed school vouchers as a way for economically disadvantaged kids to escape from “failing public schools”. The legislature made state funded education money “portable” for students. Want to go to a private (or charter) school? Just sign up, and over $8000 in state money goes to pay for private education (Cleveland).
But the big “reveal” this week, is that the majority of the voucher money isn’t going to economically disadvantaged kids. In fact, the majority is going to supplement kids already in private schools. And with the “relaxation” of income restrictions, a large proportion of the almost $1 Billion appropriated for vouchers are going to families with greater than $100,000 annual incomes. (The state government appropriated $12.7 Billion for public K-12 education in 2022, so close to 8% is going to vouchers – Public Policy). What was “advertised” as helping “disadvantaged kids” is really going to help voters more likely to vote the Republican way, at least as far as the legislature is concerned.
And the majority of private schools are religious. Of course parents should have the right to send their child to a religious school. But should the State, with public tax money, pay for it? As long as the private “owners” of the schools donate to Republican candidates, our current “Red Model” thinks Ohio should.
Here in Ohio it’s all about money – money into the hands of those who already have it, and money into the hands of Republican politicians. If this were California, or New York or any other “high profile” state, it would be a national story. But here in Ohio, the “model Red” state, it’s just business as usual.
