Hubris Cometh?

Ohio’s Red Map

David Pepper was Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party from 2015 to 2020.  That’s not as big a deal as I wish it were.  Democrats have a tough time winning in Ohio.  While the cities are Democratic, the suburbs are reliable Republican strongholds.  (At least they were, until the US Supreme Court Dodd’s decision. The double upset wins of the two statewide issues on abortion in 2023, just might signal a change). 

 And then there’s the “countryside”, places like Cedarville, and Ada, and even Oxford.  Those all happen to be where the present Governor, Mike DeWine, lives or went to school.  (For those who really know Ohio, DeWine was actually born and raised in Yellow Springs, which is quite a contrast to the rest of his political life!!).  Those small towns are as “Red” as can be, as is nearby St. Paris, the home of Congressman Jim Jordan.

Republicans, followed the Red Map strategy of the National Republican Party starting in 2010. They have completely gerrymandered the state legislature.  In a state which even at its “Reddest” phase is 42% Republican, 40% Democrat and 18% “non-affiliated”:  two-thirds of the State House of Representatives are Republican. And the GOP controls even a greater margin,  just under three-fourths of the State Senate seats.

GOP Control

Republicans control all the statewide elective executive offices. They have a four to three majority on the State Supreme Court, and ten of the fifteen US Congressional seats. Republican JD Vance is the junior Senator, while Democrat Sherrod Brown, a holdover from a different era, is fighting to keep his seat in 2024.

David Pepper helped Brown defend his seat in 2018, but Ohio fell even deeper in a “Red hole” during his tenure as Chairman.  As that famous Republican John Wayne once said (in Big Jake): “My fault, your fault, nobody’s fault…”; in the past two decades the Democratic Party lost Ohio.  And the National Democratic Party knows it.  Their failure to finance Tim Ryan in his expertly run campaign against Vance in 2022 tells that story.  

The lack of Democratic competition leads to even more power for the extreme Republicans in the state.  If there is no challenge in the general election, then the Republican primaries become the crucible determining who will gain power.  And since only a small percentage of voters turn out for the primary (2024 – 20.7%) the extreme of the Party holds control.  There’s no reason for moderate views or an appeal to the “center”; when the motivated “right” has the votes.  So-called “moderate” Republicans really don’t stand a chance.

Un-Checked, Un-Balanced

And the lack of competition means there is a failure of electoral “checks and balances” in the state.  Even when the people of Ohio on a statewide ballot voted to end gerrymandering and have balanced re-districting, approve abortion, or legalize marijuana; the state legislature, the governor, and even the state Supreme Court are willing to ignore their voice. They are practicing  “delay, delay, delay” with the marijuana legislation.  And they completely ignored the gerrymandering Constitutional Amendment, even ignoring the State Supreme Court when they were ordered to comply.  We don’t know yet how the abortion question will be legislated.

Today, David Pepper is a national political commentator, fighting the inequity of one-Party rule here in Ohio.   The absolute power of the Republicans have led to the “other” end of that famous phrase, “absolute corruption”.    The obvious example is the former Republican Speaker of the State House, Larry Householder, who took a $60 million bribe, and is currently serving twenty years in Federal Prison.  Two others accused in the scandal have committed suicide (one with a DeWine for Governor T-shirt on).  And Pepper in a recent essay, highlights how literally incestuous the Republican failure is.

Who-Dey!!

The Governor’s son, Pat DeWine, is a Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.  Like Clarence Thomas on the US Court, the younger DeWine sees no conflict of interest in ruling on his own father’s decisions.  But the most egregious example of Republican hubris is a relatively minor case just handed down by the Court.

In 2022, the Cincinnati Bengals went to the Super Bowl.  For us long-suffering Bengals fans it was an amazing accomplishment, and Governor DeWine took reasonable advantage of it by going to the game in Los Angeles.  He took a party of twenty or so with him, mostly family, and paid for the tickets himself.  But the Cincinnati Enquirer (as Republican a newspaper as exists) did ask for an accounting of the State expenses of protecting the Governor and his large party.

The State Highway Patrol refused to release the costs, claiming security concerns, and the Enquirer sued under the Open Records Act.   The case went to the Ohio Supreme Court.  Pat DeWine, who went on the trip with his father, appropriately recused himself from the case.

Even in the Court

Here’s where things get – ugly.   Justice DeWine is recently divorced.  He had an affair with his senior staff attorney, Mary Stier.   During the divorce, Stier resigned from the Court staff, and went to work for Joe Deters, the long-time Prosecutor for Hamilton County (Cincinnati area) and personal friend of Pat DeWine.   A couple of years later, when a seat came open in the Court, Governor DeWine appointed Deters to fill the appointment.  Deters brought Stier with him back to the Court as his staff attorney.  Stier and Justice DeWine acknowledge they are currently in a relationship.

So while Pat DeWine recused himself from the Enquirer case, Deters was the pivotal vote denying the financial information to the newspaper.  And who else was on the Bengals excursion to Los Angeles as part of the Governor’s party – Pat DeWine and  Mary Stier.  Even with all of his personal involvement in the case, friend of one participant, employer of another, Deters remained on the bench to rule, and keep the information “secret”. In fact, Stier may have had a part in writing the actual decision.

Before the Fall

Scandals in other states resonate in American media.  The Mississippi Governor was in a deal with retired Green Bay Quarterback Brett Favre to launder money. The Missouri Governor hired his paramour. Four of the past ten Illinois Governors went to prison.  But here in Ohio, even the $60 million Householder trial hardly made a dent.  Republicans are backed by the overwhelmingly Republican media (Gannett owns the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Columbus Dispatch, the Canton Depository, the Akron Beacon Journal, and seventeen other papers).  And even when those newspapers ask questions, the Republicans shut the conversation down. 

It is all about hubris, the unchecked power of unquestioned and unchallenged authority.  Will the abortion issue prove to be the tipping point?  Will the phrase, “hubris cometh before the fall” finally come to Ohio?  As hard as David Pepper and others are working – I’m not holding my breath.