Emails and texts between Republican state Rep. Brian Stewart and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose shed light on the behind-the-scenes maneuvering to advance a resolution to make it harder for voters to amend the Ohio Constitution.
The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
This January, when Kitts Hill Republican Jason Stephens decided to make an upset bid for House Speaker, Democrats had little trouble discerning which candidate would be better for them. “It is possible that it may be challenged as violating Ohio’s version of the Equal Protection Clause,” he wrote, “I have not researched that point, but presumably LSC will.”
“That’s perfect,” Stewart replied, adding that he would let the speaker know about his involvement and discuss timing. LaRose noted Cupp sounded supportive of the policy but worried about the politics.“He had to be dragged to kicking and screaming to do the party labels for the Supreme Court as well,” Stewart responded, “but he saw the light eventually.”“He likes moving to 60% but thinks we will have a weak PR argument on only doing it for citizen initiatives and not legislative,” Stewart said.
In an exchange with Stewart three days before they announced their proposal publicly, LaRose texted “I know that the life community is interested in this and Aaron Baer spoke with Huffman over the weekend.”The day before unveiling the resolution, LaRose reported speaking to Steve Stivers, who heads up the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.They picked up more conservative supporters after introducing the idea, but the response wasn’t unanimous.
LaRose agreed writing, “he should help work the conservative circles behind the scenes, but not make a big splash publicly.”The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Stewart made his pitch to the Republican caucus. He told LaRose that while the caucus was supportive, Cupp was still “dragging feet.” “They both told me they’re behind this 100%,” LaRose said. “I guess at this point I need to ask them to tell the speaker that, too.”He explained the chairman, Rep. Shane Wilkin, R-Hillsboro, and Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, both wanted to see the higher threshold applied to all amendments, regardless of whether they’re initiated by lawmakers or citizens.
“I’m going to try to ferret out if there’s more,” Stewart wrote, “There may be some post Speaker vote hangover here we are dealing with.”Thursday, Dec. 1, Stewart testified in the House Government Oversight Committee in favor of HJR 6. “It went really, really well,” he told LaRose later that day. “GOP members were very pleased, and the Dems couldn’t land a glove.”
The following Tuesday Stewart asked if they should get proponents to speak at a hearing scheduled for the next day. In his response, however, Stewart remained optimistic. He wrote back to LaRose, “Merrin and I already scheduled multiple session days in January.” He added they could pass the resolution quickly “when we’ve got 67 votes” and what appears to be “several fewer hard heads to wrangle.”
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