DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — Term limits give power and then term limits take power away.

Next year is a take-away year for the Dayton area.

Time's up for representatives and senators who have served eight consecutive years in the Ohio House or Senate.

That includes Republican Jon Husted of Kettering, who will still be around the Statehouse but won't be House speaker anymore.

He's moving to the state Senate to become a rookie.

Husted's Republican sidekick, Kevin DeWine of Fairborn, will be gone, no longer speaker pro tem, the No. 2 House job.

DeWine is trading in government for a full-time political gig. He's deputy chairman of the Ohio Republican Party and is expected to take over for Bob Bennett as state GOP chairman in January.

The seat Husted takes in the Senate had been filled by Jeff Jacobson of Butler Twp., who was Senate president pro tem, the No. 2 Senate job.

The new power lineup in the House and Senate has only one Dayton-area player and that's a stretch.

Democrats will run the House for the first time in 14 years under Speaker Armond Budish of suburban Cleveland. There's nobody from Dayton – or even Cincinnati – in the House Democratic leadership.

Even if term limits didn't apply, Husted and DeWine still would be gone from leadership because they're Republicans, but their experience would have helped.

In the Senate, Republicans still will rule. Celina's Keith Faber will be the Dayton-area connection as majority floor leader, the No. 3 job.

Faber's district includes Darke County and parts of Auglaize and Preble counties.

"This is a real blow to the Dayton area to not have legislators in top positions," said Dayton native Mary Anne Sharkey, a former top aide to Gov. Bob Taft. "The difference is being in the room when the money is divided up."

That's true when it comes to "earmarks" in the general operating budget – which will be taken up next year – and in the capital improvements budget that provides money for university buildings, among other things.

Paul Leonard, now teaching political science at Wright State University, said having the right people in the right places made a big difference in the pre-term limits 1970s when Wright State wanted a medical school and Democratic Gov. John J. Gilligan didn't want to establish one.

"I believe if it were not for (Rep). C.J. McLin (Jr.) and (Sen.) Clara Weisenborn we would not have a medical school at Wright State University," said Leonard, a state representative back then who became Dayton mayor and lieutenant governor.

When it comes to dealing with current Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, the Dayton area needs the kind of muscle McLin had.

Even Husted, DeWine and Jacobson couldn't stop Strickland from treating Dayton like part of Greater Cincinnati.

When Strickland closed Dayton's Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare mental hospital this year to save money, he said patients could go to Cincinnati – or Toledo.

Leonard was with McLin in Gilligan's office when that governor blew up about successful efforts to push Wright State's medical school.

"You got the headlines today," fumed Gilligan. "I'll get them tomorrow."

When they left Gilligan's office, McLin lit up a cigar and chuckled, said Leonard.

"He (Gilligan) can't do nothing to us," said McLin, who was right.

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.