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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > March > 11 > Entry
Editorial: Husted’s intentions not all that count
State Sen. Jon Husted, allegedly of Kettering, is not going to get kicked out of the Ohio Senate if Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner decides he might not really live there and, thus, might not be eligible to vote locally.
Once someone is elected, the Senate, under the state constitution, has wide latitude to decide whom to seat. Should someone complain about Sen. Husted’s residency, the Republican-dominated group would be easily persuaded that voters in a large portion of Montgomery County overwhelmingly elected him and that is that — regardless of where he sleeps.
Democratic Secretary Brunner, however, is required by law to break a tie vote by the Montgomery County Board of Elections — which has two Democrats and two Republicans — to settle the matter of whether he really lives in the community and, thus, is eligible to vote here and be a candidate again in the future.
(Briefs to Secretary Brunner were due just this week.)
She is in a ticklish spot. Sen. Husted is widely expected to run for secretary of state next year. Though Secretary Brunner has said she’s running to replace George Voinovich in the U.S. Senate, if she changes her mind, she could face Sen. Husted.
Even if she isn’t his opponent, Secretary Brunner can create a political problem for a legislator who unquestionably has been an aggressive advocate for Dayton. He needs to be registered to vote some place, and here’s a guy who apparently wants to be the state’s chief elections officer, though he’s the subject of an investigation challenging whether he is properly registered in his legislative district.
This is not a problem a secretary of state candidate-in-waiting relishes. Sen. Husted is unsympathetic to the fact that the Montgomery County Board of Elections had no choice but to investigate his residency status once it got a formal complaint. The board simply doesn’t have the option of ignoring these sorts of allegations.
Though it happens rarely, the board does get reports about voters voting in the wrong place or not being eligible; sometimes fraud is involved.
That was the case last year during the presidential campaign, when ineligible individuals were registering to vote in the state, and non-residents were falsely saying they lived in Ohio in an attempt to run up the votes for Barack Obama here. Of course, that sort of abuse of the system is wholly different than the criticism of Sen. Husted. But nobody should want local elections officials deciding they’ll ignore some laws, but not others.
In response to Democratic board members’ questions of him, Sen. Husted has not gone out of his way to offer compelling evidence that he spends substantial time at 148 Sherbrooke Drive.
Rather, his defense pretty much is “to the extent he left Montgomery County temporarily,” he was doing so in his capacity as a “state employee” and that he intends to return to the county.
His intentions — which he says the board must consider by law — come up again and again in his brief to elections board members.
Sen. Husted is unlike many legislators in that he married a woman who lives in Columbus, and he has a child from a previous marriage who lives in Columbus. Moreover, when he was House speaker, that job required him to spend a lot of time outside of Dayton.
That said, there is this pesky law that aims to ensure that elected lawmakers have more than a fleeting association with the voters who elect them. It is not a ridiculous law, and Sen. Husted — notwithstanding his professed intentions — has yet to demonstrate that he has been meeting the spirit of its intentions.
The board of elections doesn’t get to consider the intentions of the people who made the complaint against him. That is personally and politically inconvenient for Sen. Husted, and, yes, there are other politicians who undoubtedly could be similarly challenged.
Some of them may be worrying because of Sen. Husted’s unhappy experience. Of course, they have the option of saying the law is too strict and trying to loosen it.
In the end, Secretary Brunner may not want to be too much of a stickler, for fear of seeming partisan; for sure, the Senate will cut Sen. Husted a break if it gets involved.
But the truth is the truth; Sen. Husted hasn’t really been living here even part-time, and he’s asking Secretary Brunner to read the law in absolutely the most favorable light for him, while ignoring much that undercuts his case.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Montgomery County, Ohio politics
Comments
By lmao
March 11, 2009 6:26 PM | Link to this
the truth is the truth. good job, ellen. the rest of the truth is that y’all told us to vote for him and his incompetent gop friends over and over and over again—based on all of the pork they could carry home and the joy they offer you guys over tea and crumpets in the ddn editorial board room. it’s a fact. owning up to it might be a good first step in establishing who you really are versus the false perception of the ddn being a liberal rag.By painfultruth
March 11, 2009 6:43 PM | Link to this
Intentions? How about the issue of Obama - “no more earmarks”, yet he signs a 400+ BILLION bill that’s FULL of earmarks. You’re just bringing up the Husted issue because he’s Republican. Yep, DDN IGNORES THE LIAR OBAMA, and worries about where a state senator lives! Good job, Dayton Daily Democrat. The Dayton Daily Democrat is located in the United Socialist States of America! - OBAMALAND!By Rob
March 11, 2009 10:34 PM | Link to this
Where did the earmarks come from? How about $54 MILLION from Republican Senator Mitch McConnell alone. Try adding up all the Republican authored earmarks before you try blaming it on the President. Actually - the issue here is the fact that Sen. Husted doesn’t live in the district and shouldn’t be registered to vote here. It’s got nothing to do with his party affiliation.By modesq
March 12, 2009 1:38 AM | Link to this
Um, Obama said that the stimulus bill had no earmarks, and it didn’t. The $400 Billion dollar bill you refer to with the earmarks was the Omnibus Government Appropriations Bill to fund those areas of the federal government that the last Congress failed to pass an appropriations bill for. They’re two separate things. Obama didn’t lie; you just got the bills confused.By Dave
March 12, 2009 2:31 AM | Link to this
Painful, please get your facts straight. Obama never made that promise, it was John McCain. I realize you have trouble telling them apart, but just remember, McCain lost the election.By Mills
March 12, 2009 4:31 AM | Link to this
Oh yes, we can certailnly depend on the Dayton Daily News to decide the truth for us. Just like several other liberal rags in the country, the Dayton Daily News’ days are numbered.By Patty
March 12, 2009 8:27 AM | Link to this
The stimulus bill DOES have pork in it. Read the bill before you say it does not include something. The stimulus DOES have earmarks in it.By Marge
March 12, 2009 9:35 AM | Link to this
He HAS “been meeting the SPIRIT of its (the law/requirement’s) intention”…it is the LETTER of the law/requirement that’s not been met. So,isn’t he good to go, then?By nObama
March 12, 2009 11:32 AM | Link to this
I find it ironic that we are examining Husted’s residency, but have yet to see nObama’a birth certificate. I dare Brunner to make this partisan, the next thing that will happen is complaints about every Democrat legislator in this state as well as a complaint about the Illinois Senator in the White House. Let’s see if Brunner is really as stupid as she appeared during the last election with ACORN and the rest of the voter fraud that happened here in Ohio.By Davidss2
March 12, 2009 6:19 PM | Link to this
Obama has weaseled on transparency, earmarks (in the stimulus bill, e.g., $30000000for Pelosi’s pet mouse project). Birth certificate, costs of government, all of it. But the Dems loved him because he’s incompetent and they can throw in all the pork they want. Husted doesn’t live there. Relatives lived across the street until a couple years ago. Barren house with newspapers on the step. But with Obama’s and the Dem’s lies, who cares about residency. Let’s just live for the present. Barney Frank, Dodd, Waters, Pelosi, Reid, just pour on the spending. Blame it all on Bush. Dems never did anything to push bad mortgages. Husted is bad; Dems are good is what they say. Not for me.By Dave
March 13, 2009 10:53 AM | Link to this
Davidss2, please provide some backup for this “pet mouse project”. I have seen that debunked many times, yet the claim continues.By davidss2
March 14, 2009 9:24 AM | Link to this
Duh. Google stimulus bill mouse pelosi and take your pick of info. Talk about wanting someone else to do your work for you! Democrats try to obfuscate by demanding proof of every trivial detail as if it must not be fact. Where’s Obama’s real birth certificate? He was born in Kenya and slipped through when Hawaii included many because of poor recordkeeping when they were to become a state and handed out birth certificates. Let’s have facts about important things like Ayers, Olinsky, etc., in re Obama.