And this afternoon, in Greene County’s Cedarville, Ohio’s Republican attorney general, Mike DeWine, is expected to announce that he’s seeking the 2018 Republican nomination for governor of Ohio. Other Republicans who are seeking the GOP nomination for governor are Secretary of State Jon Husted; U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, of Wadsworth; and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor.
Seeking Democrats’ nomination for governor: former state Rep. Connie Pillich, of suburban Cincinnati, Democrats’ 2014 candidate for state treasurer; state Sen. Joseph (Joe) Schiavoni, of suburban Youngstown; U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, of Copley Township, near Akron; and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.
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These men and women want to skipper Ohio amid fast-changing times. Ohio’s population, comparatively speaking, is growing older. Its economy continues to shift from manufacturing toward services, especial FIRE – finance, insurance, real estate. Ohio’s center of political gravity is sliding southwest, down Interstate 71, toward Columbus. As of the 2010 Census, Ohio’s population center was near mile marker 147, in Morrow County. And the Census has reported that Columbus is now the 14th-largest city in the United States. In contrast, Cleveland is the nation’s 51st-largest city, while Dayton ranks 189th, and Cincinnati, 65th.
Moreover, regardless of whether Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell succeed in denying hundreds of thousands of Ohioans health-care coverage, health-care policy will continue to be the top budget and policy challenge on Statehouse agenda, especially in state with a growing proportion of older residents.
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Given the sheer scope of health-care in Ohio’s economy, it has to be atop every governor’s agenda. And though blind partisans will claim otherwise, Kasich’s administration has achieved a number of substantial health-care policy successes, out-distancing his predecessors. Also on the next governor’s plate: Seeing that Ohioans can find training for tomorrow’s jobs, not yesterday’s.
What’s sometimes forgotten is that Ohio’s governorship, comparatively speaking, is very powerful. An Ohio governor, unlike the president, can line-item appropriations in spending bills the legislature passes. Ohio’s governor may also, under certain conditions, order mid-budget spending cuts. That is, Ohio’s governors have tight oversight of state finances.
The question a voter needs to ask a candidate for governor is, “What do you want to do with the power of Ohio’s governorship?” A candidate who can’t answer that with specifics is probably a candidate who shouldn’t get the job. Ohio’s old manufacturing towns, as well as burgeoning suburbs struggling to cover the costs of expanding municipal services, need answers – not slogans.
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A governor also needs to be able to say “no” to the Statehouse’s teeming lobbies, who are paid to get the best possible deal for their clients, not for the taxpayers. Some things in state government are eternal, such as the clout of Capitol Square’s banking, insurance and utility lobbyists. They look at the Ohio Revised Code the way an accountant looks at a profit-and-loss statement. They need reined-in.
Ohio voters, historically, seem to want change in sips, not gulps. The challenge for Ohio’s next governor is that gulps are just what the doctor has ordered – or should.
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