In arguably the most brazen political maneuver in recent Statehouse history, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose is trying to flim-flam Ohioans into voting against their own interests.
And this isn’t the first time.
Last year, LaRose tried to persuade Ohio voters to make it harder to directly amend the state constitution by ballot issue, a right Ohioans have had since 1912. Voters said no thanks to LaRose’s 2023 proposition, casting 57% of their votes against it.
It could be, that when this appears, Ohio’s Supreme Court, albeit 4-3 Republican, will have acted to stop LaRose’s maneuver: His bid, with two allies, to derail the voter-proposed “Citizens Not Politicians” ballot issue.
The measure, which will appear on November’s statewide ballot, aims to end the gerrymandering of Ohio’s General Assembly and congressional districts.
One of Ohio’s most prominent Republicans, Greater Cleveland’s Maureen O’Connor, the retired chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, energetically supports voter passage of the Citizens Not Politicians plan.
LaRose, of Upper Arlington, plus a suburban Toledo Republican who’d like to succeed him, and a third Republican allied to the first two, approved official wording – “ballot language,” which voters will see – that, plainly put, brazenly deceives voters about what the Citizens Not Politicians plan would do if Ohioans OK’D it. “Ballot language” is supposed to be an unbiased, neutral explanation of how a proposed state constitutional amendment will work if it wins voters’ OK.
But among other jaw-dropping perversions of the English language, LaRose-backed newspeak says the Citizens Not Politicians issue, if voters pass it, would promote gerrymandering – the precise opposite of what Citizens Not Politicians would do.
As things stand now on Capitol Square, a clique of Statehouse insiders — a clique dominated by Republicans, but which Democrats could in theory someday form —draws districts in order to guarantee GOP majorities in the General Assembly and among Ohio’s U.S. House delegation.
That’s in a state that twice backed Democrat Barack Obama, and twice backed Democrat Bill Clinton.
In effect, gerrymandering lets Republican legislators pick their voters, rather than let voters pick their legislators, destroying a vital check-and-balance in Ohio’s government. It’s no wonder that the Statehouse’s Powers That Be cherish gerrymandering.
To replace that hack-run set-up, the Citizens Not Politicians plan, backed by the petition signatures of hundreds of thousands Ohio voters from throughout the state, would create a no-politician Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw fair General Assembly and congressional districts.
LaRose and his ballot board confederates — state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, a Bowling Green Republican (who may want to succeed term-limited LaRose as secretary of state) and retired banking lobbyist William Morgan, of Fairfield County – OK’d the LaRose-backed ballot language over the opposition of the board’s two Democrats, state Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson, Toledo’s first female African-American mayor, and state Rep. Terrence Upchurch, of Cleveland.
And, Rightly so, Citizens Not Politicians has appealed to Ohio’s Supreme Court, which should have the self-respect, as the constitution’s guardian, to block this coup against Ohio’s voters.
As noted, Bowling Green’s Gavarone, a LaRose ally, may want to succeed term-limited LaRose as secretary of state. Speculation is that LaRose, once a state senator from suburban Akron, will run in 2026 for another statewide executive office, such as state auditor (maybe, state treasurer).
He did want to go to Washington. But LaRose ran third earlier this year in Ohio’s Republican primary for the GOP nomination for U.S. senator, to challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown. Instead, Republican voters nominated Greater Cleveland Republican entrepreneur Bernie Moreno to challenge Brown. (Donald Trump endorsed Moreno for the Senate nomination.)
LaRose arrived at the Statehouse in 2011, a newly elected state senator and perceived GOP legislative moderate. But especially in the last several years, LaRose has slid sideways, toward the hard Republican right, trying to convince Ohio voters to handcuff their power to amend the state constitution.
Surely, only a cynic would think LaRose is an unprincipled political opportunist. But then that same cynic might take a look at LaRose’s ballot board antics. Case closed.