State Reps. Mike Foley (D-Cleveland) and Robert F. Hagan (D-Youngstown) just wrapped up a press conference at the Ohio Statehouse where they announced legislation to allow for recall elections of state officials.
Currently, Ohio law only allows for recall of local officials, and not, pointedly, the governor. The bill would allow a recall election if 15% of the voters sign a petition.
One questioner from a Republican newspaper asked if the bill would open up the state political process to "outside interests," who might disrupt our elections, and if not succeed in ousting people, at least make them spend a lot of money to stay in office.
Hagan replied dryly: "you mean like the Koch brothers?" He continued with an indictment of ALEC, also an outside interest writing legislation, and said that sure, money is corrupting the political process and we have to be vigilant. He even brought up Karl Rove. Nice jiu jitsu!
The main issue, he said, is that Ohio has a "deeply unpopular" governor with only 30% approval, but voters have no recourse to remove him from office for 3.75 years. While the bill covers legislators with 2-year terms as well, he said that the bill is really aimed at 4-year terms and the governor.
Another question, a good one, was why they have decided to go the legislative route rather than a constitutional amendment, given that throngs of union supporters have already mobilized to sign the repeal petitions, and could very well sign petitions for an amendment as well. Hagan and Foley replied that essentially they are testing the waters, and if it fails to move in the legislature (after all, they are legislators), then they will explore other avenues such as an amendment or even a constitutional convention.
Should be interesting to see how this develops!
