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Some recent decisions by the Ohio Secretary of State have jolted the Republican Party. The Statehouse speculation is that his moderate moves are an attempt to establish himself as the anti-Kasich.
Dan Trittschuh
Jon Husted is no maverick. He has advanced up the ladder of Ohio Republican politics—state rep, speaker of the House and now secretary of state—by staying clear of any major scandals and earning a reputation as an effective and competent public official.
Yet, the former University of Dayton football all-American, who should know all about the importance of supporting the team, has upset plenty of Statehouse Republicans lately.
First, Husted opposed passage this spring of a House Republican bill, supported by speaker Bill Batchelder, which would have required a photo ID from Ohioans before they could cast a vote on Election Day.
Next, Husted irked Republican hard-liners over ballot language for November’s referendum on Senate Bill 5 by rejecting the approach submitted by supporters of the legislation designed to severely limit the clout of Ohio’s public employee unions.
The wording decision may make it harder for the GOP to uphold S.B. 5 at November’s election. And down the road, the anti-photo ID stance may make it more difficult to hold down turnout by Ohio Democrats. Neither was exactly a popular thing to do to your own party.
And then there’s the tension with the governor’s office.
The hot Statehouse gossip these days is that allies of Gov. John Kasich suspect Husted has his own plans for the top job in Ohio politics. In the reckoning of some GOP minds, the Republican supposed to succeed Democrat Ted Strickland as governor wasn’t Kasich. Before things went sour for Strickland, the thought was that he would return for a second term. And then, in 2014, the governorship would be open—without an incumbent on that year’s ballot—because of term limits.
Enter Husted, who has made many of the right political and policy moves to position himself for governor. Some of Kasich’s pals, though they don’t produce a smoking gun as evidence, think that
a Husted in ’14 scenario was one that some Husted fans cherished. And, of course,
the implication of a Strickland victory, and a Kasich loss, would have been to make Kasich just a footnote in Ohio’s book of political statistics and Husted the golden boy of the Republican party.
Whatever truth, if any, dotted the Statehouse gossip, all the talk brought at least a moderate chill to Capitol Square’s Republican fellowship. “That [Husted in 2014] was clearly the plan,” says one extremely well-connected Ohio Republican. He, like several others, wary of being caught in the middle, asked not to be identified. “There is clearly a tension” between Kasich and Husted, which the secretary of state will aim to defuse. “Jon Husted is very pragmatic.”
Another Republican insider, who knows both officeholders well, says even if there were no 2014 campaign for Husted, the important thing is that Kasich’s people think there was one.
Adding to the frosty mix is the perception held by Batchelder about Husted’s role when Batchelder was jousting with then-Rep. Matthew Dolan of Chagrin Falls to succeed Husted as leader of the House’s GOP caucus a few years ago. “I stayed out of it,” Husted says. Batchelder says Husted favored Dolan, but adds: “He was fair to me.”
Ohio Republican Party chair Kevin DeWine, who was Husted’s deputy when he was House speaker, dismissed as “ridiculous” rumors that Husted’s allies were poised to talk him up as the GOP’s future champion if Kasich lost. “I am certain there can be no truth to that,” DeWine says. “That’s not how Jon operates, nor does his team.”
As for a future Husted run for governor, “I’ve never discussed that with [Husted],” DeWine says. But he adds, “Jon’s upper limit is whatever Jon decides it’ll be.”
Husted says he’s puzzled by the speculation about a cool relationship. “I think it’s more perception than reality,” he says. “I respect the governor. I think these are the kinds of things that happen among the chattering class, as I call them, that are out there, the political operatives, the lobbyists and people like that.”
Husted gives the governor high marks. “I think John Kasich is a tremendously talented person who can be a great leader,” he says. “He’s a new governor. He deserves to have our support to get his agenda accomplished. . . . I don’t know where [the tale of tension] comes from . . . I’m searching for an answer.”
Not that being governor is off Husted’s radar. He notes he isn’t a lawyer, so he can’t seek election as Ohio attorney general or as an Ohio Supreme Court justice. “Someday in the future I will probably look at [running for governor], way down the road. . . . I really don’t have a desire to go to Washington. . . . If I’m going to have a career in public service, governor is probably the only job left that I would look at,” he says.
Long range, there’s nothing presumptuous about a potential Husted run for governor. Of Ohio’s other Republicans elected last November with Husted, Auditor Dave Yost, once an aide to then-Columbus Mayor Buck Rinehart, is new to statewide executive office, Treasurer Josh Mandel wants Sherrod Brown’s Senate seat and Attorney General Mike DeWine is by all accounts enjoying that job.
“Jon Husted has a great future,” says Summit County Republican chair Alex Arshinkoff, a member of Kasich’s inner circle. He adds that having a bevy of successful officeholders from the same party—“thoroughbreds,” he calls them—inevitably generates speculation about rivalry. But, he says, “There is only one governor at a time.” Franklin County Republican chair Doug Preisse, similarly close to Kasich, describes Husted as “a hard worker and a quick study.”
Publicly, at least, all those Republican thoroughbreds pawing the ground in the Statehouse paddock seem to observe the GOP’s 11th commandment, devised in the 1960s by a California Republican state chairman (Dr. Gaylord Parkinson) to muffle party faction fights: “Thou shall not speak ill of any Republican.” (Notable exception: Kasich makes no secret of the fact he wants his own unspecified pick—quite possibly Preisse—to replace Kevin DeWine as Republican state chair.)
Then there’s this prerequisite for politicking in Ohio: Husted, like almost every other Ohio politician, has had his hand in your pocket. The difference is that Husted put money in, rather than take it out.
In the 2005-2007 state budget, Husted’s first as House speaker, he and his fellow General Assembly Republicans engineered a mammoth reduction in Ohio income-tax rates. Let’s say a family of four, with both adults working outside the home, reported a federal adjusted gross income of $55,000 in both 2004, the year before the phased-in income-tax cuts began, and in 2011. This family, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation, would pay almost $400 less in taxes now than seven years ago. That’s not a bad campaign point.
And the same budget shepherded by Husted also created Ohio’s Commercial Activity Tax (
That was a big plus for Ohio business people, who loathed the property tax on inventories, because the bigger an inventory (hence, the slower a company’s sales), the larger the tax bill could be. (But
Husted, who’s married with two daughters, plus a son from an earlier marriage, also has an appealing personal story. Adopted, he grew up in rural Williams County, in Ohio’s northwest corner. A gifted athlete, Husted was recruited to play football at the University of Dayton, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as honors as an All-American defensive back on UD’s 1989 Division
In January 2005, as the newly elected House speaker—just four years after becoming a representative—Husted acknowledged the gridiron’s influence. “As some of you know,” he told House members, “football has played a significant role in my life. The lessons I learned on and off the field impact who I am, how I approach life and how I will lead this House. To win in football, you must have a game plan, understand your role, work hard, be self-disciplined and no matter how tough it gets, you can never quit and let your team down.”
After graduating from UD, Husted worked in a public relations firm, joined the Montgomery County commissioners’ staff and became the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce’s vice president of business and economic development.
Husted also was Montgomery County Republicans’ sacrificial lamb in 1992 against state Rep. Rhine McLin, daughter of the late C.J. McLin, one of Ohio’s most powerful black officeholders. Rhine McLin (later Dayton’s mayor) drew 74 percent of the vote. But in 2000, Husted won a House seat.
As an Ohio House member, Husted’s signature areas were tax policy and education—notably, giving parents a range of choices in schooling for their children, such as charter and
In 2006, adoptee Husted killed a proposed ban (House Bill 515, sponsored by then-Rep. Ron Hood, an Ashville Republican) on placing an adoptive or foster child in the residence of a homosexual, bisexual or transgender Ohioan. Husted says he squashed the Hood bill because Ohio needs more, not fewer, adoptive or foster parents.
Husted’s rise to House leadership was by no means a random event. “The Dayton business community long ago wanted to have a strong state government presence,” says one key Statehouse lobbyist, who asked not be identified. Early in Husted’s Statehouse climb, he was for a time identified with Team Householder, led by tough-talking and controversial Perry County Republican Larry Householder, House speaker from 2001 through 2004. Householder’s fundraising techniques were seen as heavy-handed even by the Ohio Statehouse’s lax standards and he left office under a cloud of ethical questions, although—in fairness—he was never charged with any wrongdoing.
Husted says he learned from Householder, but was his own person. “I certainly admired Larry’s talent,” Husted says. “I was always respectful of him. I just think that you’re respectful of your [caucus] leader. And if you choose not to be respectful, then go elect a new leader. . . . There was a lot to be learned by watching how Larry Householder operated. And I always paid very close attention to what he was doing.”
Husted jumped from the House to the state Senate in 2008, positioning himself two years later for statewide office, then easily defeated the Democrats’ nominee, Franklin County Clerk of Courts Maryellen O’Shaughnessy, for secretary of state.
There has only been one widely questioned action in Husted’s rise. And that is the matter of where he actually lived while serving the people of his Senate district. Then-Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, ruled that Husted couldn’t vote in Kettering, a Dayton suburb, where he owned a house, because she claimed he resided de facto in the Columbus area. That was a problem since it is a constitutional requirement for a senator to live in the district in which he or she represents. But the matter went away when the Ohio Supreme Court in 2009 reversed Brunner’s ruling.
As secretary of state, Husted has named a top-flight senior staff. His assistant secretary of state/chief of staff is Scott Borgemenke, one of the Statehouse’s most experienced staffers. Borgemenke has been the state Senate’s chief of staff and, when Husted was House speaker, the Ohio House’s chief of staff. And he was a key policy aide and director of cabinet affairs in Gov. Bob Taft’s administration.
Husted also named highly regarded former Franklin County director of elections Matt Damschroder as deputy assistant secretary/director of elections. And Husted’s director of communications is the widely respected Maggie Ostrowski, veteran director of communications and spokeswoman for the Ohio Senate’s Republican majority.
As secretary of state, Husted’s two major duties are to issue corporate charters and—most significantly to fellow officeholders—superintend Ohio elections. State law designates the secretary of state as Ohio’s “chief election officer.” The secretary of state also is one of three key members of the state Apportionment Board, which after each census is required to redraw the House’s 99 districts and the Senate’s 33. That’s a politically crucial task, because the party that runs the board can draw legislative districts favorable to its incumbents and candidates.
Apportionment (and Husted) surely will stay in the news as whatever
results will run the gauntlet of political scrutiny. Meanwhile, Husted made headlines this summer with another election deal that showed he preferred compromise to confrontation.
In late August, Husted initially aimed to put the kibosh on a bipartisan plan by the charter government of Democrat-heavy Cuyahoga County to send at taxpayers’ expense absentee voting applications to every registered voter in the county. Husted says the mailings would have been unfair because many counties’ boards of elections can’t afford to do the same mailings for their voters. (It also is a fact that big turnouts favor Ohio Democrats.)
After Democratic Cuyahoga County executive Ed FitzGerald and the Cuyahoga County Council crafted a way to potentially checkmate Husted’s opposition to the mailings, Husted and FitzGerald reached a deal.
Cuyahoga, for the 2011 election, will drop its plan to send unsolicited absentee ballot requests. In return, Husted’s office will distribute absentee ballot request forms to voters in all 88 counties for the 2012 presidential election, giving every Ohio voter “uniform and equal access to their ballots.” What’s more, Husted lined up backing for the compromise from Batchelder and Republican Senate president Thomas Niehaus.
FitzGerald—a potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2014—praised the agreement, saying, “We ended up making voting more convenient for millions of Ohioans. This is great news for anyone who believes public officials should try to keep voting simple.”
And that seems to be a theme for Husted, at least based on those two decisions that miffed his fellow Republicans.
As for the photo ID idea, the argument for the bill was that it would reduce or prevent voter fraud. The argument against it, mostly advanced by Democrats, was that the photo ID bill wasn’t needed—that it was a barely disguised attempt to keep down Democratic turnout. Most of the state’s editorial pages applauded Husted for his position that helped kill the legislation.
Regarding the referendum ballot language, it came before the Ohio Ballot Board, which is chaired by Husted. It decides the official wording for statewide ballot issues. The point of contention was this November’s referendum on the highly controversial and partisan Senate Bill 5, a bill the General Assembly Republicans passed and Kasich signed in March. Unions and their allies needed to collect valid signatures from 231,149 registered voters to put S.B. 5 on the ballot. The anti-S.B. 5 coalition submitted nearly 1.3 million signatures.
The pro-union side wanted the ballot wording to essentially say that a “yes” vote means you approve the law. The bill’s supporters wanted “yes” to mean you reject it.
Matching Ohio referendum precedents, the bipartisan Ballot Board unanimously sided with the pro-union crowd.
And once again, Husted didn’t see things the same way as many of his fellow Republicans.
