Ohio’s 135th General Assembly is well and truly over, which calls to mind something the late, renowned Texas reporter Molly Ivins once wrote of her state’s solons: “ The ‘Lege’ is back in session! And many a village is missing its idiot. ” The reverse is happening in Ohio: From Lake Erie to the Ohio River, the geniuses who’ve spent two years mouthing off in the Statehouse at taxpayers’ expense, and done little else, are staggering home. Still, in two or three weeks, many, like the Terminator, will be back.
They’ll return to Columbus, resuming the Capitol Square fire-sale of Ohio’s assets to the oil-and-gas lobby (really, who needs state parks?) and the hounding of transsexual Ohioans, and of dark-complected refugees. True, there are glimmers of hope in Ohio politics. For one thing, Republican Gov.
Mike DeWine has finally said aloud what’s been obvious since he took office in January 2019: As long as Mike DeWine is governor (he’ll leave office in January 2027), Ohio won’t execute anyone sentenced to death . On the policy side of state government, there are things to fault about DeWine’s stewardship of Ohio. But as to the death penalty, and the governor’s defense of Springfield’s Haitian refugees (in contrast, for example, to the vile comments by Vice President-elect JD Vance, a Cincinnati Republican), history will judge Mike DeWine with respect.
Not so the General Assembly, which, unless it someday reaches a come-to-the-altar moment, has long be.
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