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Movers and shakers aim for speaker's chair
By Dennis Willard
Beacon Journal columnist
Published on Sunday, Feb 03, 2008
COLUMBUS: Times and term limits have certainly altered perspectives and circumstances in the state legislature, particularly the Ohio House.
On Thursday, campaign finance reports for the latter half of 2007 were filed by state lawmakers.
It is not enough to raise large chunks of money from contributors who certainly want something, financial or philosophical, in return for their investment.
These days, lawmakers send out missives to the media boasting of their fundraising fecundity.
The main money shakers and movers among Ohio House Democrats this year are freshmen.
Armond Budish from Beachwood, near Cleveland, raised $536,000.
Matt Szollosi from Oregon, a Toledo suburb, reported $325,000.
Ted Celeste of Columbus, the brother of former Gov. Richard Celeste, raked in $220,000.
Each would like to be the first sophomore lawmaker in modern times to be speaker of the House.
Before term limits took effect in 2000, freshman lawmakers arriving in Columbus were told to shut up, listen and learn.
Vern Riffe was entering his 17th year in office when he began a 22-year-run as the longest reigning speaker of the Ohio House.
In 1995, Riffe's successor, Jo Ann Davidson, was in her 15th year when she made history by becoming the first female speaker of the House.
Facing term limits, Davidson relinquished the job to Larry Householder, a wily and ambitious lawmaker from Perry County who wrote the book on becoming speaker in the post-term limits era.
He started planning for the job as a freshman. In his second term, he traveled the state meeting with contributors. He recruited candidates for the open district races created every two years by the forced exodus of veterans. And he made pacts with returning lawmakers.
Householder's dream of using the speaker's power as a launching pad for statewide office crashed and burned, in large part because of hubris and the fact that he surrounded himself with ruthless and zealous bullies.
The current speaker, Jon Husted from Kettering, learned huge lessons from Householder's talents and shortcomings. He followed a similar path to becoming speaker, but once in the job, Husted demonstrated a political acumen and mien that Householder sorely lacked.
Husted is heading to the Ohio Senate, joining more and more former House members who flourished under his leadership and would most certainly be open to supporting him for president in the near future.
Only 40, Husted is best positioned to win the political trifecta of being speaker, Senate president and governor.
The race to replace Husted as speaker began almost immediately after the polls closed in November 2006.
On that day, Bill Batchelder, a Republican from Medina, was elected to return to the Ohio House after an eight-year hiatus.
Twelve years earlier, Batchelder, who was first elected to the legislature in the '60s, was forced to watch Davidson ascend to the position he coveted, even though she had been in the House only since 1981.
Batchelder reported raising $232,000 on Thursday.
He trails Matt Dolan, a Republican from Novelty in Geauga County, in the money race. Dolan, a true sophomore lawmaker like Householder and Husted before him, raised $489,000.
All eyes would be on Dolan and Batchelder, except Democrats picked up eight
seats in the 2006 elections to trim the Republican majority to 53-46.
With a popular governor in Ted Strickland, Democrats in the Ohio House now have the power to shape policy and are within striking distance of winning four seats in 2008 and taking the House for the first time since 1995.
Fundraising is a whole lot easier when a lawmaker actually has the power to do something for the person wielding the checkbook.
And so we have the suddenly popular Budish, Szollosi and Celeste.
Budish raised the most money and would appear to be the front-runner to lead Democrats next year.
Szollosi must be taken seriously. It is no coincidence that Szollosi sits next to Chris Redfern — the former minority leader who currently chairs the Ohio Democratic Party — in the House chamber.
Redfern is credited with taking advantage of Republican scandals in 2006 to help Democrats win the governor's race and three other statewide offices and swing eight seats in the House.
Szollosi was recruited by Redfern to come to Columbus. They've known each other for more than a decade. Redfern helped Szollosi win four races for Oregon City Council.
Celeste appeals to some of the veteran Democrats in the Ohio House who see Budish and Szollosi as too young, inexperienced and ambitious to lead them.
Yes, Celeste is a freshman lawmaker, but some colleagues view him differently because he's older and seemingly more experienced.
Upon closer inspection, however, Celeste's experience in public office is limited. His biggest accomplishment was landing a plum appointment from his brother to sit on Ohio State University's board of trustees.
And Celeste is in a tough district for a Democrat, which means his main focus will have to be on winning his own race rather than coordinating campaigns.
A fourth contender is Todd Book, the true legislative veteran.
Book is the second highest ranking Democrat in the House minority leadership and he is in his fourth year.
He raised $99,000, but in the past has sent mixed signals to his colleagues that he wants to focus on his family and law practice in Scioto County, once home to Riffe, coincidentally.
These days, no one has the luxury of pondering whether they want to be speaker or minority leader.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Times and term limits have certainly altered perspectives and circumstances in the state legislature, particularly the Ohio House.
Get the full article here.
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