TO CHOOSE ?
NEXT REPUBLICAN SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
As a preface to today's blog is a link (under the graphic) to Cleveland.com's political newsletter CAPITOL LETTER 2019 political predictions involving Ohio politicians.
And here is a second LINK to today's edition of Cleveland.com's Capitol Letter.
TODAY'S BLOG (January 1, 2019)
On January 7, 2019 the Ohio House of Representatives will vote on who is to be Speaker of the House for the next two years.
This past Friday, December 28th, with some 26 Republicans boycotting the session, there was an "informal" by some 35, more or less, "present and voting Republicans
- (including Stark County's Reggie Stoltzfus, a former Paris Township trustee, who is Representative-elect for the Ohio 50th House District)
- who replaced Republican Christina Hagan who gave up the seat to run in a losing effort for the 16th Congressional District formerly held by Republican Jim Renacci,
Stoltzfus had the following reactions for the SCPR in reference to the Smith/Householder fight:
On June 6th, Smith was elected to the speakership on the resignation on the resignation (on or about April 12, 2018) of Cliff Rosenberger.
Rosenberger came to Stark County in January, 2018 to host a fundraiser for Stoltzfus) who reportedly was at the time and apparently still is under investigation by the FBI.
Here is Stoltzfus' reaction to the reputed Rosenberger legal troubles and the matter of a new speaker to replace Rosenberger.
Reggie Stoltzfus
To: Martin Olson
May 24 at 8:13 AM
Hi Martin, as I stated before I am disappointed that Mr. Rosenberger is under investigation. He deserves his day in court if he has done something wrong.
On the topic of the Speaker election. The members need to come together immediately and choose a speaker. The business of Ohio must go on!
During the interim between the Rosenberger resignation and Ryan Smith's election on June 6th (see below); Stark Countian Kirk Schuring served as "interim" speaker.
During the 2018 50th District Republican primary election, the brother of Christina Hagan, Josh Hagan, sided up with the Larry Householder forces.
Stoltzfus aligned with Ryan Smith.
During the campaign, both the Householder and Smith factors weighed in or the Hagan/Stoltzfus match up with some pretty nasty campaign flyers.
The Stark County Political Report has been told "flat-out" that Smith will be unable to get 50 votes out of the 61 Republicans who have been elected to the Ohio House for the 2019=2020 term and that it will be the Ohio Democratic Caucus who will decide among Smith and competing former Ohio Speaker Larry Householder as to whom among them will be speaker.
Source: Wikipedia (an extract)
Typically, the minority party puts up one of its own as a candidate though it will be a vain act because one majority party candidate or another will be able to garner 50 of the 99 Ohio House members which of course means that the majority party has a minimum of 50 members in order to constitute a majority.in control of leadership of the House.
The idea for Democrats to become a factor is brokering the Republican feud came from "organized" labor.
The foregoing linked Cleveland.com article aside, the SCPR is told organized pressure on Democratic legislators to make Larry Householder speaker continues up to the very moment.
Householder is said to be much more effective in one-on-ones with Democratic factors within the overall Ohio House Democratic Caucus than Smith.
So it appears that if Republicans cannot get their act together in terms of finding 50 votes for either Smith or Householder, Democrats will indeed "ironically" chose the next Republican Speaker of the Ohio House.
Representative Stoltzfus reaction:
First:
Reggie Stoltzfus
To: Martin Olson
Dec 13 at 1:24 PM
Martin, the "Dean" of the caucus Rep. Jim Butler is supposed to call a closed door vote with Republican members that will be in the 133rd General Assembly.
Sincerely,
Reggie Stoltzfus
Second:
Reggie Stoltzfus
To: Martin Olson
Dec 28 at 4:38 PM
yes I was present yesterday at the caucus meeting, and very disappointed more members did not show up. The vote was 100% unanimous.
If Larry Householder wants to be Speaker he should have brought his supporters to the meeting and officially threw his hat in the ring. Again, very disappointed in my fellow legislators.
The SCPR thinks that Stark's other Representative-elect Scott Oelslager (who does not respond to SCPR questions) likely is a Householder guy due to Householder going back 20 years or more (broken up terms) in the Ohio House undoubtedly crossing paths with and working with Householder.
Time will tell whether or not the statement "Ohio House Democratic Caucus" members actually get to chose a Republican Speaker of the House.
The Report is skeptical that Republicans will allow that to happen.
But these days, is seems "the unexpected" is to be expected when it comes to national, state and local politics!
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