LaRose, Stewart forget Ohio’s history as they seek to upend … – Canton Repository

Mike Curtin| Guest Columnist

Each state has its distinct political heritage.

The constitutional and governmental legacies of our 50 states differ in many ways, large and small. Citizens of our states take pride in their differences.

Most of the pioneers who carved Ohio from the Northwest Territory, at least those taking part in public affairs, identified with the Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson.

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They were farmers, frontiersmen and craftsmen who distrusted strong central government. They opposed the Federalists, whom they saw as aristocratic, elitist and controlled by powerful financial interests.

Ohios founders were plain folk who resented the heavy hand of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Territory of Ohio, who with fellow Federalists opposed statehood for Ohio.

In 1801, when Jefferson was elected president, our states founders saw their opening, enlisted his help to dump St. Clair, and went about business to create the 17th state.

In 1802 at Ohios first constitutional convention in Chillicothe, 26 of the 35 delegates elected from nine counties were Democratic-Republicans. Seven were Federalists. Political affiliations of two remain unknown.

Ohios first seven governors were Democratic-Republicans. Both of Ohios constitutions, products of 1802 and 1851, were infused with Jeffersonian ideals of trusting the people more than elected officials.

The 1802 Constitution made the governor a figurehead. State lawmakers were put on tight leashes one-year terms for representatives, two-year terms for senators. In 1851, House terms were lengthened to two years. Not until 1956, more than a century later, were Senate terms lengthened to four years.

The suspicion Ohios founders held for centralized authority became engrained in the states political culture and endured. The 1851 Constitution established a debt limit of $750,000 absent a public vote. It remains.

The 1851 Constitution also adopted the Jeffersonian idea of requiring that every 20 years Ohioans must vote on whether to hold another state constitutional convention to revise, alter or amend the document. Ohioans vote again on this question in 2032.

The Bill of Rights in our 1851 Constitution proclaims the people have the right to alter, reform or abolish their state government whenever they may deem it necessary.

Throughout Ohios 220-year experiment in democracy, the peoples determination to steer their government never was stronger than in the early 20th century. As Ohio was transformed into an industrial dynamo, monopolistic tycoons bought big-city political bosses and their hand-picked officeholders. Ohios Statehouse became one of the most corrupt in the nation.

Crookedness spawned reform, which found its expression in the 1912 constitutional convention. No reform was more cleansing than voter adoption, by a landslide of 57.5%, of the initiative and referendum.

In 1912, Nebraska and Ohio became the 12th and 13th states to embrace constitutional direct democracy. Ohios constitutional initiative is the crown jewel of our states political heritage. As intended, it reminds elected officials who ultimately is in charge who owns the constitution.

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Now, some Statehouse politicians plot to embezzle that inheritance. They devise an unprecedented August election, hoping to catch most Ohioans sleeping, while getting enough of their supporters to the polls to pull off the heist.

The plan would cripple Ohioans ability to effectively use their 111-year-old right to initiate amendments, by doubling signature-gathering quotas from 44 counties to all 88, and by requiring all future amendments to win by a 60% ratio.

In justifying their plan, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, continually note that 32 states dont permit citizen-led, constitutional initiatives.

Unaware of Ohio history, their recitation always includes New England states where the Federalist Party ran strongest and left lasting marks on their political cultures.

LaRose and Stewart could not sound a more discordant note. They could not demonstrate a more fundamental misunderstanding of Ohios political heritage.

Ohioans never have shown any interest in emulating the political cultures of New York, Connecticut or Maryland. For two centuries, theyve identified much more with fellow pioneers who opened up the West, insisting on popular sovereignty.

Mike Curtin is a former editor and associate publisher of the Columbus Dispatch, and a former two-term state representative who served on the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.

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LaRose, Stewart forget Ohio's history as they seek to upend ... - Canton Repository