COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — It is day two of a special session, as ordered by the Gov. Mike DeWine, to address two issues.
The first was to ensure that President Joe Biden would be on Ohio’s ballot. As things stand, he will not be, so lawmakers were working on legislation to create a temporary fix by moving state’s candidate filing deadline for Biden. However, the Democratic National Committee announced on Tuesday that it would take the matter into its own hands.
“I think any argument for a temporary fix at this point is moot,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said.
The developments have made some members question how necessary this special session was to begin with.
“The Democrats have every ability to fix that problem on their own,” Rep. D.J. Swearingen (R-Huron) said. “I was frustrated because no emergency session was called for COVID, we had an election cancelled, businesses shutdown and individual liberties tramped on and there was no emergency session for that, so I find the emergency session a little unnecessary.”
Still, DeWine wants to see the issue addressed. The Senate did pass a temporary fix on Tuesday, as part of House Bill 271. The House is still working on its temporary fix as part of House Bill 2.
“The real issue here is that we need a permanent fix to this issue that impacts not just this year, or President Biden,” Russo said. “We’ve had to do this essentially every year since this law has been in effect and so I think the sense of urgency of doing a temporary fix is lost at this point. And frankly, I’m not even sure we can get across the finish line this week.”
Chair of Ohio House Government Oversight Committee, Rep. Bob Peterson (R-Sabina) said he, personally, would be open to a long-term fix, but said they should take more time with it instead of trying to pass something this week.
“I think we’ve ought to take some input from the Secretary of State, I think we need to talk to local boards of elections,” Peterson said. “There’s a reason why those timeframes were put in place, so that they can do the work. Now, certainly, technology is very different now than it was 200 years ago. So, do we need those same timeframes? I don’t know.”
House Bill 1 is also being considered by the House Government Oversight Committee. The bill is meant to ban foreign contributions to issue campaigns, like the redistricting or minimum wage initiatives that are collecting signatures to try and make November’s ballot.
“It’s awful, it’s terrible, it’s undemocratic,” opponent Laura Irvin said. “They want to silence our voices, they don’t want us to have input as to what goes on in this state.”
The bill would prohibit a foreign national, as defined by federal law, from knowingly making or promising to make a campaign contribution to a state or local ballot issues.
At its core, both Democrats and Republicans do not oppose the idea of banning foreign money, though Democrats said it is not a real threat and is already illegal.
“We all know that this is about silencing voter voices in November as it specifically relates to ballot initiatives,” Russo said. “The current legislation both passed by the Senate and what is on the table for the House encompasses much more than their quote-unquote foreign money fix.”
“If a foreign entity person was to distort Ohio’s elections, I think we should stop it,” Peterson said. “I think we should stop it today.”
Opponents of the bill worry that under the bill, the attorney general would have unchecked power, leaving room for him or her to play favorites.
“I’m worried about abuse of the process not necessarily in 2024, but now and years later,” executive director of Common Cause Ohio Catherine Turcer said.
“You want the law to be enforced equally, so hopefully we get that provision of the bill right,” Swearingen said. “I expect that there will be some guardrails so there is no unfair prosecution and everything that is done is done correctly and by the letter of the law.”
But citizens and opponents to the measure said it is simply just too unclear and they said have a chilling effect on ballot initiatives, as Ohioan’s will be too worried about breaking the law.
“I don’t see it that way because those individuals still have access to the ballot, they can put their initiatives on the ballot, they just can’t be funded by foreign money,” Swearingen said.
Swearingen said the House bill gets to the “root of the issue,” which he said is foreign money in politics, without doing “harm to grassroots initiatives.”
The House bill will likely be amended on Thursday, Peterson said, to simplify the language and ensure it does not impact grassroots initiatives.
“We have a 20-page bill and if we can find a way to do it in a four-page bill, I think that’s a great thing,” Peterson said.
Right now, the Ohio Revised Code expressly prohibits foreign national donations to candidates. Some members of the committee, like Rep. Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati), said that part of law just needs a few extra words to create effective legislation.
“All we would need to do, if that was truly the intended purpose of the bill, would be to add a portion of a sentence that says, ‘and ballot initiatives,’” Isaacsohn said.
Peterson said his hope is that the bill will be amended to look like that on Thursday.
“I can assure you that there’s discussions and we’re listening to the testimony of Ohioans,” Peterson said.
House Bill 1 does have an emergency clause attached, meaning if both the House and Senate pass it, it will take effect immediate upon the governor’s signature. Even if House Bill 1 does pass the House, it would be up to the Senate to take a vote and send it to the governor’s desk.
The Senate has passed its version of a foreign money campaign contribution ban four times. The bill would take the law a step further by doing things like prohibiting green card holders from contributing to issue campaigns, too. In order for any of them to be sent to the governor’s desk, the House will need to take a concurrence vote.