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Ryan Smith's Supporters Push for a Vote Now on Who Should be Ohio House Speaker

photo of Craig Riedel
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Last week, six conservative-leaning business organizations voiced their concerns with the delays.

There still are no voting sessions scheduled in the Ohio House because majority Republicans haven’t decided on who will lead the chamber through the end of this year. Backers of the representative with the most support so far are calling for a vote now.

Eleven Republicans who back Rep. Ryan Smith’s effort to take over for former Speaker Cliff Rosenberger through the end of this year say it’s time for the full caucus to vote. 

Rep. Craig Reidel says Smith was just three votes shy of getting the 50 needed to be elected speaker.

“So he has the vast, vast support of the majority of the House Republican party,” he said.

Reidel and the other representatives who delivered this message to reporters would not answer questions, including whether a deal is being struck behind closed doors between Speaker Pro Tem Kirk Schuring and former Speaker Larry Householder, who wants the speakership in January. 

Democratic Rep. David Leland wants to know why they wouldn’t answer questions. And he says it’s up to Republicans to come together to solve this problem.

“They are in charge. They have almost two-thirds of the vote in the House. They are the ones who are making the rules,” he said.

Leland says he wants to make sure any solution to the fight over the speakership would not sweep possible wrongdoing by Rosenberger under the rug. Rosenberger, resigned in April after saying he hasn’t done anything illegal but hired an attorney because the FBI was interested in his activities involving lobbyists.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.