On Monday, incoming Gov. Mike DeWine will bring a public inauguration back inside the Statehouse for the first time in 52 years, since Gov. Jim Rhodes took the oath of office in the Rotunda in 1967. He also may bring back another tradition to the state capital.
In 2011, Gov. John Kasich delivered his first State of the State speech to a joint session of the House and Senate where it typically had been done – in the House chamber. But union protestors disrupted the speech several times, so he took the next seven speeches to communities around the state.
DeWine says he’s thinking about his upcoming speech. “I’m inclined to do the first one here," DeWine said, referring to the statehouse. "So we’ll kind of see, nothing official yet, but I’m inclined to do the first one here.”
DeWine says taking the speech on the road is a good idea, so that agency directors can see what’s happening at the local level. Lawmakers had embraced Kasich’s State of the State road trips at first, but over time began to raise concerns about cost and travel.
