The leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president brought his campaign to Columbus for the first time, and Donald Trump's rally that brought out thousands of supporters and more than a hundred protestors, along with a lot of criticism from supporters of his GOP opponent, Gov. John Kasich. The GOP has released its logo for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next year. And a report from the state inspector general says a former top aide to Ohio's lieutenant governor claimed traveling to salon appointments as work and got paid for it.
Term limits have been the law in Ohio since 1992, when voters approved limiting state lawmakers to eight years of elected terms in each chamber. But lawmakers were not limited to a total number of years in the legislature. There’s been some discussion in the Constitutional Modernization Commission on extending term limits out to 12 years. And last month a Tea Party-backed group announced plans for a ballot issue to limit lawmakers to eight years at the Statehouse. In April, two experts shared their thoughts. Catherine Turcer, policy analyst for the government watchdog group Common Cause Ohio, makes the case for extending term limits. Making the case against changing term limits is Rob Walgate, vice president of the American Policy Roundtable, headquartered in Strongsville south of Cleveland.
The phrase “institutional knowledge” comes up a lot in a discussion about term limits. But in the absence of people with institutional knowledge, the Ohio Politics Almanac will do nicely. It features the usual data along with historical background about the eight presidents from Ohio, Ohio’s eight biggest cities and the state’s 69 governors in very readable bios and story form. In August, the authors talked about the latest update to the book. Mike Curtin is a former reporter, associate publisher, vice president and COO with the Columbus Dispatch, who retired in 2007 and is now serving his second term as a Democratic member of the Ohio House. Joe Hallett is a former reporter and senior editor with the Dispatch who covered politics for more than 40 years with the Toledo Blade and then the Dispatch – he retired last year.