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In this Sept. 13, 2018, file photo, former President Barack Obama shakes hands with members of the audience as he campaigns in support of Ohio gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray in Cleveland.
Voters in five states head to the polls Tuesday, and both parties are looking for signs of strength and unity in their ranks less than three months until the first major U.S. election since the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington State all hold primaries Tuesday, but the special election in Ohio's 12th Congressional District is taking on particular significance because it's the last time Democrats and Republicans will face off directly until November.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today released the following statement regarding Senate Bill 220, the Data Protection Act sponsored by State Senators Bob Hackett and Kevin Bacon , being signed into law: "I congratulate Senator Hackett and Senator Bacon for working with their Senate and House colleagues to pass this important bill and send it to the governor's desk and commend the governor for signing it into law," said Attorney General DeWine. "By encouraging Ohio business owners to take appropriate and proven steps to enhance their cybersecurity, Ohioans can be confident that their personal information will be better protected.
Senator Rob Portman has introduced a new bill in the Senate that would give the Internal Revenue Service the authority to regulate income tax return preparers. The bill is cosponsored by Senator Ben Cardin .
Key General Assembly Republicans are unhappy with their fellow Republican, Gov. John Kasich, for what his own press release termed "aggressive new action" to protect Lake Erie from agricultural runoff in western Ohio's Maumee River basin. On Wednesday, responding to Kasich's July 11 executive order, House Speaker Ryan Smith, a Republican from Gallia County's Bidwell, and other top Republican lawmakers asked Kasich to rescind it .
Forget the Democratic Socialist in New York. If Democrats retake the House of Representatives on Election Day, it will be because of people like Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb.
Ohio's elections chief says he's making extra efforts to help Ohio voters remain registered after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state's stringent practices for removing inactive voters from rolls.
Despite all the Democrats' special election wins, high voter turnout in primaries and polls showing strong party enthusiasm heading into the midterms, the fact remains that Democrats are still stuck at their lowest level of power in nearly a century. Even as President Trump's poll numbers have stabilized, party leaders see 2018 as a chance to seize back one key lever of government: The House of Representatives.
Last Wednesday, June 6, State Representative Ryan Smith of southeast Ohio was selected as the Speaker of the House following a grueling 11 rounds of voting by the legislature. The political jockeying among Republicans, who hold the majority in the state's legislature, began on Tuesday, April 10, when former Speaker Cliff Rosenberger announced his resignation amid an FBI probe into alleged favors given to Rosenberger by representatives of Ohio's payday loan industry.
While gerrymandering disputes from other states have landed in the U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio voters apparently took the historic step Tuesday of passing a bipartisan proposal aimed at creating fairer and more logical congressional districts. Results reported by 10 p.m. showed Issue 1 leading 73 percent to 27 percent.
The group behind a proposal to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Ohio is reportedly planning to resubmit the language of its ballot measure, which was rejected by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office Thursday. Ohio Families for Change says it will fix errors and may resubmit the issue as early as next week, according to a report at Cleveland.com.
Attorney General Mike DeWine rejected a petition Thursday proposing legalizing marijuana in the state of Ohio to anyone 21 years and older. This amendment will add a new Section 24 to Article 1 of the Ohio Constitution to endow the Ridghts of persons in Ohio age 21 years and older to possess, produce, process, use, transport, sell, purchase, and share marijuana in Ohio The attorney general's office said the petition, titled "Marijuana Rights and Regulations Amendment," was rejected for several reasons, including: The summary language giving the General Assembly authority to regulate "marijuana commerce" does not accurately reflect the actual amendment language.
State Issue 1 on the May 8 primary ballot offers Ohioans a long-sought chance to reform how the state draws its congressional districts. The Ohio legislature proposed Issue 1 with overwhelming House and Senate support.
Republican Gov. John Kasich restored Ohio's membership in the National Governors Association as he seeks to shore up credibility for bipartisan deal-making that could bolster a 2020 bid for president. An invoice produced in response to a public records request shows Ohio rejoined the bipartisan policy group in January for the first time in eight years.
Republican Gov. John Kasich restored Ohio's membership in the National Governors Association as he seeks to shore up credibility for bipartisan deal-making that could bolster a 2020 bid for president.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur is now the longest-serving woman in the history of the House of Representatives, breaking the record today -- 12,858 days after she first took office in 1983. Kaptur told ABC News that as she surpasses the milestone, previously held by Massachusetts Republican Rep. Edith Nourse Rogers, she is "a citizen with deep gratitude and very energized to keep going and to keep working."
State Rep. Nickie Antonio, a Lakewood Democrat, has said that support from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce has given new momentum to her Ohio House Bill 160 that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender idenity in Ohio. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell decision protected a person's right to enter into a same-sex marriage.
The candidacy of Bill O'Neill, the former Ohio Supreme Court justice who quit the court to run for governor, could hurt down-ballot Democratic candidates should he become the party's nominee in the race, a party background check committee has determined. However, the party has decided to allow O'Neill - who raised eyebrows when he announced on social media he had bedded 50 women -- to participate in gubernatorial forums and debates since he has held statewide office and has been endorsed by the party in the past.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he is hoping that a group he's quietly convened to find solutions to gun violence in the state will be able to deliver something by the end of next week to the General Assembly. Kasich, in Washington, D.C., for a meeting of the National Governors Association, declined to lay out what the group is considering, but said they've reached agreements on four different issues.