About a week after 22 Republicans sided with the Democrats to elect moderate State Representative Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) as Speaker of the Ohio House, State Representative Derek Merrin (R-Monclova) invited his 45 supporters to a closed-door meeting Wednesday at the Ohio Statehouse to discuss their next steps.
This follows Merrin losing the vote for speaker over Stephens, who won with 22 Republicans and all 32 Democrats voting for him despite the Republican Caucus‘ previous selection in November of Merrin as the new speaker.
According to State Representative Gary Click (R-Vickery), it is doubtful that Stephens can regain the respect of the Republican Caucus after going back on his word, pledging to abide by the decision of the caucus and by making deals with the Democratic Party to obtain their votes.
“He has an uphill battle to earn the respect of the majority Republican caucus, including me. Not sure that is an achievable aspiration after being betrayed and lied to,” Click said.
The meeting was organized by State Representatives Merrin, Phil Plummer (R-Dayton), Susan Manchester (R-Waynesfield), Scott Wiggam (R-Wayne County), and Brian Stewart (R-Ashville), who were the leadership team the caucus voted for in November.
The agenda included discussing House rules, redistricting, and a timeline of progression with a proposed constitutional amendment to require support from at least 60 percent of voters rather than a simple majority to pass future proposed amendments.
Merrin invited the 45 Republicans who didn’t vote for Stephens for speaker. They include the 43 Republicans who voted for him, as well as GOP State Representatives Gayle Manning (R-North Ridgeville) and Adam Holmes (R-Nashport), who missed last Tuesday’s speaker vote.
According to Stewart, who supports Merrin, many phone calls have been exchanged between members since the election of Stephens, and it made sense to bring everyone together to discuss concerns as a group.
“I think the plan is just to allow a group of like-minded members to get together and talk about policy (and) talk about what is likely to happen in the House in the year ahead,” Stewart said.
According to State Representative Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville), the GOP party now only consists of the 45 Merrin voters.
“We didn’t separate from them, they separated from us,” Ferguson said.
Bills need a majority of 50 votes to pass the House if all 99 members vote. The 45 lawmakers outnumber both the 32 House Democrats and the 22 Republicans who voted for Stephens.
If the 45 supporters of Merrin refuse to vote with Stephens, he would have to rely on votes from Democrats to pass legislation.
Democrats said they voted for Stephens primarily because of Merrin’s advocacy of several conservative proposals, including the expansion of school vouchers, the “right-to-work” bill, and an abortion ban.
Last week, Ohio Republicans censured the 22 lawmakers for voting with Democrats to choose the new Speaker of the Ohio House, saying they had disregarded their obligations to the party and the public.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Jason Stephens” by Jason Stephens.
