Ohio House Finally Resumes Activity; Heights Rep Comments

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH — For nearly two months, the Ohio House of Representatives has been in chaos. House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, a Republican from Clarksville, resigned in April when the FBI announced they were launching an investigation into his activities.

Ohio Republicans needed to nominate Rosenberger's replacement. What followed was weeks of political in-fighting and negotiating, cancelled legislative sessions and total inactivity.

Finally, on late Wednesday afternoon, after 11 rounds of voting, Republicans elected Ryan Smith, from Bidwell, to serve as Speaker of the House. Smith carried a narrow margin of victory into his new role. On Facebook, Smith said simply, "Let's get to work."

For Democrats, "Let's get to work" has been a rallying cry for weeks and weeks.

“Republicans could not have expected that Democrats would affirm their nominees for Speaker of the House. When I invite people over to my house, I invite them over for refreshments- sandwiches, tea, coffee, a glass of wine. I invite them over for quality conversation and meaningful relationship-building. I don’t invite them over to help me clean my house, that would be tacky,” said Rep. Janine Boyd, Democrat from Cleveland Heights.

"Especially when they have more people in their house than we have in ours- they can clean their own house. They have not exactly been pleasant hosts, offering little to no compromise and dialogue on issues important to us. We are wary of the ongoing FBI investigation. I hope now we can finally have more open conversations about issues facing our state without scandal, chaos and controversy."

Boyd was joined by other Democrats in both congratulating Smith and cajoling Republicans for their mucking up of the legislative session.

“I am hopeful that the chaos and dysfunction that has plagued this institution will fade, but the hard truth is there is still a cloud of uncertainty cast upon our work as alleged corruption and wrongdoing continues to be investigated. I congratulate the new speaker and implore him to put divisive political bills aside so that we may all recommit ourselves to truly working in a bipartisan way to bring needed and meaningful change to our great state," said House Democratic Leader Fred Strahorn, from Dayton.

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