Ohio Politics Almanac

Michael Curtin

Description

Roughly a century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt said, "I think there is only one thing in the world I can't understand, and that is Ohio politics." If The Ohio Politics Almanac had existed then, Roosevelt still might not have understood Ohio politics, but it wouldn't have been for lack of information. A comprehensive and authoritative resource, The Ohio Politics Almanac sheds light on the complexity of Ohio's electoral statistics. This third edition presents everything a journalist, political junkie, scholar, or candidate needs to know about Ohio demographics, elections, and government. It updates and expands on the Almanac's original chapters, including retrospectives on the state's 69 governors through 2014; a history of the General Assembly and its leaders, as well as the state's delegation to Congress; an examination of the structure of Ohio's judiciary and its key figures; important revisions to the state Constitution; the evolution of Ohio's political parties; and histories and statistical analyses of the state's 88 counties and biggest cities. New to this edition is the emphasis on electoral politics, based on recent political events. The Almanac now contains maps and charts illustrating the outcomes of presidential and gubernatorial elections statewide, by region and by county. The new material offers even more insight into why Ohio has become America's fulcrum state in presidential races-a must-win prize in modern national elections. Many national political reporters refer to the Almanac when they come to Ohio and, when they arrive in 2016 to cover the presidential election, this updated edition will instruct and guide their reporting with accuracy and clarity. The Ohio Politics Almanac is an indispensible, one-of-a-kind resource for anyone seeking to analyze Ohio's unique political culture.

Sujets

• Politique
• History of the Americas
• Midwestern United States
• Yearbook
• Local history
• Histoire
• Yearbooks

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 28 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781631011429
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

THE
Ohio Politics Almanac
THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND UPDATED
Michael F. Curtin and Joe Hallett
with Julia Barry Bell and Steven H. Steinglass

The Kent State University Press
KENT, OHIO
Copyright © 2015 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2015012336
ISBN 978-1-60635-248-9
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Curtin, Michael F., 1951–
The Ohio politics almanac / Michael F. Curtin and Joe Hallett with Julia Barry Bell and Steven H. Steinglass. — Third edition, revised and updated.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60635-248-9 (paperback : alkaline paper) ∞
1. Ohio—Politics and government—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Politicians—Ohio—Biography.
I. Hallett, Joe. II. Bell, Julia Barry, 1965– III. Steinglass, Steven H. IV. Title.
JK5531.C87 2015
320.9771—dc23
2015012336
Third Edition
19  18  17  16  15            5  4  3  2  1
CONTENTS
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the Third Edition
1 Ohio’s Political Heritage
2 Presidential Elections
3 The Ohio Presidents
4 Governors of Ohio
5 The Ohio General Assembly
6 The Ohio Judiciary
7 The Ohio Constitution
8 Democrats and Republicans
9 Ohio’s Political Demographics
10 Ohio’s Counties
11 Ohio’s Cities
12 Ohio by the Numbers
Appendix A: An Ohio Politics Timeline
Appendix B: Major Officeholders
Appendix C: Ohio Representation in the U.S. House of Representatives
Appendix D: Campaign Expenditures for State Executive Offices
Bibliography
Index of Names
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
The original edition of The Ohio Politics Almanac was published in 1996. It was a product of a political reporter’s frustration. During many years of covering local and state government and politics for the Columbus Dispatch , I frequently found myself searching for just the right piece of information under deadline: What was the political division of the Ohio legislature in a given year? When were Ohio’s constitutional conventions held? How have the various regions of Ohio differed in presidential elections? The goal was to create a helpful, single-source guide to Ohio government and politics that would answer these and many other questions.
Graphic designer Julia Barry Bell and I hoped to produce an attractive, easy-to-use reference that would appeal to journalists, elected officials, lobbyists, students and teachers of Ohio government and politics, and anyone with a passing interest in the state’s political heritage.
Encouraged by the reception given the first edition, we have updated the text in this new edition to reflect the events of another decade in Ohio’s political life. We hope it will be an invaluable addition to the state’s newsrooms, schools, and libraries. We also hope it will encourage more Ohioans to take an active interest in the rich civic and political life of their state.
Michael F. Curtin
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
As a longtime Ohio politics reporter, I welcomed Michael F. Curtin’s Ohio Politics Almanac in 1996 as a godsend. Finally, virtually everything you needed to know about Ohio politics and government was available in one book. No longer was it necessary to scour multiple and scattered references for information often needed on deadline. Chapters on Ohio’s presidents and governors, the General Assembly, courts and political parties, along with histories and statistical analyses of the 88 counties and biggest cities were all encapsulated in a handy, easy-to-use reference.
State and national journalists, elected officials, lobbyists, teachers, students, and everyday citizens with a passing interest in politics were delighted when Curtin updated his Almanac 10 years later, just in time for the 2006 Ohio governor race and 2008 presidential election.
And now comes the third edition. Curtin, who wanted it to be ready for the 2016 presidential race and to include information from the 2014 governor race, made a good start on the third update but became consumed with new duties as an elected member of the Ohio House of Representatives. So, he asked me to complete it. I was happy to oblige an old friend and colleague at The Columbus Dispatch .
This new edition retains and updates the texts and charts from the first two but offers more by casting a greater emphasis on electoral politics. Mike Dawson, an Ohio election statistics expert, kindly consented to provide maps and charts illustrating the outcome of presidential and gubernatorial elections statewide, by region and by county. Dawson spent more than twenty years studying Ohio elections and compiling results back to 1856, the advent of the state’s current two-party system. In 2014, he made them available to the public via an invaluable website— www.ohioelectionresults.com .
We hope that this third edition of the Ohio Politics Almanac is a resource that enriches the knowledge and understanding of politics and government in what has become America’s premier political battleground.
Joe Hallett
CHAPTER 1
Ohio’s Political Heritage
They were farmers and frontiersmen who distrusted strong central government, which they saw as removed, elitist, and controlled by powerful financial interests.
F or most of its history, Ohio has held a pivotal place in the national political landscape.
At the nation’s founding, the 981-mile Ohio River was the primary route westward into the vast interior and the promise of America. The river ensured that pioneers who ventured into the Northwest Territory would come into the lands that would become Ohio. It also ensured that, with the river as its southern boundary, Ohio essentially would be settled from the south up. It explains why a southern community, Chillicothe, would become Ohio’s first capital.
The first permanent white settlement in Ohio was along the river, at Marietta in April of 1788. The settlers were members of the Ohio Company of Associates and the first of many to claim land bounties in Ohio in exchange for their service in the Revolutionary War.
This first settlement occurred just seven months after adoption of the federal Constitution in Philadelphia, and while the original 13 states were in the process of ratification. The early pioneers largely were from the New England states and were descendants of English Protestants. Those who had made their way into the rich Ohio lands knew that the territory would attract many. In 1790, an estimated 4,200 people lived between the western boundary of Pennsylvania and the Mississippi River. By 1800, at the taking of the second national census, Ohio’s population already had grown to 45,365.

Major Political Parties in the U.S.

Source: Adapted from Congressional Quarterly, Guide to U.S. Elections (1975), p. 176
DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS TAKE POWER
A majority of the men who took part in public affairs in Ohio’s earliest days identified with the Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson. They were farmers and frontiersmen who distrusted strong central government, which they saw as removed, elitist, and controlled by powerful financial interests. The early Ohioans favored statehood to ensure close-to-home representation.
The Federalists, members of the party of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, opposed statehood for Ohio. One of them, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, had been appointed in 1788 by Congress as governor of the Territory of Ohio. St. Clair vetoed many bills of the territorial legislature, controlled by members of the Democratic-Republican Party, and otherwise frustrated the aims of the majority. Growing opposition to his rule soon would result in his ouster. Thomas Worthington, a leader of the Democratic-Republicans, accomplished that by filing charges against St. Clair with President Jefferson in 1802 at about the time Congress was passing an act to enable the people of Ohio to form a constitution and state government.
On November 1, 1802, an Ohio Constitutional Convention began meeting in Chillicothe. Of the 35 delegates there, 26 were members of the Democratic-Republican Party. Seven were Federalists. The affiliations of the two others are unknown. The dominance of the Democratic-Republican Party at Ohio’s founding also is underscored by the fact that the state’s first seven governors were members of it.
The experience under St. Clair was the major reason the drafters of Ohio’s first constitution made sure that the document severely limited the governor’s powers. For example, it gave the governor no veto authority. This initial distrust of strong, centralized authority would become engrained in the state’s political culture. For decades to come, analysts would describe Ohio politics in terms of a suspicion toward government, an antitax sentiment, and a conservative outlook.
On February 19, 1803, Ohio was admitted into the Union as the 17th state, after Tennessee and before Louisiana. Ohio’s admission came one month after Edward Tiffin of Chillicothe was elected Ohio’s first governor.
The members of the Democratic-Republican Party often referred to themselves as Republicans. Their opponents, though, frequently referred to them as Democrats, because the word democrat at the time carried negative connotations of mob rule identified with the French Revolution. Even today, some references to Ohio politics refer to the early governors as Democrats while others refer to them as Republicans. In fact, they were Democratic-Republicans.
RISE OF THE WHIGS
In the 1820s, the party shortened its name to the Democratic Party under the leadership of Andrew Jackson, who emphasized the rule of the common man. The Federalist Party had ceased to be a factor in national and state elections. Jackson was elected president in 1828 and re-elected in 1832, and carried Ohio in both elections. Jacksonian democracy blossomed in the 1830s and 1840s.
In the 1830s, the Whig Party—the party of H