Two Miami U students don’t have coronavirus: Capitol Letter

Ohio Statehouse

Ohio Statehouse (Laura Hancock/cleveland.com)

Rotunda Rumblings

No coronavirus in Ohio: Coronavirus tests on two Miami University students who had recently been to China have come back negative, cleveland.com’s Laura Hancock reports. Health officials announced the results Sunday night in Oxford.

Money Mike: After a breather the first few months after Gov. Mike DeWine took office last year, the governor’s campaign fundraisers collected nearly $1.4 million in the last half of 2019, according to cleveland.com’s Jeremy Pelzer. About $165,000 of that came from various unions, a reflection of how of organized labor’s increasing friendliness with Republicans as the GOP continues their dominance of state government.

Cash stash: Ohio House Republicans enter 2020 with a three-to-one ($1.8 million to $601,000) cash advantage over their Democratic opponents, while Senate Republicans’ cash lead is closer to 10-to-one, ($2.6 million to $221,200) cleveland.com’s Andrew Tobias writes. The Republicans also outraised – by around 15 times as much – the Democrats running for the Ohio Supreme Court. The makeup of the court will be important as it will probably have a redistricting case before it, Hancock reports.

Federal funds: Cleveland.com’s Sabrina Eaton has the details on congressional fundraising, which show Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan’s campaign benefiting from his enhanced profile as one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal public defenders. Meanwhile, Rep. Tim Ryan, who abandoned his Democratic bid for president, had the least amount of money in the bank for his re-election of any area member of Congress.

Two more months: The Ohio Senate has accepted the House’s plan to delay for two months a decision about how to change the state’s voucher program. Open enrollment in EdChoice was to begin Saturday. The Ohio Federation of Teachers, which is critical of the vouchers, was hopeful of a good outcome. Citizens for Community Values, which supports vouchers, said the legislature created “chaos and confusion.”

Postponed again: DeWine has put off three more executions. As Pelzer reports, Ohio continues to have difficulty finding pharmaceutical suppliers willing to provide drugs for executions.

Giving it another try: A group seeking a ballot measure in November to expand Ohio’s voting access laws will have to collect another 1,000 signatures and resubmit its proposed summary language, Tobias reports. Attorney General Dave Yost rejected the amendment language, saying it wasn’t an accurate summary of the issue.

Not giving it another try: State Rep. J. Todd Smith is ending his re-election campaign, Pelzer reports. His departure from the race could give a potential boost to Democrats eyeing his House District 43 seat in Western Ohio.

What Iowa means for Ohio: Iowa’s up first with its caucuses Monday while Ohio’s primary is six weeks away. These two states voted for Barack Obama twice, then flipped to Donald Trump in 2016. Cleveland.com’s data guy Rich Exner took a look by the numbers at the two states, noting that Iowa is less diverse, Ohio far more densely populated. And as for the all-important economy scorecard: jobs are up and unemployment rates down in both states in the three years since Trump took office in January 2017, but at slower rates than the improvements over the last three years under Obama.

More from Iowa: Cleveland.com’s chief political reporter Seth Richardson has been in Iowa covering all things caucus. You can find all of his coverage here.

On the guest list: A Cincinnati man will be a guest of Trump for his State of the Union address, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Tony Rankin, an Army veteran and recovering drug addict, will attend the Tuesday speech. Meanwhile, Ohio Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown says he’s calling attention to Trump’s “betrayal of workers” by inviting Dave Green, who was United Auto Workers Local 1112 president when GM shut down its Lordstown plant.

Coming up: Secretary of State Frank LaRose is expected to announce this week how many of Ohio’s 88 county boards of election met a Jan. 31 state deadline to upgrade their security measures. LaRose issued the security directive last June. In December, the last time he shared a substantive update, LaRose said 52 counties had completed at least half of the security checklist contained in the directive.

It’s official: The final blow has been dealt to the referendum to overturn House Bill 6, the law bailing out Ohio’s nuclear power plants. As Randy Ludlow reports for the Columbus Dispatch, the Ohio Supreme Court officially dismissed the case after the group behind it abandoned the effort.

Rate cut: The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation hopes to cut rates for private employers by 13%, Mark Williams reports for the Columbus Dispatch. “The reduction would be the third rate cut in three years for private employers and the 11th since 2008,” Williams writes. “Last year’s cut was 20%.”

Lobbying Lineup

Five groups that are lobbying on House Bill 49, which would allow a concealed gun license to be used as voter identification. The bill is in a House committee. State lobbying forms don’t require people to identify which side of an issue they are on.

1. Ohio Association of Election Officials

2. County Commissioners’ Association of Ohio

3. UHCAN, also known as University Health Care Action Network

4. City of Dayton

5. Nationwide Children’s Hospital

On the Move

Consultant Wes Farno has been named executive director of the Ohio Strong Action PAC, a conservative organization chaired by Mike Gibbons, a Cleveland businessman and former U.S. Senate candidate.

Birthdays

Shawn Kaysich, former Ohio House chief of staff

Judson Harmon, Ohio’s 45th governor (1846-1927)

Straight from the Source

“They call it free enterprise. Actually, it’s a free ride – but only for the special interests that this state’s legislature bows to, every time.”

-Thomas Suddes, cleveland.com/Plain Dealer editorial board member, in a column about Senate Bill 33, which seeks to protect “critical infrastructure,” but in Suddes’ view, really aims “to shut up Ohioans concerned about the state’s air, water and lands.”

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