Lawmakers to fight veto

Strickland vetoed the bill less than 15 hours after taking office.
COLUMBUS -- The Republican-dominated Legislature intends to go to court over Gov. Ted Strickland's veto of a consumer protection bill that the GOP contends was finalized before Strickland took office, House Speaker Jon Husted said Monday.
"We're going to seek a remedy through the courts clarifying the process whereby an issue becomes law in this state, because we feel this act was in violation of the [Ohio] Constitution," Husted told The Associated Press.
The lawsuit, once filed, stands to engage Ohio's three branches of government in a constitutional face-off over a veto scenario lawyers in the state have never seen before.
Veto
It was less than 15 hours after Strickland, a Democrat, took office Jan. 8 that he vetoed the bill, which placed a 5,000 limit on certain court damages and created new protections for companies that once sold lead-based paint.
New Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, also a Democrat, allowed the veto by returning the bill to the new governor after outgoing Gov. Bob Taft had decided to let it become law without his signature. Brunner argued that a 10-day window before the bill was to become law had not yet expired, giving Strickland the right to the veto.
Husted said Brunner had no right to return the bill at that point, because her predecessor, Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, had already certified it.
"Once the governor chooses to take his action and the secretary of state certifies it, it is now not something you can send back," Husted said. "That document can't be altered."
Representation
Lawmakers, normally represented by lawyers from the attorney general's office, took Attorney General Marc Dann up on his offer for independent attorneys, and their contract for special counsel was approved, Dann spokesman Ed Simpson said.
Husted said lawyers are working out particulars of the lawsuit.
Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said he did not know enough about the Legislature's intentions to comment on the legal claims. However, he said the administration stands behind the veto.
"We remain fully confident that the Constitution is clear and the law is firmly on our side," Dailey said. "We believe the bill has passed, was vetoed and therefore is not law."
Patrick Gallaway, a spokesman for Brunner, also defended the secretary of state's action.
"There's definitely a difference of opinion on the situation," he said. "Her position is that she was doing what she knows to be statutorily correct as secretary of state. If the governor asked for the bill back, then she was required to return it to him."