Governor’s executive orders constitutional, precedential

“Ohioans are not well served with government by executive order, but the governor continues to issue these edicts as though he’s been anointed to a monarchy rather than elected to work with a bipartisan Legislature. The last time I checked there was not a throne in the governor’s office.”

That comment by state Rep. Kevin DeWine was aimed at: a) Bob Taft; b) Ted Strickland.

The answer, not surprisingly, is Strickland — seeing as how DeWine is deputy chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. Strickland, of course, is a Democrat who led his party’s sweep of statewide offices in last November’s election. Republicans are still reeling from that drubbing.

DeWine is being disingenuous. The fact is that Republicans still control the Ohio General Assembly and, therefore, want to flex their political muscles with the new administration.

But Strickland is no one’s fool, and on matters pertaining to the management of state government, he is doing exactly what his predecessors have done: using the powers vested in the governor by the constitution to get things done.

Indeed, DeWine’s comment about the use of executive orders would be more applicable to Strickland’s predecessor, Taft, a Republican, who during his eight years in office used the power 238 times, including 40 in his first year.

By contrast, Strickland, a former member of Congress who lived in Lisbon before moving into the governor’s mansion in January, has issued 28 executive orders to date.

“The supreme executive power of this state shall be vested in the governor,” the Ohio constitutional convention of 1851 declared, and since that time, governors have used the authority to set policies that relate to the operation of the state.

‘Management tool’

Strickland’s spokesman Keith Dailey makes it clear that the governor uses executive orders as a “management tool” and reserves them for issues that relate across agency lines or across state government. The governor uses directives when dealing with one agency.

“This governor is determined to exercise that authority in a way that benefits Ohio families,” Dailey told the Associated Press.

Why, then, would DeWine react with such strident language? Because Republicans in Ohio don’t want to be rendered irrelevant by the Democratic administration.

However, a recent incident involving the governor’s office and the General Assembly illustrates the difficulties that arise with divided government.

Several weeks ago, Strickland and Attorney General Marc Dann, a Democrat from Liberty Township, asked legislative leaders to consider legislation that would ban cash prizes from electronic tabletop machines and would place a $10 cap on the value of one-time non-cash prizes such as award tickets prize vouchers at venues such as Chuck E. Cheese’s, Dave & Buster’s or Cedar Point.

House Speaker Jon Husted refused, telling Strickland and Dann to enforce the anti-gambling laws already on the books.

So, that’s what they attempted to do with the governor’s executive order authorizing the attorney general to issue an emergency rule on the electronic gambling machines, which now number 50,000.

Dann sent out 700 letters statewide ordering the machines removed within three days.

But manufacturers of the devices went to court and secured an injunction, which means the governor and the attorney general are prohibited from proceeding until the case is decided.

Had the Republicans in the General Assembly agreed to adopt the legislation sought by the governor and the attorney general, there would have been no need for Strickland to issue an executive order.

And yet, DeWine says nothing critical about his party members in the legislature.

The governor isn’t doing anything his predecessors didn’t do with regard to his constitutional authority. Republicans are just going to have to live with this political reality.