Ohio House delays vote on successor to speaker who resigned

COLUMBUS (AP) — House Republicans in Ohio again brought their decision on former House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger's successor to a halt, calling off a scheduled vote that's needed before any more laws can be made.

The official reason for canceling today's vote on an interim speaker was too few lawmakers could attend.

There were also rumblings, however, that the impasse that kept Republicans from selecting a speaker last week hadn't been resolved.

Beyond that, Democrats had challenged today's session as improper, and raised the possibility that all the bills passed under a speaker selected in violation of the rules could be jeopardized.

State Rep. David Leland, a Columbus Democrat, said the date was added to the House calendar by the chamber's acting leader, President Pro Tem Kirk Schuring, while House rules say only the speaker has that power.

Schuring's spokesman, Brad Miller, dismissed that argument.

"Throughout the course of [Monday] afternoon, it became apparent that members would not be able to attend [today's] session," he said in an email. "Therefore, the decision was made to move the vote to elect a speaker to the following, previously scheduled session day," which is Wednesday.

Filling the void left by Rosenberger's unusual mid-session resignation in April has been a rocky process.

The Clarksville Republican resigned amid FBI questioning surrounding his international travel and lavish lifestyle, saying he had broken no laws but knew the process would take time and be a distraction.