State Issue 1 is ‘probably’ coming back in the future, Ohio Senate president says

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, fresh off the news of voters roundly rejecting State Issue 1, said lawmakers would “probably” bring the question back before voters sometime in the future.

Conceding to reporters that the campaign would likely lose by eight to 10 points, Huffman, a key force in bringing the proposal to the ballot, said several times that Tuesday’s results do not mark the death of the effort to make constitutional amendments harder to pass in Ohio.

“I think you’ll probably see the question coming back,” he said, although he later noted it might not be this year.

Huffman was quick to spread blame around for the failure. He said “vociferous” vocal opposition from ex-GOP Govs. John Kasich and Bob Taft, along with former Republican Attorney General Betty Montgomery proved damaging. He said the campaign didn’t have enough time to put together a sufficient case, even though state lawmakers selected the Aug. 8 election date.

“If we passed this in January and put it on May ballot, we’d have had a better opportunity to run a campaign and do things,” he said.

And he said the roughly $16 million the state spent to hold the special election was worth it.

“It’s an important question, and with the time we had to work with, I think you’ll probably see the question coming back,” Huffman said.

Had Issue 1 passed, future constitutional amendments would have needed a 60% to pass instead of the current 50% plus-one vote. Plus, organizers would need to gather signatures from more counties than under current law and also wouldn’t be granted a 10-day grace period to gather signatures if state officials deem enough invalid.

The election was scheduled in August, typically a sleepy time on political calendars, to ensure that its stiffer rules would apply to a scheduled referendum in November that would legalize abortion in Ohio.

Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis, one of the main public faces of the vote-yes campaign, said Ohio will “regret” the vote it took today. He declined to pass blame around besides for the voters he said were “confused” by claims made by the vote-no campaign. He said outside groups will continue to spend heavily in Ohio to similarly confound voters at scheduled referendums on marijuana and abortion in November, and potential future amendments involving redistricting, the minimum wage, and animal welfare laws.

Both the “yes” and “no” campaigns were bankrolled by out-of-state contributors, including millions from an Illinois billionaire to the campaign in favor of the proposal.

“You can spend $50- to $75 million and convince anyone that what’s right is left and left is right,” he said. “That’s what they’re doing right now. They’re going to continue to do it in November with weed and abortion. And they’re going to do it next year, [former Ohio Supreme Court GOP Chief Justice] Maureen O’Connor, with redistricting. And then the minimum wage. And then our family farmers.”

However, he expected conservatives will “come home” in November and reject the proposed marijuana and abortion ballot issues.

As of about 11 p.m. Tuesday, Issue 1 was losing by about 44% to 56%. The Associated Press declared that the matter failed, although official results are not yet available.

Spencer Gross, a spokesman for the vote-yes campaign, issued a statement Tuesday evening.

“From its inception, Issue 1 was about giving Ohioans a choice in the structure of their founding document. Tonight, they have made their choice,” he said. “Though these are not the results we hoped for, our coalition looks forward to working with the General Assembly on policy for the betterment of all Ohioans, in a manner that honors and respects the legislative process – not circumvents it.”

Jake Zuckerman covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.