Can We Have an Honest Discussion About Jo Ann Davidson’s Legacy?

Ohio will remain a laggard among the states and continue to fall behind those states led by hard-charging doers like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott who strive to win the competition to be the best.

Too often in politics, when a politician dies, he is put on a pedestal where he is showered with unequivocal praise. Soon, Jimmy Carter will transition from a poor-to-fair president who too often interfered in global affairs after his presidency in unhelpful ways to a saint who did little other than build houses for people and teach Sunday school at his church. Over the last few days with news of her passing, the political class and the media are painting the legacy of Jo Ann Davidson with only brushes of greatness and perfection. Not to speak ill of the dead, but Davidson, like most politicians, also had some warts. 

As Speaker of the Ohio House for six years from 1995 to 2001, Davidson presided over the gubernatorial terms of George Voinovich, Nancy Hollister, and Bob Taft. Here is how the media reported on her passing:

During her six-year run as speaker, Davidson presided over welfare reform and deregulation of electric utilities, corralled an ornery conservative faction and worked with two governors to try to satisfy an Ohio Supreme Court order on school funding. She was a fiscal conservative but opposed attempts to require a supermajority to raise taxes. She helped the business community but opposed conservatives' attempts to outlaw public employee collective bargaining and union-scale wages on public projects. She favored abortion rights and blunted attempts to advance a social agenda, fearful that such incendiary issues could endanger the Republican majority. (Emphasis added)

Davidson wasn’t a conservative, likely was a NeverTrumper, and, if she entered politics today, probably would be a Democrat (like Maine Senator Susan Collins). Davidson hailed from Franklin County, belonging to what insiders refer to as the “Franklin County Mafia,” which included former Governor John Kasich, former Congressman Pat Tiberi, Kasich’s right-hand lobbyist buddies Doug Preisse and Bob Klafky, and billionaire friend of Jeffrey Epstein, Lex Wexner, among other members. Under their long governance, despite Davidson avoiding “incendiary issues [that] could endanger the Republican majority,” Franklin County/Columbus went from solidly Republican to extremely Democrat over the last two decades. The last Republican Mayor of Columbus left office in 2000. It is nearly impossible to win as a Republican in the county today.

As for Ohio, at the end of Davidson’s tenure as Speaker of the Ohio House, Ohio began a two-and-a-half decade march into stagnation in which its population and private sector are mired in mediocrity and a significant majority of counties are hallowing out. The policies Davidson enacted and failed to enact created the environment for Ohio’s future into the new century. Over the last twenty-four years, Ohio’s population added a pathetic 400,000 citizens (3.5%), thereby causing Ohio to lose congressional seats and Electoral Votes, as state-after-state added residents more quickly (Florida jumped by seven million and much smaller Colorado rose by 1.4 million). At the same time, Ohio’s private sector grew by a mere 71,200 jobs, or just 1.5%, over more than two decades (Florida added 88,000 jobs just this year). For those counting, that amounts to an annual average of just 2,967 net jobs in a state of 11.7 million people.

Davidson spent most of her professional career as a politician, lobbyist, or gubernatorial appointee to commissions and boards. I believe she became a multi-millionaire from that work. I only crossed paths with Davidson four times. Three of those events involved one-on-one meetings (one in 2008 and two in 2011) about the future of Ohio and the key policies required to make that future far brighter than it was at the time. In her 80s at the time, I thought Davidson was polite, but wholly uninterested in any bold color Reaganesque agenda and a bit out-of-tough ensconced in her office just off of Capital Square. She seemed perfectly comfortable in the status quo, which had left Ohio with 500,000 FEWER private jobs than when she left office.

Then, in 2015, she served on the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission (OCMC), which was supposed to review the Ohio Constitution, identify reforms to modernize it, and solicit citizen input. The OCMC was killed in 2017 because it spent $1.6 million doing little-to-nothing, which was a year earlier than it was scheduled to end. In my case, I submitted two proposed reforms to modernize Ohio: one on right-to-work and one on preventing government unions from using government resources to collect dues or fees. Davidson led the committee to which my proposals were sent where she refused to conduct a hearing on the merits of the proposals. Though it killed my proposals, the OCMC did try mightily to push repealing term limits, which was overwhelmingly passed 68%-to-32% by citizens in 1992, which many would consider a year that is part of the modern era. As I wrote back in 2016:

Other than an email from the head of the OCMC acknowledging receipt of the proposals, the only other action on the two proposals occurred when the Coordinating Committee briefly discussed the submissions at the April 9, 2015, meeting. At that meeting, former Speaker of the House Jo Ann Davidson used her influence to try to quash the proposals out-of-the-gate by raising two concerns: (1) that the OCMC should only deal with proposals to amend existing provisions in the Ohio Constitution, which isn’t what the legislation creating the commission required, and (2) that citizens might swamp the OCMC with proposals if it accepted such proposals, which hasn’t occurred as my proposals are among the only ones coming from “outsiders.”

Davidson was an “insiders only” kind-of-gal and insiders hate right-to-work and bold color policies that might rock the boat. I won’t belabor the point, but the data is unequivocal on how right-to-work and eliminating the income tax are vital to a strong private sector. Without both policies, Ohio cannot truly compete with the other right-to-work or no income tax states and states with far prettier surroundings (e.g., California, Colorado, Washington).

To be clear, I’m not saying Davidson wasn’t a good person, didn’t do some good, or that we shouldn’t recognize her accomplishment at becoming the first female speaker. It remains surprising and somewhat of a blemish on Ohio politics that Davidson is the only woman to be elected to one of the top four spots (Speaker, Senate President, Governor, and U.S. Senator). I’m simply saying let’s be honest and not ignore that her tenure as Speaker didn’t do much for Ohio and its future. The same knock applies to the tenures of these politicians, too:

• Governor George Voinovich

• Governor Bob Taft

• Governor Ted Strickland

• Governor John Kasich

• Governor Mike DeWine

• Speaker Larry Household

• Speaker/Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted

• Speaker Armand Budish

• Speaker Bill Batchelder

• Speaker Cliff Rosenberger

• Speaker Ryan Smith

• Speaker Robert Cupp

• Speaker Jason Stephens

• Senate President Richard Finan

• Senate President Doug White

• Senate President Bill Harris

• Senate President Tom Niehaus

• Senate President Kieth Faber

• Senate President Larry Obhof

• Senate President Matt Huffman

Like Davidson, every one of these men did too little with their time holding the reins of power, so are responsible for Ohio’s "dead state walking” status in which they didn’t enact right-to-work, they didn’t eliminate the state income tax, and they expanded Medicaid under Obamacare giving the federal government full control over the state budget, as well as many other acts and omissions big and small. As I’ve said before, please tell me I am wrong that a state with anemic population and job growth for a quarter century is a healthy state whose elected officials have succeeded on their behalf. Please dare try making that case. I beg you.

The simple and undeniable fact is that until Ohioans stop electing policymakers who refuse to enact a bold color agenda as articulated below, Ohio will remain a laggard among the states and continue to fall behind those states led by hard-charging doers like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott who strive to win the competition to be the best. So, let’s pay our respects to Davidson for her public service, but let’s not elevate her to the pantheon of greatest.