Name: Key Democrats explain how Larry Householder won their vote for speaker
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Key Democrats explain how Larry Householder won their vote for speaker

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&nbsp;The week after Christmas, Rep. Kristin Boggs, a Columbus Democrat, said she got a call from Rep. Larry Householder, who was seeking to secure Democratic votes he needed to become House speaker.The call, she said, lasted nearly an hour. “What do you need? What can I do to earn your support? What do you think I need to do to get the rest of Franklin County supporting me?” she said, repeating the questions the Glenford Republican asked her.The next day, she said, she got a call from Speaker Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell, who congratulated her on the birth of her baby. Smith was trying to fend off the challenge from Householder and also needed Democratic votes to win.“He asked me if I had any questions for him,” Boggs said. She said she asked about ways Smith would make the House more bipartisan going forward.Boggs said Smith told her: “If he has Democrats that vote for him, that will loosen him up from being beholden from the malcontents in his party.” She said he didn’t elaborate much.“Our conversation was six minutes long,” Boggs said. “I gave him the floor to give me his best pitch, and that was what I got.”Rep. David Leland, D-Columbus, said Smith didn’t even talk to him.“We were being ignored, basically, during the courting period,” Leland said.“Look, I’m under no illusion of who Larry Householder is. But up to this point, he has demonstrated his willingness to work with us and get our input.”Smith declined to comment.This week, minority House Democrats took on the rare role of kingmaker. Going against the advice of their own leader, who has now resigned, 26 of 38 members voted for Householder for speaker, giving him enough to win&nbsp;— despite not having a majority of votes within his own Republican caucus.This is a return to power for Householder, who was speaker from 2001-04, when he was revered, feared and hated on Capitol Square — a product of his leadership style, charm and ruthlessness. He left under the cloud of an FBI probe and ethics investigation but was never charged.Leland and Boggs, explaining why they voted for Householder instead of backing Smith or Minority Leader Fred Strahorn, D-Dayton, said Householder worked hard to get their support, including meeting with all Franklin County House Democrats.At the same time, Democrats were pushed hard by some labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, to back Householder, based on what they said were promises that certain anti-union bills would not pass, such as right-to-work, project labor agreements and prevailing wage.Leland said he’s been in politics for 47 years and worked closely with organized labor. The former Ohio Democratic Party chairman said he told his Democratic colleagues, “If we’re going to jettison that relationship, we better have a damn good reason for doing it.”However, many of those unions also poured millions of dollars into Republican legislative campaigns last cycle, often in amounts far exceeding what they gave to Democrats. House Democrats netted a five-seat gain in November, but Republicans maintained a super majority.To help guide their votes, the Democratic caucus formed a pair of two-person teams, tasked with going to Smith and Householder to see what kind of deals could be made.“Basically, what we got back was virtually nothing from Smith,” Leland said. “Householder was meeting with us, talking with us. He came back and made some significant agreements.”Among other things, Householder agreed to let Democrats co-chair a trio of subcommittees, to hire a professional human resources director for the House and to change rules to make it easier for Democrats to offer floor amendments.The weekend before Monday's speaker vote, after it was revealed that most House Democrats, in a closed-door caucus Friday, supported Householder, Boggs said Smith started moving on some issues.Boggs said she got a call from Smith’s chief of staff last Saturday, two days before the vote. “He told me to wait for the 'Ryan 2.0 plan' and to not commit any support until I saw it. I never saw the Ryan 2.0 plan.”In addition to unions, Boggs said trial lawyers also were backing Householder, which surprised her considering his work 15 years ago to limit civil damages awarded in lawsuits. She said other progressive allies, including those advocating for abortion rights and gun-safety measures, also were neutral or for Householder.Householder agreed to work with Democrats on the timing of gun or abortion bills, Boggs said. Householder said those kind of issues would still be addressed, Boggs said, but agreed to debate them in a full and transparent way.“I wish we could have negotiated those bills off the table,” she said. “But doing them in a manner that we can work with how they’re addressed, that’s not insignificant.”Householder is the first speaker in modern times to be elected needing minority party votes. The dynamic will be interesting, considering his coalition of support includes many of the most liberal Democrats in the Ohio House, along with many of the most conservative Republicans.In the end, Democratic Reps. Richard Brown of Canal Winchester, Adam Miller of Columbus and Erica Crawley of Columbus also voted for Householder, while Reps. Allison Russo of Upper Arlington, Beth Liston of Dublin, Mary Lightbody of Westerville and Bernadine Kennedy Kent of Columbus voted for Smith.Russo said both Smith and Householder were willing to make similar concessions. "I heard from many of my constituents in the days leading up to the vote, and they were almost unanimously expressing a preference for Smith," she said.Boggs said she did not experience the honest, kind, moderate leadership style that some used to describe Smith.“My experience under Ryan Smith’s leadership very much felt like the wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Boggs said.Many members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus also went for Householder after Smith had a blowup with caucus President Rep. Stephanie Howse, D-Cleveland, on the House floor.Rep. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, one of the two members who met with Smith to negotiate, said the speaker told him right-to-work was not a priority, but he declined to make a public statement about it. “I suggested he was leaving a political piece of leverage on the table,” Kent Smith said.Kent Smith, who backed Householder, said he also didn’t like a bill passed to pre-empt local control on plastic bag fees, and the blocking of an effort to let Lake Erie communities take steps to clean the lake.Boggs said her issues included an inability to pass her unopposed bills, pointing to one allowing a person or association to petition government for stop signs and lower speed limits.“The chairman told me he supports the bill … but he was told by the speaker that it wasn’t going to get out of committee,” Boggs said, adding that following up with Smith’s office didn’t help.“Maybe Larry is every bad thing that people have said about him, but it was so bad for me (under Smith) that I was willing to take that risk,” Boggs said.jsiegel@dispatch.com@phrontpageChoose the plan that’s right for you. 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&nbsp;The week after Christmas, Rep. Kristin Boggs, a Columbus Democrat, said she got a call from Rep. Larry Householder, who was seeking to secure Democratic votes he needed to become House speaker.The call, she said, lasted nearly an hour. “What do you need? What can I do to earn your support? What do you think I need to do to get the rest of Franklin County supporting me?” she said, repeating the questions the Glenford Republican asked her.The next day, she said, she got a call from Speaker Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell, who congratulated her on the birth of her baby. Smith was trying to fend...

Key Democrats explain how Larry Householder won their vote for speaker

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