Resolution Requiring Supermajority for Amendments “Doubtful” to Pass During Ohio Lame Duck Session
Attempts to silence the voice of Ohio citizens met heavy resistance yesterday as hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Columbus before making their way to the Ohio Statehouse to rally against HJR6.
Representatives of more than 100 organizations, including many labor unions and the Ohio AFL-CIO, toted signs listing their name and membership numbers before casting their mock vote against SJR6. Before the mock vote began organizers spoke out against the resolution. Rev. Jack Sullivan, Jr. from the Ohio Council of Churches called HJR 6 “an affront to God’s expectation for human flourishing” because it reduces direct democracy.
“HJR 6 is not based on the sacred ideas of integrity and fairness,” Sullivan argued. “It is based on a political ideology of power and domination — of one party over another, one set of Ohioans over another, the voices of the few over the voices of the many.”
By the end of the day, HJR 6 was on life support — at least for this year’s lame duck session. After Tuesday’s session House Speaker Bob Cupp called it “doubtful” the resolution would get a floor vote. “Members have a lot of different opinions about it, and some are trying to figure it out,” Cupp said. “So, at this point, I don’t see it moving forward.”
Ohio AFL-CIO president Tim Burga argued the resolution is simply unnecessary. He pointed to the 2015 amendment that prohibited any individual or group from using the process to establish a monopoly. “How many special interests,” Burga asked, “have used the initiative process for their own benefit since the Ohio Constitution was amended in 2015? None.”
Burga also reminded those assembled at the Statehouse that “Ohioans have seen other attempts to strip us of our rights, such as SB5 and the attack on collective bargaining, and we will rise up as we are called to do to defeat this assault on our constitutional rights.”