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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > June > 10 > Entry
Editorial: Tweaking of constitution could be good
History in the making?
Ohio voters will have a chance next year to call for a state constitutional convention. That sounds like something that could be really big.
The very idea causes a lot of people to imagine the worst: a constitution drawn up by the noisiest, most rigid political warriors, people doing the bidding of narrow interests and narrow views, the very opposite of the nation’s founders who drew up the national Constitution.
Perhaps for that reason, past voters have passed on this opportunity by large majorities. (The current Ohio Constitution requires that voters get a chance to call a convention every 20 years.)
If voters do embrace a convention, that gathering wouldn’t necessarily turn out a whole constitution, perhaps just a few proposed amendments. (To be adopted by the convention, a measure would need a two-thirds majority.)
Moreover, anything a convention proposes would still have to be approved by voters.
So history may not be in the making.
But a systematic look at the state constitution could be useful. After all, the Ohio constitution is not to be likened to the national one. The latter is an elegant, venerable blueprint for a society trying to combine democracy with minority rights. A constitutional convention to rewrite it would be an awful idea.
The state constitution, on the other hand, is a mess that lays out such things as how revenues from casinos will be distributed and who can get married.
Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder, a conservative Republican from the Cleveland area, has put forth a sort of alternative to a convention. His idea is not an effort by Republicans to take advantage of their current power in Columbus.
He wants a thoroughly, genuinely bipartisan commission — with some legislators, but also plenty of others — to meet and to make constitutional proposals to the legislature. Again, voters would have the final say.
The commission wouldn’t replace the convention, but it might take some steam out of the idea of a convention, if there is any steam. (If a convention were approved by voters, the commission would draw up the rules.)
Convention or no convention, the commission is a good idea. It might provide an impetus for good ideas, such as reform of the state’s redistricting rules. Any nonpartisan group should be able to agree on a plan to make the drawing of legislative districts a nonpartisan exercise instead of the celebration of naked partisanship it is today.
Merit selection of judges is another idea that might engage the attention of a bipartisan commission. Meanwhile, Speaker Batchelder would like to see some movement toward consolidation of local school districts, at least for administrative purposes.
The commission would not have to issue one big report. It could dribble out proposals over a period of years.
The last commission like this came up with the idea of electing candidates for governor and lieutenant governor together, like president and vice president, and it established an order of succession in case the governor and lieutenant governor die in office.
Particularly attractive about the commission idea is that it would be acting without a tight deadline. This season is seeing the state legislature rushing through subject after subject, to meet a budget deadline and to act while Republicans have all the power. Research, reflection and expertise on some of the biggest issues have been notably absent. Already, Gov. John Kasich has had to submit major amendments to the economic development plan (JobsOhio) that he rushed through the legislature earlier in the year.
A commission could do what the legislature should do: Hold actual hearings and have real debates, as opposed to partisan spinfests that result from partisan votes.
A constitutional commission won’t solve the problems Ohioans are most worried about. But any ideas it proposes would likely be worthy of consideration. A few might even be important.
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