Mike DeWine deserved and received near universal praise for his early leadership as the pandemic began its rapid spread across our nation and the world. He was consistent and forthright in adhering to the medical and scientific advice he was receiving from Dr. Amy Acton, his appointee as the state's medical director. You could be proud and pleased that he was leading our state.
The acclaim DeWine received was bipartisan. Democrats pretty much conceded that DeWine would be a shoe-in for reelection in 2022.
But that was just a first impression.
The portrait in courage of the Governor that loomed so large over the state last year turns out to have been a watercolor. Confronted by the fire and brimstone of the Republican right, DeWine has washed away that image with diligence and speed. In its place we now see his reversion to type: a career politician who follows rather than leads, someone who goes along to get along; a man who — whatever his virtues in private life — prefers in public office to pander and capitulate to the increasingly reactionary mob that can keep him in office, even if it means abandoning the principles he purports in good times to support.
The most recent example of his surrender came with his vote for the ridiculously partisan legislative maps adopted by the Ohio Redistricting Commission. Twice in the last decade Ohio voters expressed a clear desire to reform our redistricting process so that voters could choose their representatives rather than the gerrymandered process by which state reps and Congresspersons pre-select their voters. DeWine and his fellow state-elected officials — Secretary of State Frank LaRose and State Auditor Keith Faber — voted for new legislative lines likely to yield an even more lopsidedly partisan legislature than our current one, widely considered to be one of the nation's most gerrymandered and corrupt. It's a classic pass-the-buck maneuver: if the new legislative districts are found to be illegal, it will be the court that declared them so, not the ever-loyal Mike DeWine.
DeWine affected the same stance after the General Assembly overrode his veto last year to pass a law restricting his authority as governor to issue health orders. He said the new law was unconstitutional but he didn't challenge it in court. He now uses it as an excuse to do little with respect to mask or vaccination mandates.
Earlier this year, Ohio's new stand your ground law went into effect. DeWine signed the bill into law even though he had promised civil rights leaders that he would veto it.
On top of all of this, DeWine continues to support his selection of key advisors who are implicated in what law enforcement officials say is the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history. And his administration is stonewalling inquiries into what seems like another dubious multimillion dollar insider deal.
What is perhaps most disappointing about Governor Richard Michael DeWine is that his career has perfectly positioned him to act courageously. Although he likes to describe himself as a gentleman farmer, he has been in public office for 40 of the last 44 years. He has been elected county prosecutor, state senator, congressman, Lieutenant Governor, US Senator, Ohio Attorney General, and Governor. He's lost only one election, when he was defeated for reelection to the US Senate by Sherrod Brown in 2006. He is a millionaire. If he is reelected and serves out the full term, he will leave office at 80 years of age.
What is left to accomplish but to do the right thing? Governor, use your bully pulpit to increase our dismal vaccination rate. Issue statewide orders that protect our school children, and let the caveman caucus in the state legislature challenge you if they dare.
And quit playing politics with the right to vote. So what if some former president calls you names. Wouldn't you rather have the respect of the people who elected you?
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