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Speaker Saga Drags On, And Former Party Chairs Wonder About Its Long-Term Impact

The Ohio House is still without a speaker – but while there was no movement at the Statehouse, there was action in the hometown of the ex-speaker. Voting sessions were cancelled this week as Republicans were apparently unable to reach a consensus on who should be speaker through the end of the year. Statehouse correspondent Jo Ingles reports on the nasty fight that was brewing long before the former speaker’s resignation and is now disrupting last minute business before lawmakers go home to campaign for this fall’s election.

The latest school shooting in Texas has activists are calling on younger people to register to vote and cast ballots in the upcoming midterm elections. But historical stats show those calls may go ignored in Ohio. Republicans do. Elections analyst Mike Dawson compared stats from the Secretary of State’s office to US Census figures. And he found voters aged 18-24 simply aren’t voting.

That midterm election is a short five months away, and with all that’s happened in the last two weeks, it’s a great time to check in with two former party chairs, one a sitting legislator and one who’s been out of office for nearly a decade. Kevin DeWine is a former state representative from Fairborn who chaired the Ohio Republican Party from 2009 till 2012. Current Rep. David Leland (D-Columbus) chaired the Ohio Democratic Party from 1995 to 2002.

And we close this week with images from this year’s Memorial Day wreath-laying at the Statehouse.