Six Statewide Offices, Two Court Seats, and a Ballot Deadline: What Ohio Actually Decides in November

Ohio voters will fill six statewide executive offices, a U.S. Senate seat, and two Supreme Court seats on November 3. If you work in policy, government affairs, compliance, or advocacy in this state, several of those offices matter more to your operating environment than the one at the top of the ticket.

Here is the part most coverage will skip.

The offices doing the work are the ones nobody is covering

The Secretary of State runs the statewide voter database, issues the directives all 88 county boards of elections must follow, and chairs the Ballot Board that writes the language voters read on ballot issues. Robert Sprague, the current treasurer, has said he wants a front end citizenship check, photo ID requirements, and more consistent use of printed paper ballots, and he told the Ohio Capital Journal he would like the state to consider returning to in person voting. Allison Russo, former minority leader of the Ohio House, is the Democratic nominee. That is a substantive difference in stated approach to election administration, and it will be decided by an electorate that largely will not have heard either position.

The Auditor of State audits every city, school district, library, and township in Ohio, runs performance audits, investigates public fraud, and sits on the Ohio Redistricting Commission. Frank LaRose, term limited as Secretary of State, faces Maple Heights Mayor Annette Blackwell, who brought her own city out of fiscal emergency working with that office.

The Treasurer of State manages the state investment portfolio and administers unclaimed funds. That last program is the subject of an unresolved fight over whether money belonging to private Ohioans should be routed toward stadium financing. Jay Edwards faces Seth Walsh for an open seat.

A structural observation worth making without partisanship

Three of the Republicans on this statewide ballot currently hold a different statewide office. The treasurer is running for Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is running for Auditor. The Auditor is running for Attorney General.

None of that is improper. All of it is a predictable consequence of term limits in a state where one party has held every statewide executive office for most of two decades. Term limits were designed to prevent entrenchment of individuals. In practice they can produce rotation without turnover. That is a governance design question, not a partisan one, and it is worth discussing on the merits.

The accountability gap that has nothing to do with elections

JobsOhio, the state's economic development arm, has disbursed just over two billion dollars since 2011. Its board chairman is a registered lobbyist who has been paid by Intel, a company that received more than two million dollars from JobsOhio during his tenure as part of a 150 million dollar package.

JobsOhio says the incentives were approved before he joined and that disbursement is a staff function. The governor's office draws a distinction between lobbying the governor's office and having business before JobsOhio. The Ohio Ethics Commission's executive director said the situation appears to contradict what the chairman represented to the governor's office, and noted that if he were a state employee this would be illegal.

He is not, because JobsOhio is legally a private nonprofit and therefore exempt from Ohio ethics law. When the entity was created in 2011, the Ethics Commission argued state ethics law should cover it. The legislature decided instead to let JobsOhio write its own conflict of interest policy.

For anyone who works in government affairs in this state, that exemption is the operative fact, independent of any individual's conduct. A transparency bill is pending.

The near term deadline

Ohio's 7th Congressional District has a hard date. Rep. Max Miller let the 90 day withdrawal mark pass on August 5, ending any possibility of a special primary. August 10 is the last day county party chairs can name a replacement, and the district's most populous county has to give two days notice before that meeting. After that, the slot stays empty.

Both of Ohio's Republican U.S. senators have called on Miller to step aside. House leadership has said the Ethics Committee process should play out and that the chamber does not discipline members over allegations, which Miller denies. Whichever way it resolves, it resolves within days.

The operational takeaway

If your read on Ohio assumes a settled state with predictable statewide outcomes, this cycle deserves an audit. The governor's race is rated a toss up. Two Supreme Court seats that decide redistricting and utility appeals are on the ballot. And the administrative offices that set the rules you operate under are being contested with almost no public attention.

The full breakdown, sourced throughout, is in this week's episode of Purple Political Breakdown: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ohio-7th-district-ballot-deadline-hits-monday-max-miller/id1626987640?i=1000781069350