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From the Civil War era, Ohio politics was dominated by the Republican party, with Ohio Republicans playing key roles in the national party. In the 60 years from 1860 to 1920, Ohioans headed the Republican presidential ticket nine times, losing only once (in 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt split the party). Ohio Republicans such as Salmon P. Chase staffed many important national offices. Starting in the 1880s, Ohio's Marcus A. Hanna was a significant power in the back rooms of the national Republican party. In the 1890s, Hanna led the conservative wing of the party against Theodore Roosevelt's progressive movement.
The national political upheaval that ushered in the New Deal era in the 1930s benefitted the Ohio Democratic Party and party politics in Ohio became very competitive, with Republicans and Democrats trading victories at all levels. However, on a national level, Ohio Democrats did not play a key role, while Ohio Republicans still cut national figures. The prime example of such a figure was Robert Taft, known as "Mr. Republican," the leader of the conservative wing of the Republican party during a time when liberals controlled both major parties.
From the 1930s to the 1970s, Republicans still won the larger share of elective offices in Ohio. However, another national liberalizing trend in the 1960s gave the Ohio Democrats another boost. In addition, a series of rulings by the United States Supreme Court required state legislatures to end the practice of giving disproportionate electoral power to rural areas. The equalization of legislative districts shifted the advantage to the Ohio Democrats, who were strong in Ohio's many large urban centers. By the mid-1980s, Ohio government at all levels was dominated by Democrats.
However, just as Democrats were reaching their peak, the Ohio Republican party was staging a comeback, and by 1990, the Republicans had won a majority on the Ohio Apportionment Board, which draws district lines for federal and state legislative seats. The 1992 adoption of term limits by referendum further strengthened the party's hand and 1992 marked the last victory by a Democrat ( John Glenn) in a statewide race.
By 2004, Republicans hold all six statewide executive offices (governor/lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, and treasurer), a two-thirds majority in the state senate and houseOhio has a bicameral legislature, the Ohio General Assembly, consisting a House of Representatives and Senate (the Ohio State Senate), based on its constitution of 1851. The House of Represenatitives first met in Chillicothe on March 3 1803, under the lat, a 5-2 majority on the supreme courtThe Ohio Supreme Court is the highest court in the U. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of the Ohio constitution. There are seven members of the court, one chief justice and six associate justices, each serving six-year terms. All t, both seats in the U.S. Senate, and 12 of Ohio's 18 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the party's spectacular successes since the mid-1980s, the Ohio Republicans are now beset by extensive infighting and bad blood between party members, perhaps as bad as the situation in the Ohio Democratic Party. Redistricting after the 2000 census combined with Ohio's term limits laws had Republican officeholders at the federal and state levels struggling with each other to draw federal congressional districts to create safe seats, with the interests of incumbent U.S. representatives clashing with the interests of state legislators facing term limits looking to Congress for their next jobs.
Joe Hallett wrote in the Columbus DispatchThe Columbus Dispatch is a daily newspaper, based in Columbus, Ohio, that serves all of central Ohio. Its first issue was published on 1 July, 1891. It has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since the Columbus Citizen-Journal stopped pri (January 13, 2002):
"Redistricting should be a happy process for Republicans. ... But the task has hardly been gleeful. Contrarily, it has turned into an embarrassment for Republicans ... Eight-year term limits, more than the state budget, are to blame. These days, state lawmakers constantly are scouting their next jobs. ... [V]isions of Congress dance in their heads. They want districts ready-made for their ascensions. Meanwhile, congressional incumbents constantly angle for districts they can't possibly lose."
The problem for the Republican party is that jury-rigging a sure thing for one party member requires putting another party member on shaky ground -- about 43 percent of the voters voted for Democrats in 2000; it is a delicate balance ensuring that their votes count as little as possible in the results.
Term limits, which were pushed by conservative Republican activists in the 1980s, have come back to bite the party. They forced the retirement of Republican Speaker Jo Ann Davidson (R-Columbus) from the House of Representatives in 2001 as well as the leader of the conservative wing of the party, Deputy Speaker William G. Batchelder (R-Medina).
In 2001, such soon-to-be-jobless Republicans salivated after the U.S. House of Representatives seats held by Democrats Sherrod BrownSherrod Brown (born November 9, 1952), of Lorain, Ohio, is an American politician who serves as a U. representative from the Democratic party, representing the 13th congressional district of Ohio. Brown was born in Mansfield, Ohio. He received a bachelor and Ted StricklandTed Strickland (born August 4, 1941, in Lucasville, Ohio) is an American politician of the Democratic party who currently serves as a U. representative for the sixth congressional district of Ohio. Strickland was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree from Asb, and pressured the legislature to gerrymander their districts for Republican majorities. However, when Brown threatened to run for governor in 2002 if he lost his seat through redistricting, the Republican leadership backed down, preferring not to make Governor Taft, whose popularity among Ohioans has always been shaky, face possibly serious competition for re-election. As it happened, Taft was challenged by the weakly funded and name-recognition-challenged Cuyahoga CountyCuyahoga County is a county located in the U. State of Ohio. As of 2000, the population is 1,393,978. Its county seat is Cleveland 6. Cuyahoga County is a part Greater Cleveland, an informal metropolitan area. The county is named after the Native American commissioner Tim Hagan. Both Brown and Strickland managed to hold onto their congressional seats.
The complete domination of the Republican party at the general election has thrown the real competition to the Republican primaries (such as was once the case for Democratic primaries in the solid South). However, it is not the case that the common voter is any more likely to vote in the Republican primaries than before. The result is that the Republican primaries are controlled by the votes of right-wing activists, such as the Ohio Taxpayers Association , which declares which candidates are "real" Republicans.
The state of the party has prompted some to conclude that the party organization's ability to help the Bush re-election campaign in 2004 has been hampered.