On the second anniversary of the publication of Laboratories of Autocracy, I’m releasing excerpts that share key lessons.
Chapter 2:
The Wide, Deep Power of State Legislatures
Don’t let the TV ads fool you.
Governors and members of Congress dominate the airwaves during election season. Meanwhile, you only receive a late mailer or two from your state rep—maybe some cheaply produced digital and cable ads in the final weeks. While a winning governor might have her victory speech aired live on television, a state rep is lucky if her win slides by on the results ticker below. But what that imbalance of ads and coverage doesn’t tell you is that the heart of state government rests with that legislative candidate whom you hardly hear from, or about.
Let’s take a look at Ohio as an example. It’s not subtle—while Article I of the Ohio Constitution lays out a Bill of Rights, the first Article that follows grants power to the Ohio legislature. And when Ohio’s founders, suspicious of centralized authority in an executive, wrote Article II back in 1803, they went all in, establishing the bicameral General Assembly as by far the strongest part of Ohio government. Beyond broad legislative power, legislators could serve unlimited number of terms and make executive as well as judicial appointments; Ohio’s governor had neither appointment authority nor a veto over legislation. Compared to the powerful legislature, the governor “was a figurehead.”
Since Ohio’s founding, two new constitutions and various amendments added term limits (eight years for both house and senate members), gave the governor a veto, and removed the power of appointment of executive officeholders and judges from the General Assembly, instead granting that power to the governor, or the people via elections. But a hard-nosed look at the structure and functioning of government makes it clear that the legislature remains the strongest player in Ohio politics. Across the country, the same largely holds true. A few states have granted governors more power over budgeting, but for the most part, state legislatures are in the driver’s seat.
The core function of the legislature is to set the state’s budget every year or two years. Ohio’s Constitution makes clear that “[n]o money shall be drawn from the state treasury, except in pursuance of a specific appropriation, made by law.” Made by law, meaning, approved by the legislature. Now, of course, a governor proposes and signs that budget. But without the legislature’s approval, the governor and every other aspect of Ohio government simply can’t function. And if it has a supermajority, with the power to override the governor’s veto, the legislature essentially drives the budget from the start. He proposes it, they pass whatever they want, and if he vetoes it, they override it—it’s their budget.
And to give a sense of what that means…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Pepperspectives to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.