COLUMBUS:
The story to the public went like this: State Reps. Bill Harris and Larry Householder struck a deal to share being the next speaker of the Ohio House while meeting this month in the current speaker's office.
But there was another meeting, not in Jo Ann Davidson's office but in a downtown Columbus suite shared by a potent campaign contributor and a powerful deal maker where, according to sources, the final wrinkles were smoothed.
On Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 5, Harris and Householder met for several hours in the offices of Paul Mifsud, one-time chief of staff for former Gov. George Voinovich, and Wayne Boich, an eastern Ohio coal company owner.
According to Statehouse and other sources, that meeting finally determined how Harris and Householder would agree to the unprecedented step in Ohio history to share the speaker's job in 2001-02. The speaker of the Ohio House, considered one of the three most powerful positions in the state's government, wields tremendous influence and plays a key role in deciding how $34 billion in taxes is spent each year.
But the meeting was important for other reasons. It averted a war among Republican representatives who have controlled the Ohio House since 1995.
Harris was backed by Davidson and had gone inside the House Republican caucus to earn the speaker's job the old-fashioned way -- through the votes of elected members.
Householder, by his own account, built his support outside the legislative chamber, lining up the wealthiest contributors in the state and a bevy of special interest groups tied to strident ideologies. Armed with cash and votes, Householder appealed to legislators, incumbent and prospective, by promising them votes in their districts and contributions in their war chests.
Sources said the Mifsud meeting, which lasted up to five hours, was to convince Householder -- who believed he could beat Harris -- that he needed to share the speakership or face a divisive yearlong battle with Speaker Davidson backing Harris.
``This is the kind of a backroom thing that I hate,'' said Rep. Robert Netzley, R-Laura, who has been in the Ohio House longer than any other representative and will be forced out at the end of this year by term limits.
``That's the kind of thing that leads to the dislike of politics and the arrogance that led to term limits. It's not a coronation. If I were a new member and was told to vote for these people, I'd just be madder than hell.''
Ray Cadwallader, Common Cause of Ohio's executive director, said it may be legal for the lawmakers to meet with Mifsud and Boich, but it is morally wrong.
``Why did they meet there? What does Mifsud have to do with anything?'' Cadwallader said. ``The whole routine speaks to money and the influence of money on legislators, which is totally wrong.''
Why Mifsud? Because Mifsud, who has built a powerful consulting and lobbying business since serving six months in jail for altering public records related to a discounted renovation on his wife's home by a minority state contractor, along with Boich had the muscle to rein in Householder.
Mifsud, Boich and Davidson did not return phone calls.
Harris said the meeting took place, but it wasn't planned. He said he went to the office to introduce House Speaker Pro Tem Randall Gardner to Boich, and was surprised to see Mifsud and Householder there. Gardner said it was a surprise to him, too.
``There may have been some reference to what Larry and I were talking about, but that was not the purpose of our going there,'' Harris said. ``I'm not sure how long we were there. We sat and talked about support for Republicans and then we left.''
Harris and Householder said the meeting that mattered took place later that evening when the two returned to Davidson's office.
Needing a deal
One thing is clear: an agreement was needed.
The feud between Householder, of Perry County in southeastern Ohio, and Harris, of Ashland, had been going on too long. It was dividing the House Republican caucus. It was consuming the time and attention of members and lobbyists.
The primary was just two months away and campaign contributors were holding back because they didn't want to pick a side or fund competing candidates in contested Republican primary races.
A week after the deal, Harris and Householder would stand together, pledge to maintain the Republican majority in the Ohio House, and announce Harris would be speaker in 2001 before turning the gavel over to Householder the following year.
Harris is term limited in 2002, but Householder could potentially be speaker through 2004. Householder is to control the campaign fund for the House Republicans beginning next year. They would split the six-member leadership team with two choices each, and they would appoint committee chairmen by consensus.
Neil S. Clark, a powerful Columbus lobbyist who backed House-holder, said the agreement was good for the Republican caucus.
``They both did the right thing. Now lobbyists and others don't have an excuse not to come to the table,'' Clark said.
Still, Householder was clearly not as pleased with the arrangement as Harris. Since the end of December, he publicly maintained he had the support and votes to win, but something changed all of that.
``It was not apparent until very late that Jo Ann (Davidson) was going to suit up on Bill Harris' team,'' said a lawmaker close to the negotiations. ``She was about to bring all of her vast abilities, talents and energies to bear.''
Varied approaches
Harris and Householder are the only members of the current floor leadership who will return to Columbus next year. Four others, including Davidson, cannot be re-elected because of term limits.
Their race to be the next speaker was no secret for most of 1999.
But as the year passed, their quest started to create problems.
For one reason, each candidate took a different approach to being the next speaker.
Harris went inside the Republican caucus and courted votes from lawmakers who were expected to return next year. He also started recruiting candidates for open seats.
Householder took a different tack.
He said he went across the state, seeking support from groups and contributors that have traditionally backed Republicans.
``I think Bill took a much more traditional approach in trying to obtain votes within the caucus,'' Householder said. ``My approach was untraditional.''
Heavy hitters
Householder acknowledged he sought the support of some of the heaviest hitters in the contribution business, including:
David Brennan, the Akron entrepreneur who runs a company that manages charter schools that receive public tax dollars; Carl Lindner, the wealthy Cincinnatian; First Energy; Boich; and Mifsud, who was hired by First Energy as electrical deregulation legislation moved through the legislature.
Ralph DiNicola, a First Energy spokesman, would not talk about any meetings between Householder and First Energy officials.
``We support a lot of people in Columbus. We've had a long relationship with both (Householder and Harris),'' DiNicola said.
He said the company played no role in who would be the next speaker.
``That's none of our business,'' DiNicola said. ``That's a decision made by the House of Representatives.''
Harris said he met with contributors to the Republican Party, but he acknowledged it was after Householder had been there first.
Householder didn't stop there. He sought support from the conservative right wing of the party inside the Ohio House and the ideological groups that support reduced taxes, less government, open competition issues such as right-to-work and prevailing wage exemptions, and others who are pro-life on the abortion issue, pro-voucher and support charter schools.
Like Harris, Householder also recruited candidates for office who in turn would help him become the next speaker.
Not all of those contested primaries were resolved with the announcement last week.
Harris and Householder are still openly supporting different candidates in two House Republican primary races and discussing a third.
State Rep. Kevin Coughlin, R-Cuyahoga Falls, said Harris and Householder have agreed to honor personal commitments to opposing primary candidates for the 72nd House District seat west of Cincinnati held by state Rep. Rose Vesper, R-New Richmond, and state Rep. Charles Brading's 86th House District seat near Lima.
Coughlin said Householder and Harris are still looking into the contested primary in that district and could end up supporting the same candidate.
Those races could get nasty.
Other complications
Even with the speakership issue resolved for now, Householder's background and Harris' future could complicate things before they get the job.
Householder is forced to walk a tightrope between appeasing the far right of the Republican Party, conservative campaign contributors and business interests while trying to solidify support in his home district on a key issue: school funding.
Householder was elected to the Ohio House in 1996 after attacking incumbent Mary Abel, a Democrat from Athens, with television ads that showed dilapidated school buildings and horrible conditions in which children attend classes in the district.
The school-funding lawsuit, in which the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that the way the state pays for education is unconstitutional, was filed in Perry County, smack-dab in the middle of Householder's district.
In October, Householder was asked to attend a school-funding rally organized by students in Joe Laufman's Alexander High School honors government class.
Jessica Jordan, a 10th-grader, said Householder left students with the impression that he supported the lawsuit.
``Overall, he gave me the impression that he wanted to do something,'' Jordan said. ``After the rally, our class talked about his voting record. We realized what he said at our rally was the opposite of what he voted for in the legislature.''
Students from Laufman's class made a trip in December to address a steering committee meeting of the Coalition for Equity & Adequacy in School Funding, the group that successfully sued the state.
Householder appeared before the group the same day and made a number of comments that conflict with the views held by many of his Republican colleagues in the legislature.
``The legislature must reach out a hand to the E&A coalition because they have the power and strength and they are right,'' Householder said, according to coalition minutes.
He said he supported their market basket of education essentials approach -- an idea criticized by conservative legislators for costing billions and destined to raise taxes. And Householder promised the coalition that as speaker he would bring the group to the table for discussions with Gov. Bob Taft to resolve the school funding problem.
Bill Phillis, the coalition's executive director, has testified in committee, but he and his group have never been invited to sit down and negotiate with the state.
Householder said the minutes reflected his comments accurately.
``There comes a time when you have to think about a settlement of the case,'' Householder said.
Gardner was surprised to hear of Householder's statements -- and mused about having the school-funding coalition and school-choice supporters rooting for the same speaker.
``When you put a coalition like that together, with Brennan and the E&A group, you can do anything,'' said Gardner, R-Bowling Green.
Harris, meanwhile, could run into his own problems, being perceived as a lame duck before he ever picks up a gavel.
And he didn't rule out jumping to the Ohio Senate if the seat he wants to run for in 2002 becomes vacant.
State Sen. Richard Schafrath, R-Loudonville, has not indicated he would step down before being forced out by term limits.