ON GUNS, MINIMUM WAGE, WILL OF THE PEOPLE IGNORED.(News)

Byline: Julie Carr Smyth Associated Press

COLUMBUS -- Last week, the hot-button topic at the Statehouse was not minimum wage or gun control. It was the people's will.

Gov. Bob Taft issued the most significant veto of his tenure in an effort to protect local gun laws, and a university poll showed 56 percent of voters were on his side. Then the General Assembly overrode his veto.

And, after voters convincingly approved a minimum-wage increase on the November ballot, lawmakers wrote a bill containing rules that cut a long list of worker categories out of the raise -- drawing ire from the ballot issue's backers.

"By attempting to insert certain exemptions, this bill is essentially telling Ohioans that the legislature has no regard for working people, no regard for Ohioans in general, and no regard for the constitutional rights of Ohioans," said Jennifer Farmer of the Service Employees International Union Local 1199.

Brian Rothenberg, a spokesman for the liberal ProgressOhio.org, said those who responded to an online petition seeking to undo the minimum-wage legislation were outraged.

"Even people who voted against the issue couldn't believe what was happening at the Statehouse," he said.

It wasn't only liberal Democrats who didn't get their way.

When the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute asked Ohioans whether they thought it was a good idea or a bad idea for state government to overwrite local gun laws, 57 percent of Republicans said it was a bad idea -- thus siding with Taft's veto, and against the GOP leaders who led the override effort.

Senate President Bill Harris defended the legislature against its critics. He said he is confident he was representing his district -- and the best interests of Ohioans -- in moving the concealed-weapons rewrite bill that pre-empted local gun laws through his chamber.

"Maybe people will say only the Second Amendment supporters called, and that may be true, but I can assure you that the calls I got were to override the governor," he said.

He said if the university's question had been differently phrased -- to, say, focus on the bill's effort to bring consistency to Ohio's patchwork of gun laws -- the result would have been different.

Harris also believes the minimum-wage implementation bill -- which the House passed last week, and the Senate is expected to pass Tuesday -- was written in good faith.

"What we're trying to do with this language is do exactly what the intent was," he said.

Joe White of Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University said voters should not be surprised, however, when lawmakers defy majority opinion -- or even the majority opinion within their own party.

"So what else is new?" said White, chairman of the school's political science department. "There's a basic problem with representative government: The choices you have are narrowed to two people, and the winner is basically chosen in the primary. There's no reason in the world that person should represent the majority of voters."

White said legislative districts drawn to favor ruling Republicans help explain why the votes of the legislature might not reflect majority opinion.

Another explanation, he said, is that political campaigns that put lawmakers in office are carefully crafted to raise only the issues that help candidates win.

"If you're going to vote for conservative Republicans -- versus the moderate to liberal Democrats they might be running against -- because you agree with them on lower taxes, for example, then you're going to get what you voted for on all the conservative Republican issues (such as gun rights)," he said.

White also said many elected officials view themselves as trustees on behalf of the public, who must use their best judgment on each issue rather than ruling by public opinion polls.

"How representative the government is depends on the attitude of the politicians," he said. "If they think their role is to make as many voters happy as possible, then they will try to reflect popular sentiment as much as possible. If they see their role as making the country or state better by doing what they personally think is right, then they won't necessarily represent voters -- because they don't think it's their job."

ON GUNS, MINIMUM WAGE, WILL OF THE PEOPLE IGNORED.(News)

Byline: Julie Carr Smyth Associated Press

COLUMBUS -- Last week, the hot-button topic at the Statehouse was not minimum wage or gun control. It was the people's will.

Gov. Bob Taft issued the most significant veto of his tenure in an effort to protect local gun laws, and a university poll showed 56 percent of voters were on his side. Then the General Assembly overrode his veto.

And, after voters convincingly approved a minimum-wage increase on the November ballot, lawmakers wrote a bill containing rules that cut a long list of worker categories out of the raise -- drawing ire from the ballot issue's backers.

"By attempting to insert certain exemptions, this bill is essentially telling Ohioans that the legislature has no regard for working people, no regard for Ohioans in general, and no regard for the constitutional rights of Ohioans," said Jennifer Farmer of the Service Employees International Union Local 1199.

Brian Rothenberg, a spokesman for the liberal ProgressOhio.org, said those who responded to an online petition seeking to undo the minimum-wage legislation were outraged.

"Even people who voted against the issue couldn't believe what was happening at the Statehouse," he said.

It wasn't only liberal Democrats who didn't get their way.

When the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute asked Ohioans whether they thought it was a good idea or a bad idea for state government to overwrite local gun laws, 57 percent of Republicans said it was a bad idea -- thus siding with Taft's veto, and against the GOP leaders who led the override effort.

Senate President Bill Harris defended the legislature against its critics. He said he is confident he was representing his district -- and the best interests of Ohioans -- in moving the concealed-weapons rewrite bill that pre-empted local gun laws through his chamber.

"Maybe people will say only the Second Amendment supporters called, and that may be true, but I can assure you that the calls I got were to override the governor," he said.

He said if the university's question had been differently phrased -- to, say, focus on the bill's effort to bring consistency to Ohio's patchwork of gun laws -- the result would have been different.

Harris also believes the minimum-wage implementation bill -- which the House passed last week, and the Senate is expected to pass Tuesday -- was written in good faith.

"What we're trying to do with this language is do exactly what the intent was," he said.

Joe White of Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University said voters should not be surprised, however, when lawmakers defy majority opinion -- or even the majority opinion within their own party.

"So what else is new?" said White, chairman of the school's political science department. "There's a basic problem with representative government: The choices you have are narrowed to two people, and the winner is basically chosen in the primary. There's no reason in the world that person should represent the majority of voters."

White said legislative districts drawn to favor ruling Republicans help explain why the votes of the legislature might not reflect majority opinion.

Another explanation, he said, is that political campaigns that put lawmakers in office are carefully crafted to raise only the issues that help candidates win.

"If you're going to vote for conservative Republicans -- versus the moderate to liberal Democrats they might be running against -- because you agree with them on lower taxes, for example, then you're going to get what you voted for on all the conservative Republican issues (such as gun rights)," he said.

White also said many elected officials view themselves as trustees on behalf of the public, who must use their best judgment on each issue rather than ruling by public opinion polls.

"How representative the government is depends on the attitude of the politicians," he said. "If they think their role is to make as many voters happy as possible, then they will try to reflect popular sentiment as much as possible. If they see their role as making the country or state better by doing what they personally think is right, then they won't necessarily represent voters -- because they don't think it's their job."