The Ohio House and Senate will soon decide whether to confirm Gov. Mike DeWine’s choice for lieutenant governor. On Monday, DeWine tapped former Youngstown State University president Jim Tressel to take over the post vacated when former Lt. Gov. Jon Husted became Ohio’s junior U.S. Senator, taking Vice President JD Vance's seat.
The process of confirmation brings back memories for the former president of the Inter-University Council, Bruce Johnson. He's now retired from state government, but he went through the confirmation process himself in 2005, when he was selected by former Gov. Bob Taft as his third lieutenant governor. Taft had appointed then-Lt. Gov. Jeanette Bradley as treasurer following the resignation of Joe Deters, leaving the position open. (Bradley became Taft's second lieutenant governor when she ran with him in 2002, as his first running mate and then-Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Connor ran for chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court and won.)
“It's a pretty similar process, I believe,” Johnson said, noting there is a lot of leeway for legislators to handle it as they see fit.
The Ohio Revised Code requires the governor’s nominee to get a simple majority win in the Ohio House and Senate. Johnson said he started touching base with lawmakers immediately after his name was floated for the position. Johnson, who had served in the legislature earlier, said he got a lot of supportive comments, leading to an easy confirmation without the need for special hearings. Johnson suspects Tressel has been doing the same homework and will also avoid confirmation hearings.
“I’m sure he’s running, what we call 'running the traps', and calling folks to make sure they are reasonably satisfied already. But if they want to have hearings, they are entitled to have hearings,” Johnson said.
But Johnson thinks Tressel is widely known already and has the respect of many in the legislature. Johnson worked as head of the group representing Ohio’s public universities when Tressel was the president of Youngstown State University. Johnson said he has high respect for Tressel and doesn’t think he’s alone in that regard.
"I suspect that Jim Tressel will be a very effective and very popular lieutenant governor. And he’s also very competent. He ran a relatively large public university. He also worked at the University of Akron. He won a national championship at Ohio State University as their football coach which is a very big job. I think people understand that as well," Johnson said. "And so I think he has great experience and he will be a great help to Gov. Mike DeWine to implement their policies over the next two years."
Johnson said Tressel also has a certain degree of “star power” as he recounts walking alongside Tressel at educational meetings and events. Johnson said Tressel was frequently stopped by people who recognized him and wanted to say hello.
