The History of the Lieutenant Governor in Ohio
The First Lieutenant Governor
In 1850, attorney William Medill of Lancaster convened the state's second constitutional convention. Medill was elected president of the assembly by the delegates. One of the group's goals was to restructure the state's executive branch. Part of the outcome was the creation of the office of Lieutenant Governor. The new constitution was approved by Ohio voters on June 17, 1851.
Ironically, the first person elected to the office in the fall of 1851 was William Medill. Medill, a Democrat, held several other firsts. In July 1853 Governor Ruben Wood resigned after he was offered an appointment as American consul for Valparaiso, Chile by President Franklin Pierce. Medill became the first Lt. Governor to become Ohio Governor. He was also the first bachelor to become Governor. Later that year, he was elected Governor in his own right. Of all of the 108 delegates to the second constitutional convention, Medill was the only delegate who was ever elected Governor.
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Called To Lead the State
Nearly a decade after Medill left office, the first Lieutenant Governor was called upon to take over the reins of the Governor's Office due to the death of a sitting Governor. Union Party Governor John Brough died in Cleveland in 1865, four months before his term was to expire. Charles Anderson, a Dayton attorney and Union Party Lt. Governor, was sworn in to fill out the remainder of the term.
Tragedy struck again in 1906, when Governor John Pattison died less than six months after taking office. A Democrat, Pattison was succeeded by Lt. Governor Andrew Harris, a Republican. Harris had already served two terms as Lt. Governor from 1891-1895 under fellow Republican William McKinley. After McKinley was elected President of the United States in 1896, Harris served in several capacities in the McKinley Administration in Washington. He was re-elected Ohio Lt. Governor in 1905. A Civil War General, Harris was the last Civil War veteran to become Ohio Governor.
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Another Resignation
One Ohio Lieutenant Governor stepped up to the Governor's Office because the sitting Governor was elected President of the United States. Thomas L. Young became Governor on March 2, 1877 when Rutherford B. Hayes resigned to become President. Young, a Republican like Hayes, served slightly less than a year in office.
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Governor for a Week and a Half
Two Ohio Lieutenant Governors have been called upon to move up to the Governor's Office for just 11 days each due to their predecessors' election to the United States Senate.
On January 3, 1957, Governor Frank Lausche, a Democrat, resigned to take the U.S. Senate seat he'd won the previous November. Lt. Governor John W. Brown, a Republican, was sworn in as Governor. He served until January 14th, when his successor, Governor C. William O'Neill took the oath of office. Ironically, O' Neil had defeated Brown for the Republican gubernatorial nomination the previous year.
A similar situation occurred again in 1998, when Governor George Voinovich resigned on New Year's Eve to take the U.S. Senate seat he'd won the month before. He was succeeded by Lt. Governor Nancy Hollister, who served as Governor until January 10, 1999, when she was succeeded by Governor Bob Taft.
There are several other interesting coincidences regarding these two situations. Both Lausche and Voinovich served as Cleveland Mayor before they became governors. Both Brown and Hollister are the only ex-governors since the 1840s to serve in the Ohio Legislature after they left office. Brown was elected to both the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate. Hollister was appointed to a vacant House seat and then later won election to the seat.
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Other Records and Firsts
Both Brown and Hollister fall into this category as well. John Brown served as Ohio Lieutenant Governor longer than anyone else. Elected in 1952, 1954, 1962, 1966, and 1970, he served in the office a total of 16 years.
Hollister, a former Marietta Mayor, was the first woman to serve as Ohio Lieutenant Governor. She was elected as Governor George Voinovich's running mate in 1994.
Jennette Bradley was the first African-American Ohio Lt. Governor and the first female African-American Lt. Governor in the nation's history. She was Republican Governor Bob Taft's running mate in 2002.
In the nation's history, only one person who served as Lieutenant Governor later was elected President of the United States. Marion newspaper publisher Warren G. Harding served as Ohio Lt. Governor from 1904 to 1906. In 1914 Harding, a Republican was elected to the U.S. Senate and in 1920 he was elected President.
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All In the Family
Lt. Governor John W. Donahey, a Democrat, served from 1959-1963 under Governor Michael DiSalle. Donahey was the son of former three-term Ohio Governor and one-term U.S. Senator A. Victor Donahey. After John Donahey's death in 1967, his widow Gertrude became the first woman in Ohio elected to a statewide executive office when voters chose her as state treasurer in 1970. She was subsequently re-elected twice.
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Duties and Responsibilities
The duties of the Lieutenant Governor have changed over the years. From 1851 until 1979, the second constitution called for the Lt. Governor to run for office separately from the Governor. On a number of occasions, the voters elected Governors and Lt. Governors from different parties in the same election. During this period, the constitution called upon the Lt. Governor to serve as the President of the Ohio Senate.
In 1976, Ohio voters amended the constitution to change the Lt. Governor's method of election and responsibilities. Under the current law, the Governor and the Lt. Governor run as a team, much like the President and Vice President of the United States. The last Lt. Governor elected under the old method was Democrat Richard Celeste in 1974. He served under Governor James Rhodes, a Republican. The first "team-elected" Lt. Governor was George Voinovich, who ran in 1978 as Governor Rhodes's running mate. Both Voinovich (1990) and Celeste (1982) were later elected Governor in their own right.
The Lt. Governor now is available to serve a wide range of duties, at the discretion of the Governor. Those duties continue to evolve, depending upon the relationship between the Governor and the Lt. Governor.
For example, under Governor Celeste, Lt. Governor Myrl Shoemaker served as Director of Natural Resources. Under Governor Voinovich, Lt. Governor Mike DeWine, a former county prosecutor, did not serve as a cabinet director. In some ways, his role was more substantial than that. He essentially served as an Executive Assistant to the Governor, supervising the activities of the directors of Public Safety, Rehabilitations and Corrections, Criminal Justice Services, and Youth Services.
Voinovich's second Lt. Governor, Nancy Hollister, also did not serve as a cabinet director. However, she had a wide range of responsibilities. She chaired the State and Local Government Commission and the Governor's Workforce Development Board. She also co-chaired the Ohio Farmland Preservation Task Force.
Governor Bob Taft's first Lt. Governor, Maureen O'Conner, served as the Director of Public Safety. As a former county prosecutor and judge, this role fit her background and experience. She also chaired the Ohio Security Task Force and the State Building Security Review Committee following the September 11th attacks.
Governor Taft's current Lt. Governor serves as the state's Development Director, a position he has held since September 2001. As such, he heads the state's efforts to promote job creation retention and to expand job opportunities for the state's highly skilled workforce. In 2004, he was chosen by Governor Taft to chair the Ohio Jobs Cabinet to streamline the state's services to businesses in order to promote job creation and foster the continued development of the state's workforce. And, Lt. Governor Johnson also serves as chair of the Third Frontier Commission, which oversees the Third Frontier Project, Governor Taft's ten-year, $1.1 billion initiative to expand high-tech research capabilities, promote innovation, encourage company formation and create high-paying jobs in the State of Ohio.
Nationally, the role of Lieutenant Governor varies widely from state to state. A total of 42 states have Lieutenant Governors. Of those, 24 are elected with their Governors as a team. The rest run independently. According to the National Lieutenant Governors Association (NLGA), over 20 Lieutenant Governors preside over their state senates. Seven head their state travel and tourism departments. Five serve as chief elections officer and two serve as transportation directors. Three states, including Ohio, have Lieutenant Governors who also serve as commerce directors. Others head justice, public safety, emergency management, economic development, and agriculture departments. Both in Ohio and nationally, the trend is for the Lieutenant Governor to be more and more active in the affairs of their state.
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The Next Step
Many of Ohio's Lieutenant Governors have gone on to serve the state and the nation in other capacities. Some have been elected Governor. Others have gone on to Congress or the bench. Others have become diplomats. Some notable examples:
- Both of Ohio's current U.S. Senators, George Voinovich and Mike DeWine, served as Lieutenant Governor.
Voinovich was also elected Governor.
- Former Lt. Governor Atlee Pomerene served one year (1911) as Lt. Governor before winning two terms in the U.S. Senate.
- Former Lt. Governor Richard Celeste (1975-1979) was elected Governor twice and later appointed by President Bill Clinton as ambassador to India.
- Former Lieutenant Governor Paul Herbert, who was elected Ohio Lt. Governor eight times (1939-1945, 1947-1949, 1957-1959) and former Lt. Governor Maureen O'Conner (1999-2002) were later elected justices of the Ohio Supreme Court.
- Lt. Governor Harold Mosier (1935-1937) later represented Ohio in Congress as an at-large representative.
- Former Lt. Governor Clarence Brown (1919-1923) later represented Ohio's Seventh Congressional District for over 25 years. He was succeeded by his son, Clarence Brown, Jr., who represented the same congressional district for 18 years before making an unsuccessful run for Governor in 1982.
- Former Lt. Governor Charles Sawyer (1933-1935) went on to serve as ambassador to Belgium and minister to Luxembourg during World War II under President Franklin Roosevelt. Later, he served under President Harry Truman as Secretary of Commerce.
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