Constitutional Law

Ohio governor-elect won't allow news media at official swearing-in

By By The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio ? When Ohio officially swears in its new governor on Jan. 10, no representative of the public is slated to be there to witness it.

Republican Gov.-elect John Kasich has closed the 12:01 a.m. event to the news media, which appears to be a first in 20 years. He cites security concerns for his family at his personal residence in the suburb of Westerville, where he is to be sworn in by Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor.

The Plain Dealer reports that the Ohio Constitution requires the official swearing-in ceremony to occur just after midnight. A ceremonial inauguration is scheduled later on Jan. 10 at the Ohio Theatre in downtown Columbus, where news media access is to be allowed but limited.

The decision not to allow reporters to attend the official swearing-in ceremony is escalating criticism of Kasich over positions he's taken on access to public information, events and documents since his election on Nov. 2.

Kasich, a former congressman and Wall Street banker, has said he favors shielding salary and bonus information for those he appoints to a proposed semiprivate economic-development board that will dole out state grants, for example. He has supported blocking release of applicants' names to a website set up by his transition committee to recruit state workers.

At a news conference announcing his picks for public safety director and highway patrol superintendent, Kasich scolded reporters for raising questions concerning a potential ethical conflict one of the men faced at his new job. "I find myself tripping over anthills on the way to the pyramids," he said.

The next day, The Cincinnati Enquirer published an editorial lampooning the incoming governor as "Pharaoh Kasich," accused him of opposing transparency in government and pasted his picture inside that of an ancient Egyptian headdress.

Kasich has decided to remain at home in Westerville, rather than live in the official Governor's Residence. His staff has declined to comment on anticipated costs for security upgrades.

Kasich said his decision on living arrangements was made in part to shield his young twin daughters from too much public exposure. Spokespeople for both the transition and the inauguration did not return e-mail and phone messages seeking elaboration on the latest swearing-in access policy in time for this story.

Former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, a Democrat, says openness between a governor and the press is imperative to the public.

"What is fundamentally important is the working relationship between any governmental administration, at whatever level of government, and the press," said Gilligan, governor from 1971 to 1975. "If you can imagine a government without a press, you've got total dictatorship. The more you move in that direction, the more precarious becomes the whole situation."

Gilligan says he believes members of the press were at his inauguration, but concedes it was many years ago.

Associated Press archives indicate that the wire service staffed every midnight swearing-in since at least 1991. That included ceremonies involving outgoing Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and predecessors Bob Taft and George Voinovich, both Republicans, and Democrat Richard Celeste. Reached at his home in Colorado yesterday, Celeste said his memory of his swearing-in was unclear and he did not want to comment.

The first time Celeste was sworn in, at the start of his first, four-year term in 1983, it was at a small, private ceremony ? and Celeste took public heat over the decision.

Gilligan said he can understand why.

"What is private about the chief executive officer of the state government being sworn into office?" he asked. "How does that become a private exercise of any kind? That's an absurd statement it seems to me."

Inaugural festivities are planned all weekend ? including a public family day at the Statehouse.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on January 04, 2011 (boomark / email).