Ohio Policy and Administration

By | October 1, 2021

The capital of Ohio is Columbus, located near the center of the state. Since 2007, the Governor is Ted Strickland. Ohio has 18 seats in the United States House of Representatives. The chief executive officer of Ohio is the governor. This is chosen by the electors of the state for a term of up to four years of duration. A given person can serve as governor as many times as he wants, but not twice in a row. The governor is responsible for directing the officers of the Executive and the Judiciary. However, all his indications need to be approved before by the state Senate. All executive officers elected by the governor cannot serve two consecutive terms. See topschoolsintheusa for GRE test centers in Ohio.

The Ohio Legislature is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate has a total of 33 members, and the House of Representatives, 99. Ohio is divided into 33 legislative districts. The electors of each district elect a senator and three representative members, who will represent that district in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. The senators’ mandate is four years, and that of the members of the House of Representatives, two years. A given person cannot serve twice in a row as a senator, nor more than two consecutive terms as a member of the House of Representatives.

The highest court in the Ohio Judiciary is the Ohio Supreme Court, made up of seven justices. These judges are elected by the population of the state for a term of up to six years. Ohio also has twelve Courts of Appeals, and each county administers a regional Judicial Court. Ohio is divided into twelve judicial districts, where each of the courts of the Court of Appeals operate. Each of the courts of the Court of Appeals has eight judges, elected by the population of the state for a term of up to six years.

All regional court judges – made up of three to twelve judges – are elected by the population of the respective counties for a term of up to six years. About 55% of Ohio government budgets are generated by state taxes, with the remainder coming from federally supplied budgets and loans. In 2002, the state government spent 52,594 million dollars, having generated another 45,439 million. Ohio’s public debt is $ 20.009 billion. Per capita debt is $ 1,754, per capita state taxes are $ 1,764, and per capita government spending is $ 4,610.

Administrative division

Ohio is divided into 88 counties. These counties are governed by Councils of Commissioners, which are comprised of three members — with the exception of Summit County, governed by a chief administrator and a seven-member Council. Any urban area with more than five thousand residents is considered a main city (city). The state does not have secondary cities (towns); any urban area with less than 5,000 residents is considered a village. Most Ohio cities and towns are governed by a mayor and a city council, while the remainder are governed by either an administrator and a Council or a Council of Commissioners.

Politics

Politically, Ohio is considered what in English is called “swing state” (literally “swing state”, that is, a state in which one party does not clearly dominate another), although state politics is dominated by the Republicans. The mix of urban and rural areas, and the significant presence of large blue-collar industries and large white-collar business districts leads to a balance between the conservative and liberal population that, together with the state’s 20 electoral votes – more than those with many of the “swing states” – makes the state decisive for the outcome of national elections. Not surprisingly, Ohio was the state in which the 2004 Presidential Elections were decided, between George W. Bush and John Kerry. Bush narrowly won the state’s 20 electoral votes (a margin of 2 percentage points and 50.8% of the vote). The state backed Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, although in 2000 and 2004 it supported Republican George W. Bush. Ohio was also a deciding factor in the 1948 Presidential Elections, when Democrat Harry S. Truman beat Republican Thomas E. Dewey (who had won the state four years earlier), and also in 1976, when Democrat Jimmy Carter defeated Republican Gerald Ford by a narrow margin. Ohio’s demographics cause many to view the state as a microcosm within the nation. Interestingly, no Republican presidential candidate has entered the White House without winning in Ohio. Because,

Ethnic distribution

Racial composition of Ohio’s population:

85.0% White

11.5% African Americans

1.9% Hispanic

1.2% Asian

0.2% Native Americans

1.4% Two or more races

The five largest ethnic groups in Ohio are Germans (comprising 25.2% of the state’s population), Irish (12.7%), African-Americans (11.5%), British (9.2%), and Americans (8.5%). German ethnicity is predominant in most Ohio counties, especially in the northwestern part of the state. Ohioans of American and British descent are present throughout the state, particularly in the south-central region. The cities of Cleveland and Cincinnati have large African American communities. Cleveland and Toledo are home to large Hispanic communities, while Cleveland and Columbus have the largest Asian communities in Ohio.

Religion

About 74% of Ohio’s population lives in cities, while the rest live in rural areas. About 85% of the state’s population lives in metropolitan regions, with half of the state’s entire population living in one of Ohio’s three largest metropolitan regions: Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus. Columbus is the most populous city in the state, although the most populous metropolitan region is Cincinnati. In total, the state consists of 15 metropolitan regions. Of these, five are divided between Ohio and the states of Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Ohio Policy and Administration