Rotunda Rumblings

Will this be on the test? The Ohio Department of Health received its first COVID-19 coronavirus testing kit and could begin testing for the virus this weekend, cleveland.com’s Laura Hancock reports. Until now, officials have been sending samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and waiting for results. Officials will now be able to test for the virus on site, with a one- or two-day turn-around.

Terminated: The Ohio Department of Health on Thursday issued an order forcing organizers of Columbus’ massive Arnold Sports Festival to ban the public from most events, citing fears of spreading coronavirus. As cleveland.com’s Jeremy Pelzer reports, Gov. Mike DeWine said other large upcoming events in Ohio, such as March Madness basketball games, will not be canceled. NCAA officials said they were moving forward with their current plan for March Madness, per cleveland.com’s Mary Kilpatrick.

Lather up: Dr. Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health, has mentioned a school study on hand-washing several times during discussions about coronavirus. Hancock got the study and looked at it, and writes that flu can be cut in half by hand-washing. Pink eye, diarrhea and other illness reduces, too.

The latest: Three new people are now being tested for COVID-19, Hancock writes. Thus far, no tests have come back positive.

Entreaty to Senate: Gov. Mike DeWine and several dozen other Republican and Democratic governors sent a letter to congressional leaders, asking them to pass the emergency coronavirus measure that will provide states funds to combat the epidemic, Hancock reports.

Clean elections: County boards of elections across the state said they are sending hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes to polling locations for Election Day as a precaution to coronavirus, cleveland.com’s Seth Richardson reports. None of the election chiefs nor Secretary of State Frank LaRose expect any kind of disruptions because of the virus.

Suit yourself: Ohioans for Secure and Fair Elections is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to overturn a decision from a state panel this week to split their proposed ballot measure into four parts, cleveland.com’s Andrew Tobias writes. The lawsuit, filed Thursday, seeks to overturn the Ohio Ballot Board, which ruled the measure, which includes automatic voter registration and same-day registration/voting provisions, was actually separate issues. The ACLU-backed campaign also filed paperwork with Attorney General Dave Yost.

$upreme Court: Democratic Ohio Supreme Court candidates Jennifer Brunner and John P. O’Donnell each raised more money in the past few weeks than their respective Republican opponents, Justices Judith French and Sharon Kennedy. But as Pelzer explains, the GOP incumbents still have far more money in the bank.

Making it rain: Ohio Republicans are spending big in the weeks leading up to the March 17 primary, Tobias writes. The House Republican Campaign Committee reported spending nearly $718,000 since Jan. 31, including focusing on races featuring caucus members who were recently appointed and are now running for election. The Senate Republican Caucus spent $579,200, including giving $307,800 to Sen. Terry Johnson, who was appointed to his seat last year and is now running for election.

This land is your land: Morgan Harper, the Democrat challenging Columbus Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty in the primary, didn’t waste an opportunity to take shots at Beatty over land deals, the Columbus Dispatch’s Anna Staver and Rick Rouan report. Beatty was in Washington voting on federal funding for coronavirus response and was unable to attend, leaving Harper the floor to bring up an issue first raised by The Intercept over Beatty and her husband’s real estate ventures.

If I could turn back time: One of the problems with endorsing early in the presidential primary is there’s a non-negligible chance that your candidate might drop out by the time the election gets here. Such is the case with the people the Toledo Blade’s Liz Skalka talked to in her latest piece, where she asks what backers of the Bloombergs, Buttigieges and Warrens of Ohio are doing now without a candidate to call their own.

Closing up shop: Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg plans on forming a new group to support the Democratic nominee in the 2020 presidential election, but is still closing his 12 Ohio offices, the Washington Post’s Michael Scherer reports. Staffers for the campaign, presumably including the roughly 100 he hired in Ohio, will be offered the chance to apply for field organizer work in the six targeted states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida and North Carolina.

Buckeye Brain Tease

Question: It’s relatively well-known that eight Ohioans have been elected U.S. president. But how many Ohioans have served as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and who are they?

Email your response to capitolletter@cleveland.com. The first correct respondent will be mentioned in next week’s newsletter.

Thanks for responding to last week’s trivia question, submitted by Capitol Letter reader Lt. Gov. Jon Husted:

This county is named after an American soldier who worked for George Washington, fought in the French and Indian and Revolutionary War and was later tortured and beheaded. Which county is it, and who was it named for?

Answer: Crawford County, William Crawford

Crawford was a farmer and surveyor turned soldier whose family moved to Western Pennsylvania in 1766. He retired from the military in 1781, but was persuaded to lead an expedition in 1782 against Seneca-Cayuga villages along the Sandusky River in what is today north-central Ohio, according to Ohio History Connection. He was defeated, and the natives tortured him before burning him at the stake in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten Massacre the previous year. In 2017, vandals stole the head from a statue of Crawford outside the Crawford County courthouse. County commissioners approved a new statue in 2018.

Capitol Letter reader Ryan Stubenrauch of Lewis Center was the first to send in the correct answer. Thanks to everyone who responded!

Birthdays

Friday, March 6: Cortland Everhart, legislative aide to state Rep. Jon Cross

Saturday, March 7: Ex-Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor

Sunday, March 8: Cameron Garczyk, legislative aide to state Rep. Ryan Smith

Straight from the Source

“People are calling me. Far too many people have my cell-phone number …to ask in general about coronavirus, and then, specifically, ‘Should I still go to Place X for Spring Break?’”

-U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, speaking remotely to Ohio health officials at a coronavirus summit in Columbus on Thursday.

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