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The 131st Ohio General Assembly swore in 132 state lawmakers and officially elected its leaders during its inaugural sessions Jan. 5, 2015.

(Jackie Borchardt, cleveland.com, File, 2015)

Statehouse insiders are placing big bets on continued Republican dominance of the Ohio General Assembly, though if Democrat Hillary Clinton were to win Ohio in her race for the presidency - no telling yet if that'll happen - it might shake things up inside Ohio's House and state Senate.

Intramural jousting is also possible, especially in the GOP-run House, given that some strong (that's a polite word) Republican personalities may win House seats, such as Senate President Keith Faber of Celina, Sen. William Seitz of suburban Cincinnati, both term-limited in the Senate, and former House Speaker Larry Householder of Perry County, seeking a political comeback.

Besides money, Republicans in both the state Senate and in Ohio's House have a built-in advantage. Democrats aren't running in a number of General Assembly districts.

In effect, Democrats conceded to Republicans three of the 16 state Senate districts on November's general ballot: The Lima-area 12th District (where ex-state Reps. John Adams of Sidney and Matt Huffman of Lima are competing for the GOP senatorial nomination); the Zanesville area's 20th District (Sen. Troy Balderson); and the Marysville-Bucyrus district, the 26th (Sen. Dave Burke). Democrats lost control of the state Senate in November 1984. Republicans have run the place ever since.

And Ohio House Democrats didn't field challengers in 16 of the 99 Ohio House districts, including the 91st, held by Speaker Clifford Rosenberger, of Clinton County's Clarksville. (Consciously or not, Republicans didn't field a candidate to oppose House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn, a Dayton Democrat. )

Upshot: Ohio House Democrats, who now hold 34 House districts, are fielding candidates in 83 of the 99-district total, while Rosenberger's Republicans, who hold 65 House districts, are fielding candidates in 92.

A Strahorn aide said that Republicans' 2011 gerrymander of Ohio House districts makes it almost impossible for a Democrat to win some of them. That means rationing Democrats' resources. (Yes, Democrats gerrymandered the legislature in 1971 and 1981, though that didn't keep Republicans from capturing the Senate in 1984.)

True also, election statistics compiled by the Ohio Manufacturers' Association indicate that in 2012, Republican Mitt Romney carried this year's 16 no-Democratic-candidate Ohio House districts by an average of 59 percent over President Barack Obama.

Still, two years ago, in November 2014, after that Obama-Romney contest, Ohio House Democrats skipped contests in 11 of the 99 Ohio House districts. That's five (or 31 percent) fewer skipped districts than this year's 16.

Then there's the money advantage the General Assembly's Republican caucus campaign funds enjoy over Democrats. According to the most recent campaign finance reports, the Republican [state] Senate Campaign Committee had $2.59 million on hand; the Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee, $4.45 million; Ohio Senate Democrats, $131,488; and the Ohio House Democratic Caucus Fund, $523,739.

The minority party always has a tougher time raising campaign funds because the majority party decides what the Senate or House does or doesn't do. The Senate president and the House speaker are the legislature's traffic cops, and Republicans hold both those gavels - and likely will for the rest of this decade.

Update on Mary Taylor's gubernatorial ambitions

Never say that Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, a suburban Akron Republican, isn't considering a 2018 run for governor.

Turn on the car radio in Greater Cleveland. Taylor's on a drive-time show. Check emailed press releases, or Twitter. Taylor's there (just to promote common-sense efficiency in state government, you understand). Gov. John Kasich can't run for a third consecutive term; if he goes to Washington before 2018, Taylor succeeds him automatically. But if she wants a full term, she'd have to run in 2018. And Mary Taylor's looking things over.

Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.

To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@gmail.com, 216-999-4689