COLUMBUS, Oh. (AP): Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine should be impeached over his handling of the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, a conservative GOP House lawmaker said Monday as he announced a long-shot effort to unseat one of the state’s most well-known politicians.
Cincinnati Rep. John Becker said he has drafted 10 articles of impeachment against the first-term governor in an effort currently backed by two other conservative House lawmakers.
Becker accused DeWine of improperly shutting down the March presidential primary, arbitrarily ordering some businesses closed while allowing others to remain open, and instituting an unpopular statewide mask mandate.
It was unclear, however, what law that Becker believes DeWine broke that calls for impeachment. A message was left with his office.
“With deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19 flattened, the Governor continues to press his boot on the throat of Ohio’s economy,” Becker said.
Daily new cases of the coronavirus have fallen below a seven-day average of 1,000, down from much higher tallies earlier in the summer.
An impeachment website lists Rep. Nino Vitale, a Republican from Urbana and a frequent critic of DeWine and the mask mandate, and Rep. Paul Zeltwanger, a Republican from Mason in southwestern Ohio, as the only other backers of the movement.
