COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Ohio’s term limits are set to create turnover in state government, but as the state heads toward November elections with open seats across the top offices, many of the same political figures are positioning themselves to stay in power by moving into different roles.

In 2027, Ohio will have a new governor as Gov. Mike DeWine reaches the end of his second term. With term limits affecting multiple statewide offices, the upcoming election cycle is shaping up as a round of political musical chairs.

The Ohio Constitution mandates term limits for state officeholders such as governor and attorney general. Voters also approved term limits in 1992 for state representatives and state senators. But instead of consistently producing new faces in Columbus, the limits have often led to officeholders shifting from one position to another.

• Several prominent Republicans are already lined up for new races:
• Republican Keith Faber, term-limited as auditor, is running for attorney general.
• Frank LaRose, term-limited as secretary of state, is running for auditor.
• Robert Sprague, term-limited as treasurer, is running for secretary of state.
• Two term-limited legislators — former state Rep. Jay Edwards and term-limited state Sen. Kristina Roegner — are facing off in the primary for treasurer.

Catherine Turcer of Common Cause Ohio said the original intent behind term limits was to bring new lawmakers into the Statehouse.

“When we thought about the need for term limits, there was the sense, hey, we want to refresh the Statehouse,” Turcer said. “And that doesn’t happen when legislators go from one chamber to the other.”

Republican strategist Terry Casey said the current dynamic reflects competing voter preferences.

“The public wants people experienced, but they also want turnover and change,” Casey said. “So this is kind of an unusual quirk that hasn’t happened previously in history. But again, do you want experience or do you want fresh faces? In reality, the public wants both.”

Turcer said experience can be valuable, but she argued voters also wanted to prevent long-term consolidation of political influence.

“One of the things that voters really didn’t want was the accumulation of power,” Turcer said.

She pointed to Matt Huffman as an example. Huffman served as president of the Senate, and when he was term-limited there, he ran for the Ohio House in 2024. He won and then became House speaker.

“So that’s not just jumping from one chamber to the other,” Turcer said. “That’s bringing along the political power and the long-term career that you have.”

While proposals occasionally surface to change Ohio’s term-limit rules, there are no active efforts underway, meaning the pattern of candidates moving from one office to another is likely to continue.

Hamilton County has two judicial primaries this Election Day, including one that prompted an endorsement from Afroman, an Ohio-based rapper.

Incumbent Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Chris Wagner will face defense lawyer Bill Gallagher on May 5. There is no Republican challenger, so the winner of the primary will serve as judge.

Wagner was first elected to the bench in 2020, defeating Republican former judge Curt Hartman with 58% of the vote, according to the Hamilton County Board of Elections. He cited jury service reform as one of his achievements on his campaign website and said jurors now serve half the number of days that they used to, and their pay has been increased.

He has been endorsed by the Hamilton County Democratic Party, Commissioner Denise Driehaus and Prosecutor Connie Pillich, among other county and city officials. Wagner was also endorsed by Clyde Bennett, a high-profile defense lawyer who’s represented former judge Tracie Hunter and more recently Rodney Hinton, who is charged with killing a Hamilton County sheriff’s deputy.

Before Ted Carter leveraged his position to get the woman he later admitted having an “inappropriate relationship” with a job at Ohio State University, he asked at least two University of Nebraska-related organizations to consider hiring her.

The Lincoln Journal Star reported April 28 that Carter tried to get military podcaster Krisanthe Vlachos a job at the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska and the University of Nebraska Foundation in 2023 while he was still president of the University of Nebraska System.

Ohio State released a nearly 50-page report April 21 detailing the investigation into Carter’s downturn. It included new details about Carter’s relationship with Vlachos. That report prompted the University of Nebraska System to conduct its own internal review of Carter’s potential dealings with Vlachos during his time as president there.

Related Ted Carter article: Read Ohio State’s full report on former president Ted Carter

Vlachos and Carter appear to have met at a Veterans in Energy forum in Washington, D.C., in March 2023, earlier than initially reported, according to Ohio State’s internal report. Carter was president of the University of Nebraska System at the time and a keynote speaker at the conference.

Vlachos later described the forum to others “as the start of their friendship, the occasion when she asked him to mentor her son who was joining the Navy, and when she asked him to cohost her podcast,” the report read.

It’s not clear from the report how quickly their relationship developed or if the relationship was romantic, though The Dispatch previously reported that it was romantic.

According to public records reviewed by The Journal Star, Vlachos sent Carter a link to her resume at his NU email address a few weeks after the conference concluded in April 2023. Carter forwarded the message two days later to Rick Evans, executive director of National Strategic Research Institute. NSRI is one of 15 university affiliated research centers nationwide designated by the U.S. Department of War.

Evans replied to Carter’s email two days later.

“Looking at her profile, her skills are probably best aligned to the Contracts and Business Operations Coordinator position you approved us to hire,” Evans wrote.