How is Ohio different from Wisconsin?

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he talks to John Kasich every day. Ohio’s governor is pushing just as hard as Walker to curb the power of public employee unions, sparking massive protests at both state capitols. Both governors are looking at Mitch Daniels’ union-taming, debt-slashing success in Indiana and saying that’s the way to cure their state’s financial illness.

So why is Madison the new capital of American protest, our new Cairo-like TV-drama stage, and not Columbus?

It’s not just that Wisconsin Democrats have upped the drama by deciding the only way to stop Walker’s bill is by a filibustering at an out-of-state Best Western. (A run for the border won’t do the Ohio Democrats’ tiny Senate caucus any good.)

It’s not just that protest is part of the culture in Madison, a classic liberal college town, or that the Wisconsin left is tapping a 100-year tradition of feistiness, which goes all the way back to gutsy progressive Fighting Bob La Follette. It’s not just that the Wisconsin state capitol lets people sleep over, giving the cheeseheads an opening to create a 24-hour happening, a marble-pillared commune. Or that Ohio lefties and unionists are more likely to swamp the capitol on hearing day, then go home and go to work.

The difference might be – might be – that Ohio is in a more moderate mood than Wisconsin right now, and that some of our state’s moderate Republicans are looking for a compromise. Some Republican senators are distinctly lukewarm about Senate Bill 5. They’re not spoiling for a fight. Unlike Wisconsin’s Republicans under Walker, they’re thinking independently, looking to reform collective bargaining with public employees but not tear it up.

Already Senate Republicans have snipped a ban on collective bargaining for state employees out of SB5, preserving their right to bargain for wages. This week, the Senate considers more amendments. As they do, pay close attention to two Northeast Ohio Republicans, Tim Grendell and Tom Patton. Grendell, though a member of the hard-right “Caveman Caucus,” is looking for ways to change SB5. Patton, a Republican and union member, is being super-careful – note his no-comment to Phillip Morris last week – but he, too, seems to be looking for a compromise way out.

I’m not saying Grendell and Patton are the swing votes – Kasich may eke out a victory without them. But their intriguing disagreements with their party say a lot about where the debate may be going – both in the legislature and at what’s probably SB5’s ultimate destination, a statewide referendum this fall.

Reform deadline: July 13

July 13 is the deadline for reformers to petition for a new county government, the Board of Elections tells me. That's only 6 1/2 weeks to write a charter, circulate petitions with the proposed charter attached, and get 45,458 Cuyahoga County residents to sign.

If they can do it, they'll get the proposed charter on the November 3 ballot. Otherwise, they'll have to wait until next year.

Forty-seven days is not much time at all. Martin Zanotti, Marcia Fudge, Bill Mason, and everyone else involved need to make some decisions fast, or aim for a vote in 2010.

Their other option is to get Sen. Tim Grendell or another interested legislator to put their proposal into a bill and pass it before the legislature's summer break. Then they wouldn't need petition signatures, just support in the House and Senate. But they only have about a month to do that.

Reform plan: a county council and executive

Some more news about the county reform plan that got a little press this week. Turns out the group county treasurer Jim Rokakis and Parma Heights Mayor Martin Zanotti are in isn't new -- it's the one I mentioned back in November (here, halfway down): the Citizens For Cuyahoga Success.

It's now co-chaired by Zanotti and Lute Harmon, Sr., chairman of Great Lakes Publishing -- which, it so happens, owns Cleveland Magazine. State Sen. Tim Grendell, another member of the group, updated me about its work.

You might think of Grendell (pictured) as a Geauga County politician, but his district also includes four Cuyahoga County towns: Gates Mills, Highland Heights, Mayfield, and some of Mayfield Heights. In December, Grendell's bill to create a Cuyahoga County council passed the state Senate, but it butted up against the plan the House passed, which came from a commission appointed by the governor. Both died in the legislature.

So Grendell teamed up with the group to take reform directly to the ballot. He says a county council can make government more answerable to the public.

"I have a problem with three county commissioners answering to 1.3 million people," Grendell says. "In my scenario, you’d have five Cuyahoga County commissioners representing 260,000 people (each), making them more responsive to their constituents and serving as a (link) to local officials, helping them work on some regional issues."

Two more commissioners would be elected county-wide, Grendell says. So would a county executive, creating a single desk where the buck stops, and a check and balance, with the council and executive keeping each other honest.

It would all be written in a charter, which would give the new county government more powers. But getting a charter proposal on the ballot is tough: it takes 45,000 signatures.