Ohio’s Republican governor intentionally takes slow approach as other states rush to reopen

Gov. Mike DeWine is testing the patience of Ohio.

As stay-at-home orders expire in states across the country and several of his fellow Republican governors move swiftly to reopen shuttered businesses, DeWine said he intends to extend his order on Friday as he takes a measured approach in trying to rebound from the coronavirus fight.

“We’re starting to open up a little bit — not fast enough, obviously, for a lot of people,” he said. “But we’re trying to do this in a reasonable way.”

DeWine was the first governor in the country to close schools last month when he began sounding a serious alarm about the spread of coronavirus well before the White House did. Since then, his handling of the crisis — which included calling for the delay of his state’s primary — has earned praise from across the spectrum.

But Ohio’s tolerance for a third-straight month of a deliberate approach became far more of an open question this week as he encountered sharp criticism for ordering all citizens to wear masks in public — a decision he pulled back less than a day later.

“It was, quite candidly, pretty much an explosion,” DeWine said. “People felt affronted by that.”

‘We’re trying to phase these things in’

The controversy over the wisdom of wearing masks — and whether people should be instructed by the government to do so — offers yet another glimpse into the messy patchwork of rules emerging across the country as more than 30 states begin easing restrictions imposed in the opening weeks of the pandemic.

The Ohio governor’s staggered reopening plan, which starts Friday, allows hospitals to perform procedures that do not require an overnight stay. Dentists and veterinarians can also open their doors. On Monday, construction and manufacturing businesses can open, followed by retail and customer service shops on May 12.

Those minimal steps are the extent of the first phase of DeWine’s layered approach, with businesses like barber shops, gyms and restaurants not given a target date for reopening, a stinging disappointment for Ohio restaurant owners.

“I was hoping that we would hear that restaurants could open in some capacity by a specific date,” said Sheila Trautner, whose bar and dining room at the Hubbard Grille seems frozen in time from the night restaurants across the state were ordered to close on March 15.

Since then, she’s had May 1 etched into her mind, a date she hoped to learn when she could at least start planning to reopen. But she and other proprietors will enter the month uncertain of when they will be allowed to begin seating customers.

John Barker, president of the Ohio Restaurant Association, said restaurants should be treated in the same manner as retail establishments, which are allowed to open in two weeks.

“We’re one of the few industries that is regulated by the health department as tightly as anybody,” Barker said. “We’re ready.”

But DeWine defended his decisions on the road to economic recovery, saying he believes a gradual approach to reopening businesses offers the least degree of risk.

“We’re trying to phase these things in and try to continue to buy some time so we don’t have the curve going straight up again,” DeWine said of the coronavirus cases, of which Ohio recorded more than 18,000 with nearly 1,000 deaths as of Thursday. “I fully understand everyone is anxious to get moving today, but this is a balance.”

The DeWine plan is more in line with White House guidelines, which call for a 14-day downward trend of new cases before lifting stay-at-home restrictions, a benchmark Ohio has not met. Several other states are moving forward without meeting the criteria.

As the number of Ohioans seeking unemployment benefits since the outbreak began climbed to 1 million people on Thursday, DeWine faces extraordinary pressure to accelerate the economy. More than 30 Republican lawmakers in Ohio have called on the governor to open businesses faster, a sign of unease and tension inside the party six months before Election Day.

“I’m not going to question his initial actions, but the continued actions of not opening it up are what’s really bothering a lot of people,” said Lisa Knapp, who helped organize Open Ohio, one of the groups that has demonstrated in recent weeks at the state Capitol. “Small businesses are going to lose everything if they haven’t already.”

DeWine has made clear the buck stops with him, repeatedly saying that he takes full responsibility for trying to balance the still-deadly virus with the state’s economy.

“Ultimately, the decision is my decision,” DeWine said.

Accepting responsibility is one of the many ways DeWine has taken an entirely different approach to the crisis than President Donald Trump. He has called on the White House for increased testing capacity. He’s also followed the advice of his own health experts in setting his course for Ohio, resulting in several governors across the country pointing to it as a model.

Experience, accolades — and criticism

DeWine talks openly about how he believes in government, rising through its ranks since winning his first election as county prosecutor at age 29. Over the last four decades, he’s served in the Ohio state House and in Congress — four terms in the House, two terms in the Senate — as well as being elected the state’s lieutenant governor and attorney general.

In 2018, he won what he describes as his dream job of governor. After only a little more than one year on the job, at age 73, he’s the country’s most experienced first-term governor.

His actions have drawn wide praise during the first six weeks of the crisis, from Democratic mayors across Ohio and Sen. Sherrod Brown, also a Democrat, who told CNN that DeWine has done “a good job making sure the health and safety of Ohioans are the top priorities in handling his pandemic.”

DeWine’s decision to backtrack on his requirement to wear masks punctured those accolades.

“I have been very impressed and supportive of Gov. DeWine’s leadership during the Covid-19 crisis,” said Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, a Democrat. “I do, though, want to express my disappointment with the rolling back of the requirement for people to wear face masks in stores. This decision prioritizes the comfort of a few people over the health and safety of the rest of us — especially frontline workers.”

The anger surrounding masks clearly frustrated DeWine, who devoted considerable time during his daily afternoon press briefings to tout the virtues of face coverings. He held up a plaid one, made by his wife, Fran, as an example he hopes Ohioans will follow.

“It doesn’t have to be as pretty as this,” DeWine said, holding the mask to his face.

He said he rescinded his requirement of masks because “a significant number of Ohioans are offended by this (and) thought it was just government overreach.”

And, he said, he didn’t want people to start tuning out his other requests and orders as the fight continues with coronavirus.

“If we lose that willingness, then it will be disaster,” DeWine said. “We will lose many, many more lives and our business will not come back. We can’t lose that sense.”