Sat Feb 11 2012
by Marc Kovac
Capital Bureau Chief
Columbus -- A state lawmaker panel has recommended inventor Thomas Edison to represent Ohio in the statuary hall in the U.S. Capitol, despite continued lobbying by supporters of the Wright Brothers that the aviation pioneers were a better choice.
The decision by the state's National Statuary Committee aligned with the results of nearly three months of statewide voting, completed earlier this summer.
The committee vote was unanimous, after state Rep. Tom Letson, a Democrat from Warren who preferred the Wright Bros., voted in favor of Edison after initially passing.
But the committee's recommendation isn't the final say in the matter. The next step in the process will involve the introduction of legislation naming Edison as the state's selection. That bill will have to be OK'd by the full Ohio House and Senate.
Afterward, a new nonprofit organization will work to raise funds to pay for the statue and handle other details, including selecting an artist and the type of materials to be used.
Sen. Mark Wagoner said he hopes the legislative work will be completed before the end of the year, though likely not until November, when lawmakers are slated to return to session.
Federal legislation enacted about 10 years ago allows states to replace older statues on display in the Capitol with new ones. Ohio currently is represented by President James A. Garfield who was assassinated.
The other statue is former one-term Governor and Congressman William Allen, who died in 1879. He is viewed as a supporter of slavery, something that prompted lawmakers in 2006 to vote to replace his statue with someone more representative of today's Ohioans.
The statuary committee considered more than 90 famous Ohioans, selecting 10 as finalists, including congressman and abolitionist James Ashley, President and Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant, space shuttle astronaut Judith Resnik, oral polio vaccine creator Albert Sabin, abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe, and women's suffragist Harriet Taylor Upton.
Earlier this year, Ohioans of all ages were allowed to vote on their choice for the statue. Of the 47,736 ballots submitted, Edison received 14,833, or about 30 percent. The Wright Brothers were second with 13,815, followed by Jesse Owens and civil rights leader William McCulloch.
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