COLUMBUS - As the iron-fisted speaker of the Ohio House, Vern Riffe decided whether bills passed or didn't.
He rewarded loyalty and punished public dissent. And governors of both political parties learned they could get elected without him, but they could not govern without him.
Guided more by pragmatism than ideology, Mr. Riffe, who died of cancer Thursday at age 72, had a knack for reading public sentiment and finding the politically comfortable middle ground.
In his early days, in response to the civil rights movement and a growing black legislative caucus, Mr. Riffe helped develop a state loan program for minorities.
In 1983, when Democrats controlled all of state government, Ohio adopted its first-ever collective bargaining bill for public employees.
In 1986, with Republicans in charge of the Senate, Mr. Riffe bucked the trial lawyers and organized labor when he sought and won a tort reform law. The impetus for it: His hometown canceled the Fourth of July fireworks for lack of liability insurance.
Mr. Riffe retired in January 1995 after 36 years in the House - a departure punctuated by an influence-peddling scandal that left him demoralized. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to report interest income on disclosure forms. Despite high-priced lawyers willing to talk for him, Mr. Riffe addressed the Franklin County Common Pleas judge who sentenced him in 1996.
"I'm not one to put the blame on anybody," he said. "If I made a mistake, I made it. I'm sorry it happened. That's part of being a leader. You've got good parts about being a leader. Sometimes you've got bad parts, too."
Mr. Riffe was born June 26, 1925, in New Boston, a blue-collar town in Scioto County near the Ohio River. In recent years, he moved to nearby Wheelersburg. He sometimes talked of growing up during the Depression, recalling how his family rationed groceries when money was tight or quietly donated what they could to needy friends and family.
He left home for Italy during World War II, where he was a gunner in the Army Air Corps. A sinus condition grounded him, but not before he was decorated with nine Bronze Stars.
When the war ended, Mr. Riffe returned home, eventually starting the insurance business that still bears his name.
His partner, Gene Bennett, was a Cincinnati Reds' scout, enabling Mr. Riffe to blend two of his passions: baseball and business.
One spring, despite pressing legislative business, Mr. Riffe canceled a House session to attend Opening Day at Riverfront Stadium. Some members howled in protest, citing a litany of bills in need of attention.
When a reporter asked him to explain his decision, Mr. Riffe simply said, "It's Opening Day, partner."
First elected to his House seat in 1958, Mr. Riffe was viewed as a country bumpkin - part of the "cornstalk brigade" that dominated the legislature. He wore bow ties, ill-fitting suits and a porkpie hat.
He abandoned his down-home attire, but never his folksy charm or his passion for rural Ohio.
Early in Mr. Riffe's legislative career, then-state auditor James A. Rhodes, a Republican from rural Jackson, summoned him to his office.
"He (Rhodes) said, 'You let me know if I can help you, 'cause you and I are from the same part of the state.' "
The chat marked the beginning of an enduring political friendship, and Mr. Riffe called Mr. Rhodes his favorite governor.
Mr. Rhodes said the speaker, who died after a lengthy bout with lymphoma, will be remembered as a leader who put the people first. "Any legislative program that was fair to taxpayers he always supported, regardless of whether it was Democratic or Republican," said Mr. Rhodes, who served as governor from 1963-71 and 1975-83. During the Rhodes eras, the two teamed up frequently. When Mr. Rhodes became governor, political leaders wanted a gas tax. Mr. Riffe lined up a deal: He'd deliver the House votes if the Rhodes administration completed the Appalachian Highway, an extensive road that connects Cincinnati to Athens, Ohio.
The pair also served as the impetus for creating Shawnee State Park, Shawnee State Community College and Scioto County Vocational School - located on Vern Riffe Drive.
During his career, Mr. Riffe claimed only three bills as his own. One of them turned Shawnee State into a four-year institution - despite strong objections from the Ohio Board of Regents.
Political friendships came easily to Mr. Riffe. Among his most important friends: former Senate President Stanley Aronoff, R-Cincinnati.
From 1989 to 1995, the two pragmatists presided over the General Assembly, brokering deals with governors and giving the minority party in each chamber little input into the democratic process. They made it look easy. Often it was, said Mr. Aronoff.
"Most of our political conversations lasted 30 seconds or less," Mr. Aronoff recalled. "I'd have my yellow pad, we'd go down the list and we'd check things off. I always knew that Shawnee State would come up. He always knew I'd be looking out for Cincinnati. It was a different style. When I walked out of that room, I knew his word was his bond."
Despite Mr. Riffe's mantra of loyalty and friendship, he won the speaker's job by ousting his long-time friend and roommate, A.G. Lancione. The two shared an apartment during the 12 years Republicans controlled the Ohio House. When Democrats won a majority of the House seats in 1973, Mr. Lancione became speaker, Mr. Riffe his right-hand man.
Yet just two years later, Mr. Riffe quietly lined up support for the top job. By the time Mr. Lancione knew about the coup, it had ended.
For the next 20 years, Mr. Riffe maintained his power without any such coup attempts.
Mr. Riffe set the agenda. Strong committee chairs and a capable staff carried it out.
During the late 1980s, consumer advocate Ralph Nader made Mr. Riffe a periodic target, once blistering him in a syndicated column as a "special-interest fund-raiser" and a "tyrant."
He insisted that Mr. Riffe was more powerful than any counterpart, including speakers in California and New York. He chastised him for retaliating against members who crossed him.
Many political analysts attribute Mr. Riffe's rise to power, in part, to his early recognition of the link between campaign contributions and electoral successes.
In the late 1980s, his fund-raising prompted a high-profile series of Akron Beacon Journal news stories bearing the logo "Pay to Play." The articles asserted that Mr. Riffe accepted campaign donations from lobbyists in return for favorably considering their bills, claims Mr. Riffe denied.
Still, lobbyists and other special interest groups considered his annual birthday fund-raiser a command performance. The event brought in well over $500,000 each year. Mr. Riffe doled out the proceeds to keep a Democratic majority in the Ohio House and help elect Democrats to the Ohio Senate and statewide offices.
Among his most important investments was Richard F. Celeste, who entered the 1982 gubernatorial primary as the underdog.
Mr. Riffe and Cincinnati financier Marvin Warner considered entering the 1982 governor's race, though it was never quite clear who would run for governor and who would run for lieutenant governor. They eventually decided to support Mr. Celeste, a former Rhodes scholar from Cleveland. The speaker donated $156,000, while Mr. Warner, later imprisoned in connection with the 1985 savings and loan scandal, donated and helped raise more than $1 million for the Celeste campaign fund.
Mr. Riffe's slide from power is traced to the 1990 elections, when Republicans won control of the panel that draws legislative boundaries. Armed with more favorable districts, Republicans increased their numbers in the 1992 elections.
Republicans won a majority in the landslide of 1994, when the GOP swept the statewide elections. Mr. Riffe had already decided not to seek another term.
Mr. Riffe often said he learned to be a leader from his father, Vernal Riffe Sr. The elder Riffe was New Boston's mayor for 24 years, the longest mayoral tenure in Ohio history.
"My father always said, 'Vern, remember, whatever you do, you do for the people,' " Mr. Riffe once said. "He said, 'Son, if you are going to be a leader, be a strong leader. That's what the people want.' "
Mr. Riffe is survived by his wife, Thelma; their children, Cathy Skiver, Verna Kay Riffe, Mary Beth Hewitt and Vernal Riffe III; and their seven grandchildren.
