COLUMBUS - Former Ohio lawmaker Joe Vukovich felt the wrath of House Speaker Vern Riffe so often that he joked that his committee chair nameplate would be transferred to Velcro.

        “I said, "That way they can remove the name whenever they want,' ” said Mr. Vukovich, a Democrat who twice lost a committee chairmanship after bumping heads with Mr. Riffe.

        Politicians of either political party who challenge their leaders often face punishment. It could be the loss of power, such as getting kicked off committees, or a loss of job perks.

        Last week, the current speaker, Larry Householder, removed three fellow Republican lawmakers from committees and stripped one of them, Rep. Bryan Williams of Akron, of two chairmanships.

        The shakeup came four days after several House Republicans threw their support behind the speaker to counter what they said was criticism of Mr. Householder's leadership style.

        Mr. Householder had little choice, since lack of action could have been perceived as weakness, said Mr. Vukovich. Now a state appeals court judge in Youngstown, he lost the chairmanship of the House Civil and Commercial Law Committee after refusing to support Mr. Riffe's 1984 pay raise bill.

        “As speaker, you have to control your ship,” Mr. Vukovich said. “If you have a bunch of prima donnas, or would-be princes or princesses running around, you're never going to get anything done.”

        Former Rep. June Lucas said Mr. Riffe isolated her after her first vote as a lawmaker, when she refused to support a bill that would have limited damages juries could award in lawsuits.

        Punishment isn't just reserved for state lawmakers. Congressional Democrats stripped former U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant Jr. of all assignments after the Youngstown Democrat voted for Illinois Republican Dennis Hastert as speaker of the House.

        Mr. Traficant, later expelled and imprisoned on corruption charges, was the only congressman without a committee assignment.

        Under Mr. Riffe, who was speaker from 1974 to 1994, Democrats who rebelled often did so for ideological reasons - unwilling to support votes that went against labor, for example.

        Under Mr. Householder, the pressure of eight-year term limits may have more to do with the unrest, said William Binning, a Youngstown State University political scientist.

        “The rebels, they don't have a lot of time to wait,” he said. “If they were looking down at a 20-year career in the Legislature, they'd be more patient, but they want their time at bat.”

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