Ohio lawmakers unlikely to pass Edison statue bill
12/9/2010COLUMBUS -- A bill to put Thomas Edison's statue in the U.S. Capitol has little chance of passing the Ohio Legislature now that the House has wrapped up its work.
The House has not formally adjourned, but House Speaker Armond Budish says he doesn't plan for representatives to return for votes.
Each state gets two statues in the Capitol of notable historic figures who are deceased.
Ohio lawmakers decided to replace former governor William Allen, a 19th century congressman who portrayed blacks as savages and supported the rights of Southern slave owners.
A panel of state lawmakers voted this summer to recommend that Edison be the subject of a new statue.
The inventor spent the first seven years of his life in the northern Ohio town of Milan.