REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — What better spot to make your case about a now defunct state law restricting collective bargaining than on a picket line that would have been illegal under its terms?

“It’s not just about pay and benefits. It’s also about class sizes,” Democratic candidate Ed FitzGerald said after speaking to about 30 sign-carrying teachers, parents, and students outside Reynoldsburg High School in the Columbus suburb.

“That’s the kind of thing that they would have given up if John Kasich had his way and Senate Bill 5 had been enacted into law,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who see a connection.”

Teachers in the 7,000-student Reynoldsburg district have been on strike since Friday. In addition to outlawing the strike, Senate Bill 5 would have largely prohibited teachers from negotiating over anything but wages.

Since the failure of Senate Bill 5 at the polls in November, 2011, there have been two strikes by public school district teachers in Ohio — Reynoldsburg and Strongsville City Schools last year, according to the State Employment Relations Board.

Although the vote was nearly three years ago, Kathy Evans, spokesman for the Reynoldsburg Education Association, was wearing a button with the No. 5 in a circle with a line drawn through it. It read, “This is the November we’ll remember — 11/​4/​14.”

“I feel like this is definitely a continuance of some of the things they were trying to put in place in Senate Bill 5,” she said. “We are concerned about that. I have a yard sign in my car to put in my yard today, and many of our members and even citizens and community members are looking at that.”

Mr. FitzGerald predicted there will be more strikes like this one, citing the policies of the Republican governor such as Senate Bill 5 and school funding.

“Public education is a value that almost everybody in Ohio, except for a few politicians, respects,” he said. “I think that crosses party lines. I don’t think it’s just about Senate Bill 5. It’s about are we really going to support public education or aren’t we.”

Mr. FitzGerald and Democrats are trying to reignite the fires of labor and supporters that led to protesters overflowing the Statehouse and then repealing the Republican-passed Senate Bill 5 at the polls. Lacking the resources to combat Mr. Kasich on the airwaves, Democrats are instead trying to make the case that the 2014 election should be seen as a continuation of that fight.

Immediately after the Senate Bill 5 vote, Mr. Kasich said he had received voters’ message and had moved on.

“[Mr. FitzGerald] might want to bone up on the duties of the job he wants to hold,” Kasich campaign spokesman Connie Wehrkamp said. “Governors don’t run local schools. In fact, local control of schools is a vitally important component of Ohio’s public education system.

“The governor respects the independence of locally elected school boards, trusts both sides will put the well-being of the students first, and isn’t inserting himself into a process in which the governor has no role.”

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

First Published September 26, 2014, 4:00 a.m.