The constitutional amendment (key backers include retired Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Greater Cleveland Republican) would create a 15-member Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw Ohio General Assembly and Ohio’s U.S. House of Representative districts.
It’d be composed of a mix of Democrats, independents and Republicans, excluding current or former politicians and lobbyists. At least seven other states have similar commissions, including neighboring Michigan.
As things now stand, partisan hacks draw Ohio House and Senate districts to favor the politicians – since 1991, Republicans – who control “districting,” as it’s known. Brazen consequences:
In 2020, Republican Donald Trump carried Ohio, attracting 53% of the statewide vote, to the 45% drawn by Democrat Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Consider the contrast between Trump’s Ohio margin to this:
In the 99-seat Ohio House of Representatives, the GOP holds 68% of the House’s 99 seats (that is, 67 seats). And in the 33-seat Ohio Senate, Republicans hold 79% of its seats (that is, 26 seats).
That pattern, with Republicans capturing big majorities of General Assembly seats, dates back to the 1990s, when the GOP gained control of districting. (Yet Democrat presidential candidate Bill Clinton carried Ohio, as did Barack Obama.)
Of course, there’s “what-about-ism” about district-drawings in 1971 and 1981 controlled by Democrats, led by 20-year House Speake Vernal G. Riffe Jr. Over those decades, Democrats maxed out at 62 House seats in 1977 through 1980 (in the wake of Democrat Jimmy Carter’s 1976 Ohio victory) and in 1983-1984 (after Democrat Richard F. Celeste won the governorship, and amid Ronald Reagan 1982 recession, which hit Ohio hard). But even with General Assembly districts drawn by Democrats, Republicans captured the state Senate in 1984 and have run it ever
The Republican alibi for gerrymandering: It’s impossible to divide Ohio into 99 House districts (about 119,000 residents each) or 33 Senate districts (about 358) to match statewide results (as noted for 2020, 53% for Trump, 45% for Biden).
True enough, it’d be a challenge to scare up enough Republicans in Franklin County (65% for Biden) or Cuyahoga (67% for Biden) neighborhoods to create districts there proportionate to the statewide GOP stats (53% Trump). The same goes for creating Democratic proportionate (45% Biden) districts in western- or north-central Ohio, where Trump racked up such 2020 tallies as 82% in Mercer (Celina) and Putnam (Ottawa) counties (both, incidentally, heavily Catholic).
Still, if Riffe’s apportionments could find Democratic voters in counties such as Brown, in southwest Ohio (54% for Reagan in 1980); Marion, in central Ohio (57%); Sandusky, in lake shore Ohio (56%); and, just east of Indiana, Shelby (54%,), then GOP insiders who drew Ohio’s current districts, with vastly superior computers, could have, too.
These factors demonstrate why the “Citizens Not Politicians” ballot issue offers Ohio voters the opportunity to break Statehouse insiders’ lock on the General Assembly, a body that’s supposed to represent all Ohioans, not self-selected Statehouse wire-pullers.
What’s more, concentrating voters of one party in a given district tends to make party primaries, not general elections, decisive in picking a General Assembly. And GOP primary fights can turn on which contender is furthest to the right, determined in part by how much kook legislation – of which there’s way too much already – gets hyped at the Statehouse.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.
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