Victories have been few for voters who think Statehouse calendars should indicate that Ohioans are living in the 21st century, not the 19th.
The coalition-building that defeated Issue 1 resulted from necessity, because unlike, say, in the 1980s, Ohio Democrats are not as formidable a force as they were. Nor is organized labor.
And contrary to inside-the-Washington Beltway analyses, the best proof of that isn’t that Ohioans twice supported Donald Trump for president, but that Ohio Democrats for several decades haven’t recruited relay-teams of candidates for state elected offices.
In 1992, Democrats controlled the Ohio House of Representatives; today, thanks to rigged districts, Republicans run the place 67-32 (and have run the Senate since 1985).
Also in 1992, a Democrat was Ohio’s attorney general; another was state auditor; a third was state treasurer. (Then, as now, a Republican was secretary of state.) Today, Republicans hold all six elected statewide executive offices. Likewise, Ohio’s U.S. senators in 1992 were Democrats John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum. Today they’re J.D. Vance, a Cincinnati Republican, and Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat. In fact, Sherrod Brown is the only Democrat holding a statewide elected office except for three Ohio Supreme Court justices — Jennifer Brunner, Michael P. Donnelly, and Melody J. Stewart.
In 1992 the percentage of union members among employed Ohioans was 20.3%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Last year, the percentage was 12.8%.
The next statewide Issue 1 — on November’s ballot, three months from now — is about abortion, a topic that touches voters in more than just political ways.
And in 2024, the anti-gerrymandering proposal likely on that year’s ballot will be flanked by two hyper-partisan quests — for the presidency and Senate. That’s why a 2024 ballot issue can stop gerrymandering only with a big-tent, cross-party coalition, like the one mustered on Aug. 8.
The proposed 2024 anti-gerrymandering amendment, which will go out for signatures soon, after paperwork falderal, would ensure the drafting of fair General Assembly districts. Would that also ensure the election of a Democratic legislature?
No. As previously noted, Ohio still fits the classic, 1960 description by political scientist Thomas Flinn: “Ohio is now and has long been a competitive two-party state in which the Republicans enjoy the advantage.” (And as Richard Nixon once observed, besides California, Ohio was the only big state Nixon carried every time he ran on a presidential ticket: 1952, 1956, 1960, 1968 and 1972.)
But Ohio is certainly not now two-party competitive in General Assembly elections because whoever wins a springtime Republican primary is likely to win a Statehouse seat in November’s general election. And often as not, the candidate who wins a GOP legislative primary is the candidate who is, or sounds, most partisan. And that’s about the last thing the General Assembly needs. Spearheading the quest for a 2024 fair-districts amendment is retired Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, who also was lieutenant governor.
On Aug. 8, Ohioans rallied to defend their historic right to amend the state constitution, thanks to a cross-party coalition — the kind that’ll be need if 2024′s voters are to forbid gerrymandering in Ohio.
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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