A 5-member Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission, composed of a mix of Democrats, independents and Republicans, but excluding current or former politicians and lobbyists, would draw districts.
DeWine instead wants voters to adopt a plan like Iowa’s General Assembly adopted in 1980. It requires Iowa’s equivalent of Ohio’s non-partisan Legislative Service Commission to draw Iowa’s congressional and legislative seats, then win the Iowa legislature’s OK of those districts. According to PolitiFact, Iowa law says, “legislative maps cannot be redrawn with the intent of favoring a political party, incumbent state legislator or member of Congress.”
DeWine’s gripe with Ohio’s proposed “Citizens Not Politicians” plan is that it would, he says, require “proportionality”: That in turn would lead to splitting populations with common needs and interests (a given county, city, village or township) diluting a community’s Statehouse oomph.
Proportionality is a $5 word that means the percentage of Ohio General Assembly seats that political party wins should roughly match that party’s share of Ohio’s statewide vote.
Example: In 2020, Republican Donald Trump drew about 53% of Ohio’s vote. Theoretically, “proportionality” would seemingly require that 53% (or 52) of Ohio’s 99 state House districts favor Republicans. (Instead, under now-GOP-drawn districts, Republicans hold 67 of the House’s seats and 27 seats in the 33-seat Ohio Senate.)
Current results, in Iowa, of the Iowa plan that DeWine applauded: In 2020, Donald Trump drew 53% of Iowa’s statewide presidential vote. Current makeup of Iowa’s General Assembly: Iowa House, 64% Republican; Iowa Senate, 68% Republican. That’s fair?
As for splitting communities, the Ohio General Assembly, as now districted, and run for almost a generation with districts supposedly more sensitive to local needs than “Citizens Not Politicians” would allow, has repeatedly thumbed its nose at constitutionally guaranteed city and village home rule in Ohio, regardless of whether district lines split South Succotash (to borrow Ronald Reagan’s snarky term for America’s hamlets) or any other Ohio crossroads.
If, next year, the General Assembly fails to pass an Iowa-style districting set-up, DeWine vowed he’d lead a petition drive to it on the ballot. There’s no reason to doubt his sincerity, although DeWine voted for the General Assembly’s current, gerrymandered, districts.
Among other ironies, the governor is on record as saying politicians shouldn’t draw Ohio’s districts. But the Iowa plan, by requiring its General Assembly to approve proposed districts, makes incumbent legislators decisive.
Maybe that can work in a state whose political culture doesn’t feature brass knuckles. But Ohio’s does.
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Ohio Democrats are walking with a spring in their steps thanks to enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee. Ohio likely won’t cast its electoral votes for Harris rather than for Trump, but the excitement Harris stokes could drive up Ohio Democratic turnout in November. That’d likely boost support for the re-election of Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat challenged by the GOP nominee, Bernie Moreno, a successful Greater Cleveland entrepreneur.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. (James David) Vance, a Cincinnati Republican, and Middletown native, has had a rough debut in his new national role. It’s foolish to discount Vance’s resume. But he’s about to learn, if he hasn’t already, that anything Donald Trump touches, he damages.
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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