VOICES: I served on the Redistricting Commission — the process you approved worked

It can be summarized with three main points.

Fixed outcomes. Zero accountability. An attack on democracy.

Governor Mike DeWine correctly pointed out that every single district must be drawn to favor a political party. That’s the textbook definition of gerrymandering. It repeals what voters approved in 2015. You approved a process focused on ending sprawling, oddly shaped districts, in favor of compact communities of interest.

Their 37 page, 13,000 word, shady amendment, comes with zero accountability to you the voter. Today, if you don’t like your district, you can complain to elected officials on the Redistricting Commission, or to the General Assembly. You can vote them out. This campaign creates an insulated 4th branch of government that is unaccountable to the people. When their unelected 15 member panel dissolves, voters have no recourse.

Additionally, who exactly gets to serve on this 15 member panel? Probably not you. At least not if you or your family member have a background in public service. This includes active duty military, veterans and law enforcement officers. Sorry Gold Star mom, you’re automatically excluded from the panel. This process discriminates against potentially millions of Ohioans.

Welcome to the D.C. special interest swamp. Their campaign also repeals all the guardrails you approved regarding how many times a community can be divided. There is no requirement that the districts be equal in population. So, expect lots more, smaller, majority democrat districts, which break apart neighborhoods and sprawl across multiple counties to achieve a gerrymandered percentage that benefits the progressive left. A federal court told the Michigan citizens panel, which closely resembles Issue 1 in Ohio, that its map racially gerrymandered the city of Detroit in an effort to maximize progressive left districts. In fact, for the first time in 70 years, the city of Detroit is not represented by an African-American member of Congress. Fixed outcomes at the expense of communities of interest.

This is an attack on democracy. More than 70% of Ohio voters approved the new redistricting process for General Assembly maps in 2015, and 75% approved the new process for the Congressional map in 2018. Both come with guardrails that make it impossible to draw districts like the “Snake on the Lake.” This campaign will deliver districts that slither everywhere for the progressive D.C. swamp.

Candidates, campaigns and issues matter. Of the 15 districts in the Ohio Senate that have a democrat advantage, republicans have won 8 of those races. However, this campaign wants fixed wins, funneled through an unaccountable process that they’ll try to sell you with millions of dollars in dark money, foreign funded campaign ads.

If you don’t believe their campaign is funded by foreign money, then why did their lawyer sue to block Ohio’s new law that outlaws contributions from outside the United States? Why would anyone in Ohio vote for a campaign funded by foreign billionaires?

Send a message this fall that Ohio’s districts should be decided by Ohioans and not by the D.C. dark money groups and foreign billionaires.

Vote No on Issue 1.

Senator Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, served on the Redistricting Commission last September.