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Tag: Ohio Redistricting

  • Allowing Politicians to Stay in Charge of Ohio Redistricting Has Just Led to More Gerrymandering – Cleveland Scene

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    Betrayal can be dressed up as bipartisan or best-case scenario, but it is still betrayal. 

    Ohio Republicans picked off two more congressional districts to gerrymander, in defiance of the Ohio Constitution and the clear will of Ohio voters. 

    They framed their con as a “compromise” with Ohio Democrats who defended their complicity in disenfranchising thousands of Toledo and Cincinnati voters as the best possible outcome.

    This is not what democracy looks like. This is what partisan preservation over democratic representation looks like.   

    No wonder people have clocked out of politics. Can’t blame them for thinking their vote isn’t worth a fig if self-dealing politicians don’t respect it or the law.

    Ohioans voted twice to end the egregious practice of contorting electoral district boundaries for political gain— like the gerrymandered sham just approved at the expense of voters in two of Ohio’s largest cities.

    Over 70% of voters approved constitutional amendments in 2015 and 2018 precisely to prevent what the Ohio Redistricting Commission did last week. 

    Ohioans demanded a level playing field in the redistricting done every decade based on the results of the decennial census. 

    They voted to amend their constitution to outlaw political subterfuge that skewed the boundary lines of state legislative and congressional districts to loop in decisive shares of desired voters and dilute the influence of disfavored voters to handily win elections. 

    An overwhelming majority of Ohio voters called that deliberate manipulation of district maps cheating and wanted it stopped.

    Yet the doubly gerrymandered congressional map hastily approved (without public input) by the redistricting commission Friday dilutes the voting power of big swaths of the electorate in diverse metropolitan communities. 

    It grossly betrays Ohioans who trusted their elected representatives to honor the anti-gerrymandering mandate in the constitution by upholding the law. 

    Citizens were sold out by ruthless partisan operators determined to steal power any way they could. Silenced in a shameful affront to self-rule. 

    But here’s the thing: The redistricting reform amendments passed by voters were drafted by the same legislators behind Ohio’s 2011 gerrymandered maps who never intended to give up control or create fair, competitive districts. 

    In the 2020 redistricting process, Ohio Republicans repeatedly defied the constitution and the Ohio Supreme Court with rigged voting maps that illegally gave disproportionate power to one party over the other. 

    Now they have done it again with a congressional district map even more gerrymandered than the last. 

    They manipulated the maps of two congressional districts, held by incumbent Democrats, to unfairly tip the scales and boost the GOP’s chances of retaining its U.S. House majority next November. 

    Their dirty deal, cut behind closed doors with Democratic commissioners, drew higher ratios of Republican voters into Ohio’s 9th and 1st districts to overpower diminished shares of Democratic voters and neutralize their ability to sway elections. 

    Controlling Republicans on the panel hailed their bipartisan swindle as proof that the voter-approved redistricting process worked. 

    Commission Democrats, who agreed to throw U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Greg Landsman under the bus with Republican-leaning districts, fished for praise for staving off a worst-case scenario.

    A pox on them all for weakening the collective voting strength of their fellow Ohioans in a self-serving “compromise” rationalized as a political means to an end not policy to advance the public good.

    Toledo’s Kaptur, long targeted by Republicans for defeat, got the poorest bet for survival in the new congressional map of the 9th District in northwest Ohio. 

    Extreme gerrymandering turned her already red district into a much redder one that will be formidable, if not impossible, for the 79-year-old Democrat (who won her last race by less than 1 percent) to capture in 2026. 

    The urban constituency in Landsman’s Cincinnati-based 1st District will be converted into a marginalized minority in a newly jiggered map that scooped up more heavily GOP counties to change the southwest district from one favoring Democrats to one favoring Republicans. 

    What happens in the 2026 midterms is anybody’s guess, of course, but there is little doubt about what happened this fall in Ohio and why. 

    It is no secret that the GOP fix was in on redrawing congressional maps from the get-go. 

    Republicans held all the cards. They planned to steal at least two more U.S. House seats through unconstitutional gerrymandering to score points with the convicted felon in the White House and expand GOP dominance in the state. 

    Democrats stooped to a trade-off that saved a third district from being included and insisted it was better than nothing.  

    But nowhere, it seems, did the equal voting rights of every Ohioan take precedence in the infuriating redistricting charade that flagrantly disregarded the letter and spirit of the constitutional amendment which explicitly barred partisan gerrymandering      

    The result is disenfranchised citizens whose voting power to choose their own representatives has been sacrificed to gerrymandered winning at all costs, damn the democratic consequences.

    Shame on both Republicans and Democrats for breaking faith with Ohio voters on their most fundamental right of self-governance to wield partisan leverage in a political war for control. 

    Call it what it is — an epic bipartisan betrayal. 

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

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    Marilou Johanek, Ohio Capital Journal

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  • New Ohio Congressional Redistricting Map Introduced to Criticism, But May Have Support to Pass – Cleveland Scene

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    A new map was introduced Thursday at the second meeting of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, one that leaders say was a compromise between the Democrats and Republicans on the commission.

    A vote could happen at the meeting scheduled for Friday morning, though commission members did not indicate whether or not they had a unanimous vote as of Thursday.

    “This is the process working,” said State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, also the co-chair of the commission.

    “There are pros and cons to all different aspects of this process, but I think those legislators did what the constitution envisions, which is accept those pros and cons and come to an agreement.”

    The newest map would create a state with 12 Republican-leaning districts and three Democratic-leaning districts, increasing the Republican districts in the state from the current 10-5 map.

    The commission has until Oct. 31 to approve a bipartisan map, or the process goes back to the Ohio General Assembly.

    The districts that would change most significantly under the new map would be those of Democratic congress members, including U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Greg Landsman and Emilia Sykes.

    Landsman’s 1st district would lean Republican with a 54% to 47% breakdown. Kaptur’s 9th district would lean Republican with a 54.5% to 45.5% Republican to Democrat ratio.

    Sykes’ 13th district would lean Democratic, 52% to 48% Republican, according to data provided by the commission.

    The biggest gap is in the 4th district, held by Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, which breaks down to 72% Republican and 29% Democratic. The Democrats see a 78% advantage in the 11th district, held currently by Democratic U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown.

    Minority Leader Nickie Antonio led most of the meeting, which was punctuated by complaints from the crowd and one person who was escorted out by security.

    Antonio would not say which way she was planning to vote on the map, but emphasized the flaws in the redistricting system.

    “We have a broken system of redistricting, I think that bears out in the testimony we heard today as well,” Antonio said after the meeting. “It was not what the voters expected when in 2018 we voted to end gerrymandering.”

    Antonio said the process is down to the “11th hour” in that system.

    “This system that we have, in the long-run, is probably going to be need to be fixed again, but today, we have to look at the best way to go forward with our congressional maps because we are required to do that,” she said.

    Gov. Mike DeWine told reporters Thursday that he supported the map as presented, noting he got a look at the map early Wednesday. He said it was a welcome compromise between the two sides.

    “The goal here was to get maps and get Democrats on board with the map, it would appear that that’s going to happen,” DeWine said.

    DeWine didn’t attend Thursday’s meeting, but met with reporters in the hallway as the meeting went on to discuss action on SNAP funding and redistricting.

    “What Republicans will get out of this is a sure map, that will be done, both sides get that,” DeWine said. “These are all negotiations and in negotiations no one gets what they want.”

    The commission has now met twice since reconvening last week, with the first meeting covering consideration for the legislative Democrats’ map proposal. That proposal would have split the state into eight Republican-leaning districts and seven Democratic-leaning districts. The Democrats said this map was based on voting trends for the last 10 years in the state.

    Republicans on both the Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting, which met in September, and the commission dismissed the map as an unfair gerrymander, and questioned the use of the election results as a measure for what the partisan breakdown of the state should be.

    Stewart presented the newest map to the commission on Thursday, saying the proposal “complies with ‘one person, one vote,’” as 13 districts have the same population, and the other two districts are only off by one individual in each district.

    Members of the public who came to speak at the commission hearing on Thursday continued a familiar complaint throughout the renewed redistricting process, shaming Republicans for not showing up with a map earlier than October, and further decrying the process as a closed-door, unaccountable method of redrawing the districts that establish the members of Congress who will represent Ohioans on Capitol Hill.

    Some shed tears, expressing anger and frustration and calling the process “just one big sham.”

    “We are gathered here again, with less than 48 hours before this commission is expected to have produced something more than political theater,” said Dayton resident Zachary Gibbs. “And yet, the drama continues.”

    Even self-identified Republican Paul Miller, who has spent his testimony in previous redistricting hearings over the years highly criticizing Democrats, had notes about the map.

    “In the past we’ve had the ‘snake on the lake,’ and you’ve turned it into an elephant,” Miller said. “…The map is crap, that’s all.”

    Jen Miller of the League of Women Voters of Ohio said the actions of the commission make clear “the politicians on the Ohio Redistricting Commission don’t care about voters or good government.”

    “The public was shut out, the process rigged and incumbents favored,” Miller said in a statement. “The resulting congressional map still doesn’t reflect the will of the voters of Ohio.”

    Stewart had previously said he saw no point in bringing forth a map without assurances that it would have bipartisan support, which is why the Republicans hadn’t released a map until now.

    The Thursday meeting announcement came almost exactly 24 hours before the meeting was to be held, and the GOP map wasn’t released to the public until Thursday’s hearing.

    Another meeting is scheduled for Friday morning, the same day as the deadline the state constitution gives the commission to adopt a bipartisan map.

    Maps can be challenged through the Ohio Supreme Court after they’re passed, and there is talk of a possible referendum to once again challenge the redistricting process in the state. If a map is passed by the commission, a referendum can’t be attempted.

    If no agreement comes from the commission, the map comes back to the Ohio General Assembly, where the Republican supermajority would have an easier time passing a map because it’s only required to obtain a simple majority.

    But passage by the General Assembly would open up the map for potential referendum, to keep the current map in place for now.

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

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    Susan Tebben, The Ohio Capital Journal

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  • Ohio Lawmakers Miss First Redistricting Deadline With No Negotiations and No GOP Map – Cleveland Scene

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    Ohio Statehouse lawmakers missed their first deadline for congressional redistricting, with Republican lawmakers defending the move to kick the process over to the Ohio Redistricting Commission without them ever introducing or negotiating on a map.

    The constitutional amendment passed by Ohio voters in 2018 required lawmakers to negotiate in good faith and attempt to pass a bipartisan map by Sept. 30 before the process went to the redistricting commission.

    The Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting met Tuesday in the House Finance Committee room for their second meeting of the month, on the day of the first deadline mentioned in the Ohio Constitution for passing a bipartisan map.

    The committee began with Senate Leader Nickie Antonio supporting the Democratic map proposal, which is still the only map that has been formally introduced by either side of the General Assembly.

    The Democratic map presents a breakdown of eight Republican-leaning districts and seven Democratic-leaning districts in the congressional delegation, which they say came from taking an average of the last decade of voting results.

    That average means a state ratio of 56% Republican to 43% Democrats.

    The current map has 10 Republican districts and five Democratic, for 66% Republican control.

    Republican lawmakers during the meeting argued that an average of the last decade of voting trends is not required by the constitution for congressional redistricting.

    Amid Antonio’s testimony and questions from legislators, it was once again made clear that the process would be continuing into October and a vote would not be held on the Democratic map.

    “I’m pragmatic enough to know … that (lawmakers passing a map with bipartisan support) is not only unlikely but impossible,” Antonio said. “We do not have a session today.”

    “If needed” sessions that had been scheduled for both the Ohio House and Ohio Senate were cancelled before the Tuesday meeting, indicating the committee wouldn’t be holding a vote on a map.

    State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, claimed Antonio’s mention of the Sept. 30 deadline omitted the clauses of the Ohio Constitution that come after it.

    “Can we just basically agree there are two options here in the constitution, and not passing a map by Sept. 30 is in no way a violation of any deadline, correct?” Stewart asked.

    Antonio countered, saying the people “really wanted us, in this first step, to take the opportunity to work together in a bipartisan way.”

    According to the constitution, if a bipartisan map isn’t adopted by the end of September, the process moves to the Ohio Redistricting Commission with an Oct. 31 deadline.

    If no bipartisan map comes out of the commission, the decision-making returns to the General Assembly.

    The map can be passed without bipartisan support at that point with a simple majority vote by Nov. 30.

    At last week’s committee meeting, committee co-chair Rep. Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, agreed that while the September deadline is in the constitution, though he said the existence of the other deadlines opens up opportunities for passage “in the next couple of months.”

    “I know that everybody wanted something done by today,” Bird claimed, “but we’ve still got a couple of months and we’ve still got time to keep talking.”

    Co-chair state Sen. Jane Timken, R-Jackson Twp., also maintained an argument she made in the last meeting, that though the Democratic lawmakers are seeking a “fair map,” fairness is not a word used in the constitutional process of redistricting.

    “The word ‘fairness’ is not in the constitution (with regard to redistricting), right?” Timken asked, eliciting laughter around the committee room.

    Antonio said it’s difficult to talk about representation in drawing districts without taking fairness into account.

    “Fairness was a part of the will of the people, and so through that lens, we used a fair measurement to be able to see how the people are voting, especially in national elections,” Antonio said.

    Ohioans who spoke in support of the Democratic proposal noted the lack of opposition testimony to the Democratic map and once again accused the committee of a lack of transparency.

    Math teacher and Columbus resident Tom Reardon counted the more than 140 testimonies submitted at the last meeting.

    “What percentage of the testimonies were for gerrymandering, which is being done right now in our state? The answer is zero,” Reardon told the committee. “No one came and supported what you’ve been talking about.”

    There was one person who came to Tuesday’s meeting who didn’t support the Democratic map.

    Paul Miller was active in the last round of congressional redistricting, presenting his own proposal and accusing “liberal activists” of messing with the process.

    His testimony submitted on Tuesday continued that message, with him claiming “Democrat activists were being entirely disingenuous.”

    “In any case, the real issue persists with the present incarnation of their plan to flip Republican seats in the fact that they’re doing it at all,” Miller told the committee in his written testimony. “Instead of pitting Republicans against each other in primaries, now they just want to take them out right before the actual elections.”

    Columbus resident Pari Sabety said the hour-long discussion that had already happened before she spoke hadn’t changed her mind about how the process was going.

    “There’s no transparency here,” Sabety said. “Let’s be clear, you hold the reigns in this process, you are the supermajority and you have managed to rig this process to suit your end goal.”

    No negotiations

    On claims from Republican lawmakers that Democrats are trying gerrymander through their proposal, Antonio referenced comments from Assistant Minority Whip Rep. Desiree Tims, D-Dayton, at last week’s meeting.

    “The minority does not hold any legislative power or majority, let alone the ability to gerrymander,” Antonio said.

    Republican committee members also pointed to comments they said indicated the Democrats wouldn’t agree to a map that was less than 8-7.

    “The Democrats said ‘8-7, take it or leave it,’ firm offer,” claimed state Rep. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron. “So what are Republicans supposed to do … after we hear something like that?”

    Antonio denied having said “take it or leave it,” and said she was “saddened that I didn’t communicate as well as I thought I did … that we were open for discussion.”

    “I am always, and have been from the beginning, open to discussion,” Antonio said.

    In fact, Antonio said, she reached out to Republican leadership before the process began to ask about a plan.

    “I did knock on the door, quietly, respectfully, individually,” Antonio said. “…I got a response that was ‘It’s coming, there’s something coming.’”

    Bird and Timken told reporters after the meeting adjourned that with no action that they don’t know of any discussions by their respective Republican caucuses about the drawing of a map.

    “There’s not a map that I know of,” Bird said.

    Timken said the caucuses plan to follow the process “through to the end of November.”

    This indicates Republican lawmakers expect no bipartisan agreement from the Ohio Redistricting Commission before Oct. 31.

    Bird was unmoved to see only one opponent of the Democratic maps come to the two meetings, pointing to a push from the Democratic Party to bring in supporters.

    “I think we’ve all seen there’s been many calls and social media from the Democratic Party to have people come and testify,” Bird told reporters. “You’ve not heard that from the Republican Party. I don’t know that that’s good or bad, but we’ve heard a lot of testimony and, like you said, mostly one-sided.”

    Now that the first legislative deadline has passed, the Ohio Redistricting Commission will need to be reactivated by Gov. Mike DeWine.

    The governor is required to also serve on the commission, along with the state auditor and secretary of state. The General Assembly will be represented with two Republican legislators and two Democratic legislators.

    Whenever the map is adopted along the way, if a court challenge is presented to it, the Ohio Supreme Court will have jurisdiction over lawsuits against the map.

    Republicans added party labels to Ohio Supreme Court beginning in 2022 and now control the court 6-1.

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

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    Susan Tebben, The Ohio Capital Journal

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  • Ohio Democrats Introduce Congressional Redistricting Proposal – Cleveland Scene

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    Ohio Democratic lawmakers have introduced their preferred congressional redistricting plan, which they say creates more competitive districts across the state.

    In a press conference on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio and House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, flanked by several other state Democrats, presented their plan, which reduces the current Republican majority, but still leaves Democrats in the minority.

    “What we have proposed follows the law and gives voters the voice they deserve in their congressional representation,” Isaacsohn said.

    The congressional redraw is required of Ohio this year, because of a lack of bipartisan agreement on the last map, adopted in March 2022.

    Both congressional maps previously adopted by the legislature were also struck down as unconstitutionally partisan by the Ohio Supreme Court, though the most recent map stayed in place despite the court ruling.

    Right now, Republicans control 10 out of 15 of Ohio’s U.S. Congressional seats, or 66% of the seats. In 2024, Ohioans supported Donald Trump with 55% of the vote.

    In the Democrat’s newest map proposal, the districts would have a breakdown of eight Republican and seven Democratic seats, in what Antonio called “the fairest redistricting proposal that either party has put forward.”

    That breakdown would leave Republicans with control of 53% of seats compared to 47% for Democrats.

    The Ohio General Assembly has until the end of the month to come up with a congressional redistricting plan that must receive 66% approval in both chambers of the legislature.

    In order to be approved, the plan must have the support of half the Democrats in the Ohio House and Senate.

    If the legislature can’t come to the bipartisan agreement they need by the end of the month, the Ohio Redistricting Commission will be reactivated. The commission has until the end of October to come to bipartisan agreement.

    If they reach a stalemate, the process moves back to the legislature, who can then pass maps with a simple majority. Without bipartisan agreement, the legislature will have to redraw the maps again in another four years.

    Democratic leaders have already pledged to act as a united front when it comes to pushing the Republican supermajority for maps that are fair to both parties, and maps that align with the voting trends of the state. Those voting trends lean Republican at 55%-44% in an average of statewide elections over the past 10 years.

    The Senate leader said the new proposal has seven seats that “lean slightly to the left” and the other eight seats “lean toward the right.”

    The biggest Republican majority in the proposed map is District 4 in Northwest Ohio, which would have a 75% Republican majority. District 2 in Southwest Ohio would have a 70% Republican majority.

    On the other side of the aisle, the most Democratic district would be District 11, which includes Cleveland, with a 74% Democratic majority. District 3, which includes southern Franklin County would have a 64% Democratic majority.

    “This map does not unduly favor or disfavor any party or incumbent,” Antonio said. “Those are the rules.”

    Antonio and House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn said they are open to working together with Republicans, but put their map up in an effort to get the process started, when Republicans have not made moves to introduce a map or start the public hearing process for congressional redistricting.

    “If our colleagues, the Republicans, are committed to bipartisanship, then they must join in the urgency and pass a fair, constitutional plan by the end of the month,” Antonio said.

    Antonio and Isaacsohn have previously said they are anticipating “another opportunity to gerrymander the districts” from Republicans.

    Ohio’s Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno has made comments hoping Republicans would give an 80% Republican lean to congressional districts in the state, taking 12 of 15 seats. Moreno won his seat in 2024 with just slightly over 50% of the vote.

    At Tuesday’s press conference, Antonio said state Democrats have been in contact with congressional Democrats, but only to talk about the process, not to ask about district preferences.

    But Democratic leaders are remaining positive despite the Republican supermajority that could run out the clock on the process.

    Ohio’s legislative Republicans not only have a majority in both chambers of the legislature, but they also have a majority in the Ohio Redistricting Commission should the process come to that.

    Even if Democrats in the state wanted to take a play out of Texas Democrats’ playbooks and leave the state, Republicans would still have a quorum on the commission.

    “If you don’t act, if you don’t propose change, then you have no possibility of ever seeing any kind of change, any kind of progress,” Antonio said.

    As the legislature considers their own proposals, the public has the ability to submit their own maps for consideration, which many citizens have already done.

    While the Democrats initial plan did not take into account the public proposals already submitted, Antonio said they are “going to consider everything.”

    Asked for comment on the Democrat map, the press secretary for the House Majority caucus said “given the process is still in its early stages, the Ohio House Majority will not be commenting on any specific maps at this time.”

    A spokesperson for the Ohio Senate Majority did not respond to a request for comment.Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

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    Susan Tebben, The Ohio Capital Journal

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  • Judge rules Utah’s congressional map must be redrawn for the 2026 elections

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    The Utah Legislature will need to rapidly redraw the state’s congressional boundaries after a judge ruled Monday that the Republican-controlled body circumvented safeguards put in place by voters to ensure districts aren’t drawn to favor any party.Related video above — Get the Facts: Redistricting or Gerrymandering? The current map, drawn in 2021, divides Salt Lake County — the state’s population center and a Democratic stronghold — among the state’s four congressional districts, all of which have since elected Republicans by wide margins.District Court Judge Dianna Gibson made few judgments on the content of the map but declared it unlawful because lawmakers had weakened and ignored an independent commission established by voters to prevent partisan gerrymandering. The nature of the violation lies in “the Legislature’s refusal to respect the people’s exercise of their constitutional lawmaking power and to honor the people’s right to reform their government,” Gibson said in her ruling.New maps will need to be drawn quickly for the 2026 midterm elections. Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, the state’s top elections official, asked the courts for the case to be finalized by November to leave time for the process before candidates start filing in early January. But appeals promised by Republican lawmakers could help them run out the clock to possibly delay adopting new maps until 2028.The ruling creates uncertainty in a state that was thought to be a clean sweep for the GOP as the party is preparing to defend its slim majority in the U.S. House. Nationally, Democrats need to net three seats next year to take control of the chamber. The sitting president’s party tends to lose seats in the midterms, as was the case for President Donald Trump in 2018.Trump has urged several Republican-led states to add winnable seats for the GOP. In Texas, a plan awaiting Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval includes five new districts that would favor Republicans. Ohio Republicans already were scheduled to revise their maps to make them more partisan, and Indiana, Florida and Missouri may choose to make changes. Some Democrat-led states say they may enter the redistricting battle, but so far only California has taken action to offset GOP gains in Texas.

    The Utah Legislature will need to rapidly redraw the state’s congressional boundaries after a judge ruled Monday that the Republican-controlled body circumvented safeguards put in place by voters to ensure districts aren’t drawn to favor any party.

    Related video above — Get the Facts: Redistricting or Gerrymandering?

    The current map, drawn in 2021, divides Salt Lake County — the state’s population center and a Democratic stronghold — among the state’s four congressional districts, all of which have since elected Republicans by wide margins.

    District Court Judge Dianna Gibson made few judgments on the content of the map but declared it unlawful because lawmakers had weakened and ignored an independent commission established by voters to prevent partisan gerrymandering. The nature of the violation lies in “the Legislature’s refusal to respect the people’s exercise of their constitutional lawmaking power and to honor the people’s right to reform their government,” Gibson said in her ruling.

    New maps will need to be drawn quickly for the 2026 midterm elections. Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, the state’s top elections official, asked the courts for the case to be finalized by November to leave time for the process before candidates start filing in early January. But appeals promised by Republican lawmakers could help them run out the clock to possibly delay adopting new maps until 2028.

    The ruling creates uncertainty in a state that was thought to be a clean sweep for the GOP as the party is preparing to defend its slim majority in the U.S. House. Nationally, Democrats need to net three seats next year to take control of the chamber. The sitting president’s party tends to lose seats in the midterms, as was the case for President Donald Trump in 2018.

    Trump has urged several Republican-led states to add winnable seats for the GOP. In Texas, a plan awaiting Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval includes five new districts that would favor Republicans. Ohio Republicans already were scheduled to revise their maps to make them more partisan, and Indiana, Florida and Missouri may choose to make changes. Some Democrat-led states say they may enter the redistricting battle, but so far only California has taken action to offset GOP gains in Texas.

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  • A Look at the Money Being Spent on the Campaigns For and Against Ohio Issue 1

    A Look at the Money Being Spent on the Campaigns For and Against Ohio Issue 1

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    click to enlarge

    Ohio Capital Journal

    Left, a Vote Yes sign in favor of the constitutional amendment that would remove politicians from the redistricting process in favor of a citizen commission. Right, a No sign against the proposal.

    Ohio Issue 1 seeks to replace politicians on the Ohio Redistricting Commission with a commission made up of citizens. Campaign finance filings detail the many millions being spent in the fight over the proposed anti-gerrymandering reform.

    Issue 1 would replace the current Ohio Redistricting Commission made up of four lawmakers and three statewide elected officials with a 15 member Citizen’s Commission, made up of five Democrats, Republicans, and independents each.

    Elected officials, lobbyists and political consultants would be banned from joining, and four retired judges — two Democrats and two Republicans — would narrow down the list, pick six applicants, and those six would select the remaining nine.

    Once chosen, commission members would have to abide by a set of rules, including crafting districts that comply with federal laws, crafting maps that correspond to statewide election results, and keeping communities with shared “ethnic, racial, social, cultural, geographic, environmental, socioeconomic or historic,” identities together. 

    The amendment also mandates the commission hold a series of public meetings on redistricting throughout the map drawing process, including five public meetings across the state for initial input on how maps should be drawn, and five public meetings after draft maps are released.

    The candidates, the ballot measures, and the tools you need to cast your vote.

    Citizens Not Politicians is the campaign for Issue 1. Since filing their ballot initiative last August, the group has raised $39,476,270.23, with $15 million of that coming from supporters in Washington D.C. and $7 million from Ohioans. 

    According to their pre-general election campaign finance filings — covering activity up to Oct. 16 — Citizens Not Politicians has spent $37 million to pass Issue 1, with $25 million going to advertising. 

    Comparatively, Ohio Works Inc., the campaign opposing Issue 1, which has received the backing of the Ohio Republican Party and allied organizations, has raised $5.6 million since August, and spent $4.5 million on TV and print advertising. 

    Of the money in Ohio Works’s chest, $2.7 million came from Ohio donors, and $2.1 million came from allies in Washington D.C.

    “Yes on 1 has the momentum headed into the final stretch of the campaign,” said retired Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch. “This report shows that Ohioans are ready to place an explicit ban on gerrymandering in the Ohio Constitution and put citizens not politicians in charge of drawing legislative maps, which we will accomplish by voting Yes on Issue 1.”

    When asked about their campaign finance totals, Ohio Works spokesman Matt Dole replied, “We knew we were going to be outspent. We’re an Ohio-powered campaign. We still feel confident about Election Day.”

    But who are the dark money groups, mega donors, and interest groups supporting these campaigns? The Ohio Capital Journal read their reports, and broke it down. 

    Ohio Works

    The anti-Issue 1 group’s biggest contributors are as follows: 

    – American Jobs and Growth: $1,750,000
    Based in Washington D.C. American Jobs and Growth is a 501(c)(4) dark money group. 2022 IRS filings for the group show $4,775,959 in revenue, and it is currently spending $700,000 on advertising opposing Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The same entity gave $50,000 to oppose legalizing marijuana in Ohio, and spent over $1 million supporting Republican candidates in Ohio in 2022. American Job and Growth have received $225,000 from The Leadership Action Fund Inc, a tax exempt Delaware corporation named in a complaint by the Campaign Legal Center for violating campaign finance law. The Revitalization Project — another dark money group — gave $100,000, and, according to their 2022 IRS filing, $690,000 in grants.

    – Ohioans for a Healthy Economy: $1,000,000
    Based in Columbus, Ohioans for a Healthy Economy is an independent expenditure group connected to the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, with the group’s Super PAC and the chamber sharing an address, as shown in Federal Election Commission filings. The group’s Super PAC has run campaign ads opposing Democratic candidates for the Ohio Supreme Court, and accepted $500,000 in donations from a PAC affiliated with Illinois billionaire Richard Ulhein.

    – American Action Network: $400,000
    Operating out of Washington D.C. the American Action Network is an advocacy organization that supports Republicans running for Congress. Founded in 2010 by Republican strategists to advance conservative ideals, the network has a total revenue of $46,157,056, according to their latest IRS filing, spending millions on “television advertising, direct mail, automated phone calls, digital advocacy, public opinion surveys, and grants to allied organizations.”

    – Ohio Manufacturers Association: $300,000

    – 55 Green Meadows:$250,000
    The political advocacy arm of the Ohio nursing home industry, the group reported revenue in the amount of $945,000 in their latest IRS filing. An Ohio Capital Journal investigation found that the nursing home industry spent $6.1 million on state politics from 2016 to 2020, with 55 Green Meadows contributing $3.4 million to an array of other dark money groups in the same time period. The group also gave $100,00 to oppose Ohio’s Issue 1 abortion amendment, and $135,000 to Generation Now, the dark money group associated with the FirstEnergy bribery scandal.

    – Ohio Oil & Gas Association:$200,000
    A trade group representing producers of crude oil and natural gas in Ohio, their Board of Trustees includes individuals from several oil and gas companies, including Ariel Corporation, Infinity Natural Resources, and others. These businesses have prospered from the pro-natural gas policies supported by Republican leadership in the statehouse.

    Multiple campaigns for Republican Congresspeople also donated to Ohio Works, including Jim Jordan ($250,000), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise ($100,000) and Majority Whip Tom Emmer($100,000) among others.

    Individual donors to Ohio Works were largely affluent individuals with a history of supporting conservative causes. Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam own the Haslam Sports Group, with Halsam’s personal net worth is estimated at $8.5 billion. The couple each contributed $50,000, bringing their donation to $100,000 total.

    Federal Election Commission records show the two have made $2 million in political donations, largely to Republican candidates and efforts, in the 2024 election cycle. 

    Out-of-state, Texas-based investment analyst Kenneth Lawrence Fisher also gave $100,000 to Ohio Works. 

    Citizens Not Politicians

    The pro-Issue 1 campaign’s biggest contributors are as follows:

    – Article IV: $9.95 million
    A  liberal non-profit based in Arlington, Virginia, Article IV advocates for ranked choice voting and independent redistricting commissions of the kind Issue 1 would create. Article IV also donated millions to support a ranked choice voting initiative that was proposed in Missouri during the 2022 midterm election. IRS filings from 2022 display thousand-dollar donations given by Article IV to ranked choice voting groups in several states, including New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah.

    – Sixteen Thirty Fund: $6.7 million
    A liberal dark money group based in Washington D.C., the Sixteen Thirty Fund previously donated $5.3 million to Ohio’s reproductive rights amendment campaign. Founded in 2009, the fund is among the most influential left-wing dark money operations in the United States. The organization spent $196 million in 2022 supporting various causes, ranging from sponsoring state ballot measures to bolstering Democratic campaigns, and funneled more than $400 million in the 2020 election cycle. The latest filings show the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s total revenue is $191,659,154, though their donors are undisclosed. The fund is part of a network of liberal dark money groups — such as the Hopewell Fund, and New Venture Fund — overseen by Arabella Advisors, a consulting nonprofit founded by ex-Clinton appointee Eric Kessler. Documented donors include billionaires George Soros, Pierre Omidyar, and Hansjorg Wyss.

    -Our American Future Foundation: $2.45 million
    A 501(c)(3) charity, Our American Future Foundation had a total revenue of $11,185,907 in their latest IRS filing. Created in November of 2022, the foundation was incorporated by Ezra Reese, the political law chair of powerful Democratic law firm the Elias Law Group. Most recently, the group ran a fellowship that trained Democratic congressional candidates.

    – Ohio Education Association: $2.07 million

    – Ohio Progressive Collaborative: $2 million

    – Tides Foundation: $2 million
    Created in 1976 by liberal activist Drummond Pike, the foundation currently manages $1.4 billion in assets. Receiving at least $3.5 million from liberal billionaire George Soros, the foundation expressed support for Occupy Wall Street, and delivered millions in grants to several charities and activist groups, as shown in their IRS report. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation — the nonprofit that advances and supports the black lives matter movement — sued Tides, alleging that they mismanaged $33 million in funds earmarked for BLM. 

    The most recognizable individual donor for Citizens Not Politicians is director Steven Spielberg, who, with his wife Kate Capshaw, contributed $100,000 to the campaign. 

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

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    Zurie Pope, Ohio Capital Journal

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  • Democratic Black lawmakers Say Ohio Issue 1 Redistricting Reform Would Help Black Voters

    Democratic Black lawmakers Say Ohio Issue 1 Redistricting Reform Would Help Black Voters

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    (Photo: Ideastream/The Ohio Channel)

    State Rep. Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, speaks at a press conference on Issue 1, the redistricting reform measure on the ballot in the November general election. Assistant House Minority Leader Hearcel Craig stands behind him.

    In a press conference Tuesday, members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, along with a voter advocate from the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, spoke of Issue 1 redistricting reform as a way forward for communities of color and the state as a whole.

    “For the first time, we have a real, enforceable path to ensure that Black voters in Ohio have the power to elect leaders who will fight for them,” said state Rep. Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus.

    Issue 1 proposes doing away with the current Ohio Redistricting Commission made up of seven elected officials, instead creating a 15-member citizens commission.

    The ORC as it stands includes the Ohio governor, auditor, and secretary of state, along with four lawmakers — one from each party in each chamber of the legislature. The 15-member citizens commission would be made up of five Republicans, five Democrats, and five independents, selected by a bipartisan panel of former judges, according to the proposal up for a vote in the November general election.

    Voting yes on Issue 1 would create the Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission. Voting no on Issue 1 would keep the current Ohio Redistricting Commission.

    The Democrats organized the Tuesday press conference in response to “misinformation” about Issue 1 spread by Republicans, specifically state Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, who held her own press conference with former legislator John Barnes and other Ohioans who stand against the measure.

    In her press conference, Reynolds said Issue 1 “could fragment cohesive minority voting blocks, diluting our political influence,” which Democrats said was less likely in the process proposed in Issue 1 than it is in the current system.

    In the current system, certain blocks of Black voters have been “ignored,” according to OLBC members, and therefore have become apathetic to voting.

    “These fair maps will possibly allow for those people to be able to vote, and vote with their conscience, and vote with the thought that my vote does count,” said OLBC vice president and state Sen. Catherine Ingram, D-Cincinnati.

    Some of the Democrats scoffed at comments made by Issue 1 opponents that the measure would keep policies that would benefit Black Ohioans from going forward in the Statehouse.

    “It’s funny that all of a sudden there’s an overwhelming concern for Black disenfranchisement when we are working with a supermajority who has increased voter suppression laws, made it more difficult to vote, and has also made stricter voting ID restrictions,” said state Rep. Terrence Upchurch, D-Cleveland, president of the OLBC.

    Early voting has begun in Ohio, and runs until Nov. 3

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

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    Susan Tebben, The Ohio Capital Journal

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  • Ohio Gerrymandering: A Brief and Awful History of the Very Recent Past

    Ohio Gerrymandering: A Brief and Awful History of the Very Recent Past

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    Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal.

    Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, oversees a Senate session.

    Ohio citizens right now are represented by unconstitutionally gerrymandered state lawmakers. The politicians in the General Assembly in Columbus are occupying unconstitutionally gerrymandered seats. This is not a matter of opinion. It was adjudicated in the state’s highest court five times in 2021 and 2022.

    After those decisions, an anti-abortion lobbyist sued to force Ohio to use the unconstitutional maps in 2022, but the federal court never declared the maps were constitutional. It never said the maps were not gerrymandered. It just said that Ohioans had to use them. So, in 2022, Ohio politicians refused to produce fair maps, and then a split federal court forced Ohio voters to use the gerrymandered ones.

    Several of the Ohio politicians tooling around the state to campaign against redistricting reform this fall are the very same politicians who produced unconstitutionally gerrymandered maps over and over again in 2021 and 2022.

    They insisted on them, and never allowed anything else, and ran out the clock to force Ohio voters to vote under them in November 2022, and to suffer them in 2023 and 2024 — to suffer them as we speak.

    Gerrymandering is cheating: Politicians pick their own voters and draw their own districts in a way that guarantees themselves victory.

    Often, the most extreme candidates win in primaries by appealing to the radical base. Gerrymandering guarantees those same extreme candidates victories in November so they can then waltz into office without ever experiencing a competitive general election.

    This means that only a handful of races are anywhere close to competitive each November, and the vast majority of races are determined in partisan primaries each spring.

    The candidates, the ballot measures, and the tools you need to cast your vote.

    For instance, Ohio will decide 116 elections in the Ohio House and Ohio Senate this Nov. 5.

    Six of them are actually competitive. Total.

    Two in the Senate, four in the House. The rest are predictable.

    Six competitive races out of 116.

    That’s gerrymandering.

    Meanwhile, a recent Baldwin Wallace University poll showed Ohioans have a net satisfaction with the state legislature of -34 points.

    This summer, more than 535,000 Ohio citizens submitted petition signatures to put anti-gerrymandering reform on the ballot this November.

    Issue 1 seeks to remove politicians from the map-making process in favor of a citizens commission.

    Under Issue 1, the current Ohio Redistricting Commission made up of politicians would be replaced by a citizens commission made up of five Republicans, five Democrats, and five independent commissioners.

    Ohioans previously passed constitutional amendments to ban gerrymandering in 2015 and 2018 but those reforms, which were put on the ballot in compromises with lawmakers, left politicians and lawmakers in control.

    In 2018, the politicians campaigned against gerrymandering, but after they won election they refused to honor the amendments. In 2021 and 2022, they forced gerrymandering on Ohio anyway.

    If you average Ohio’s statewide partisan elections over the last 10 cycles, including 2022, Ohio is a 56-43 Republican-to-Democratic state. But after 2022, the Ohio House has 67 Republicans and 32 Democrats. In the Ohio Senate, 26 seats are Republican while seven are Democratic. Of Ohio’s 15 U.S. Congressional seats, 10 are held by Republicans and five held by Democrats.

    This means that even though Republicans represent 56% of voters in Ohio on average, they control 66% of the state’s U.S. Congressional seats, 67% of the Ohio House, and 79% of the Ohio Senate.

    This is the gerrymandering that was forced by politicians on Ohio voters in 2022, despite a total of seven bipartisan Ohio Supreme Court rulings against the Statehouse and Congressional district maps as unconstitutionally gerrymandered.

    This November, Ohio voters will decide. They will decide what gerrymandering is and what it isn’t. Ohio voters will decide if politicians should be left in charge of redistricting, or if the politicians should be kicked out of the process in favor of a citizens commission.

    To make that decision, voters deserve facts and context, not lies and gaslighting.

    In service to that, the Ohio Capital Journal Voter Guide explains the Ohio Issue 1 proposal here.

    I have also assembled below for your edification and amusement, a timeline: A brief, awful history of the very recent past when it comes to Ohio gerrymandering.

    How we got here

    2011: Ohio Republicans create some of the most gerrymandered maps in the nation in a downtown Columbus secret hotel room “bunker,” ensuring them 10 years of supermajority control over the Ohio legislature that continues to this day. Also over the following 10 election cycles under the 2011 maps, not one U.S. Congressional district would change hands between parties.

    2015: Ohio voters pass anti-gerrymandering reform for Statehouse districts with more than 71% of the vote, but the reforms leave politicians in charge of drawing the districts.

    2018: Ohio voters pass anti-gerrymandering reform for U.S. Congressional districts with nearly 75% of the vote, but again, the reforms leave politicians in charge of drawing the districts.

    2018: Republicans win the governor’s office, the secretary of state’s office, and the auditor’s office, giving them 5-2 control over the Ohio Redistricting Commission that also includes a lawmaker from each party from each chamber in the legislature.

    2020: The U.S. Census Bureau conducts its 10-year census, spurring another round of redistricting in 2021.

    2021-2022: A bipartisan majority on the Ohio Supreme Court rejects Republican-drawn Statehouse district maps as unconstitutionally gerrymandered five times.

    As a member of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, Gov. Mike DeWine goes along with the Republican legislative leaders’ gerrymandering. Also as a member of the commission, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose goes along with the gerrymandering as well, after campaigning in 2018 telling the nation he was against gerrymandering, and after, as a member of the redistricting commission, calling the maps “asinine” and texting his chief of staff, “I should vote no,” before ultimately voting yes, repeatedly.

    Also 2021-2022: A bipartisan majority on the Ohio Supreme Court rejects Republican-drawn U.S. Congressional district maps as unconstitutionally gerrymandered two times.

    2021: Ohio Republican lawmakers add party labels to Ohio Supreme Court races.

    2022: Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission refuse to follow the bipartisan Ohio Supreme Court’s order to draw districts that aren’t gerrymandered, thereby running out the clock after an anti-abortion lobbyist files a lawsuit in federal court to force Ohio voters to use the gerrymandered maps. Two Trump-appointed judges agree to force Ohio voters to vote under unconstitutionally gerrymandered maps.

    Also 2022: Swing-vote Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor is forced by law to retire due to age. As she ruled against Republican gerrymandering, there were discussions by Republicans about possibly impeaching O’Connor.

    Also 2022: Ohioans are forced to vote under unconstitutionally gerrymandered maps to elect our current 135th General Assembly (“serving” 2023 and 2024). Republicans increase their gerrymandered supermajorities in both chambers. They also win ideological control over the Ohio Supreme Court, so while their majority remains 4-3, there is no longer any bipartisan swing vote on the issue of gerrymandering.

    Also 2022: A coalition of advocates start planning further redistricting reform.

    Shortly thereafter, Secretary of State LaRose and Republican state Rep. Brian Stewart announce a proposal to raise the threshold in Ohio for passing constitutional amendments from 50% to 60%.

    LaRose denies that the proposal is connected to abortion or gerrymandering, but in a memo Stewart writes to his colleagues, he lists only two reasons for them to support his proposal: stopping the abortion rights amendment and stopping any further anti-gerrymandering reform in Ohio.

    January 2023: Ohio’s unconstitutionally gerrymandered legislature takes their seats.

    Also 2023: Ohio Republicans enact one of the most restrictive voter laws in the country. They also eliminate August elections. They make a play to put the 60% amendment threshold on the May ballot in Ohio, but fail. Later, they bring back a special August election to put the 60% proposal to voters. DeWine supports the proposal. Meanwhile, the Ohio reproductive rights proposal qualifies for the November ballot. DeWine is against it.

    Summer 2023: Secretary of State LaRose and the anti-abortion lobbyist who sued to force gerrymandered districts on Ohio voters campaign together to try to convince voters to accept the 60% threshold proposal.

    August 2023: 57% of Ohio voters reject the proposal.

    Later that same month, a group called Citizens Not Politicians is formed to put forward a new anti-gerrymandering amendment proposal that would remove politicians from the process of drawing districts and replace them with a citizen-led commission.

    Retired Republican Ohio Supreme Court Justice O’Connor and former Democratic Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown join together to spearhead the effort. They make plans to put the amendment ballot proposal before voters in November 2024.

    Also August 2023: As chair of the Ohio Ballot Board, Secretary of State LaRose, who opposes the Ohio reproductive rights amendment, uses his official position to write ballot summary language for the amendment that uses loaded language against the amendment.

    September 2023: The Ohio Redistricting Commission unanimously passes maps to be used in the 2024 Election, which Democrats say they agreed to because they say Republicans would have passed even more gerrymandered maps that would’ve likely been approved by the new Republican majority Ohio Supreme Court without O’Connor on it as a swing vote.

    October 2023: The Citizens Not Politicians amendment petition is cleared as “fair and truthful” to begin collecting signatures.

    November 2023: 57% of Ohio voters pass the state’s new reproductive rights amendment. Moreover, 57% pass a new law for adult-use recreational marijuana.

    July 2024: Citizens Not Politicians submits petition signatures, and 535,000 signatures are certified, putting Issue 1 redistricting reform on the November 2024 ballot.

    August 2024: As chair of the Ohio Ballot Board, Secretary of State LaRose, who opposes the Issue 1 anti-gerrymandering amendment, uses his official position to write ballot summary language for the amendment that uses loaded language against the amendment.

    Oct. 8, 2024: Early voting begins in Ohio.

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

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    David Dewitt, Ohio Capital Journal

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  • Anti-Gerrymandering Amendment Supporters Sue Ohio Ballot Board Over Ballot Language

    Anti-Gerrymandering Amendment Supporters Sue Ohio Ballot Board Over Ballot Language

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    (Photo by Susan Tebben, OCJ.)

    Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose talks to reporters.

    As promised, supporters of an anti-gerrymandering amendment have asked the Ohio Supreme Court to intervene regarding language the Ohio Ballot Board approved for the November ballot, saying the language violates the Ohio Constitution.

    A brief filed Monday with the state’s highest court cites constitutional provisions that dictate the way in which titles and language can appear on Ohio ballots, according to the court document written by attorneys for Citizens Not Politicians, the authoring group for the redistricting reform.

    “This November, Ohio voters will be asked to consider a proposed constitutional amendment that will remove redistricting power from politicians and entrust it to a citizens’ redistricting commission,” attorney Don McTigue wrote. “The politicians are fighting back with an absolute fusillade of falsehoods.”

    McTigue called the language approved by the board “what may be the most biased, inaccurate, deceptive and unconstitutional ballot language ever adopted by the Ohio Ballot Board.”

    The board approved the language that will be the summary for the newly minted Issue 1 in a 3-2 vote at its Aug. 16 meeting, with Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Republican state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, and citizen member William N. Morgan voting in favor of the language.

    The proposed amendment would replace the current Ohio Redistricting Commission made up of politicians including the governor, secretary of state, auditor and two lawmakers from each party, with a 15-member citizens commission made up of equal numbers of Republican, Democratic, and independent citizens with no elected positions or political ties.

    According to the ballot language approved by the split board – which LaRose, the ballot board chairman, said at the meeting he wrote with the help of his staff – the redistricting initiative would “repeal constitutional protections against gerrymandering” and “eliminate the longstanding ability of Ohio citizens to hold their representatives accountable for establishing fair state legislative and congressional districts.”

    In a last minute change to the LaRose language made during the board meeting, Gavarone replaced the word “manipulate” in a paragraph about changing the districts lines, so that it instead states the new commission is required to gerrymander the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts, a change supported in the meeting by LaRose and fellow board member William Morgan.

    “This gets it entirely backward,” McTigue countered in the Citizens Not Politicians court brief. “In fact, the amendment would ‘ban partisan gerrymandering and prohibit the use of redistricting plans that favor one political party and disfavor others.’”

    McTigue said the language of the summary includes “numerous fatal flaws” and includes “campaign rhetoric designed to persuade – not impartial, factual information meant to inform voters.”

    Citizens Not Politicians wasted no time after the Ohio Ballot Board approved the LaRose-written language to pledge a challenge to the language in court, with former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor calling the approval and the lead-up to it “one grotesque abuse of power after another from politicians desperate to protect the current system that only benefits themselves and their lobbyist friends.”

    “Secretary of State Frank LaRose voted seven times for maps that courts ruled were unconstitutional, and this week he violates the constitution with objectively false ballot language,” O’Connor said in a statement.

    LaRose was a member of the Ohio Redistricting Commission when it passed six Statehouse district maps and two congressional maps over the two years the group worked. Among those maps, five Statehouse maps and both congressional maps were ruled unconstitutionally partisan gerrymanders by the Ohio Supreme Court.

    Ohio law requires ballot titles to be a “true and impartial statement of the measures in such language that the ballot title shall not be likely to create prejudice for or against the measure.”

    The language that goes before voters is also regulated by Ohio law, with the constitution stating the full text of the amendment is not required, but the language used can not “mislead, deceive or defraud the voters.”

    “Whether the amendment is good policy is for Ohioans to decide – not the Ballot Board – and is not before the court,” McTigue wrote in Monday’s briefing. “The Ballot Board’s duty is clear, the legal standards well-defined and the ballot title and language before the court flagrantly violate those standards.”

    The state supreme court faced a similar case in August of last year, when supporters of the reproductive rights amendment on the ballot last November sued to challenge another summary written by LaRose and staffers that they said was deceptive.

    Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights asked the Ohio Supreme Court to order the ballot board to use the full text of the amendment, or to “correct blatant inaccuracies” and use “language that fully, accurately and impartially describes the amendment’s scope and effects.”

    The Ohio Supreme Court ordered the ballot board to tweak only one of many issues the advocates pointed to, a paragraph in which the ballot board said “the citizens of the state of Ohio” rather than “the state of Ohio.”

    Nevertheless, the abortion amendment passed with 57% of the vote.

    No matter what redistricting ballot language appears on this year’s election ballot, the full text of the amendment itself remains the same language authored by Citizens Not Politicians and supported by more than 535,000 Ohio voters who participated in a signature campaign that allowed the measure to appear on the November general election ballot. The ballot board’s summary does not change the actual anti-gerrymandering amendment being proposed.

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

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    Susan Tebben, The Ohio Capital Journal

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  • Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Lost All Credibility When He Repeatedly Voted for Illegally Gerrymandered Maps

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Lost All Credibility When He Repeatedly Voted for Illegally Gerrymandered Maps

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    Photo by Graham Stokes for the Ohio Capital Journal

    Ohio Governor Mike DeWine talks with the press.

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine clutching his pearls Wednesday morning about predetermined partisan outcomes after he forced unconstitutional district maps on voters that gave his party 67 out of 99 Ohio House seats and 26 out of 33 Ohio Senate seats in a 56-44 state was hilarious, absurd and pathetic.

    Even more striking was how condescending and insulting it was for DeWine to lecture Ohio voters about gerrymandering after he went along with the unconstitutional gerrymandering of districts seven times in defiance of Ohio voters and a bipartisan Ohio Supreme Court in 2021 and 2022.

    Probably the worst part of that was DeWine acknowledging that gerrymandering leads to extremist legislatures who get elected mostly in primaries because the outcomes of general elections are predetermined: So he knows what’s wrong, but when he had his chance to do something about it, he supported gerrymandering anyway.

    Now the governor is using his bully pulpit to try to disparage an anti-gerrymandering proposal heading to Ohio voters this November. That proposed amendment would kick politicians like DeWine out of the mapmaking process in favor of a 15-member citizen redistricting commission. The effort is led by two bipartisan former Ohio Supreme Court justices — spearheaded by retired Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor. Blissfully lacking all self-awareness as well as basic comprehension of the plan he claimed to have studied carefully, DeWine called it “horrible.”

    DeWine attempted to gaslight Ohioans into thinking that the citizen commission plan would lead to the worst gerrymandering Ohio has ever seen, after DeWine joined Statehouse Republicans in forcing voters to cast ballots in 2022 under the worst gerrymandered maps Ohio has ever seen.

    For the last two years, Ohio has had Statehouse lawmakers seated in unconstitutionally gerrymandered districts. Nevertheless, with a straight face, DeWine proposed an “Iowa plan” that he said he would work with gerrymandered Ohio lawmakers to introduce. If that Iowa model is followed, it would leave gerrymandered Ohio lawmakers with final authority over maps.

    The “Iowa plan” DeWine went on and on about requires a plan to be first developed by their non-partisan Legislative Services Agency, which is then sent to the legislature for approval. If that plan fails to get lawmakers’ support, the Legislative Services Agency has to develop a second plan adjusting for lawmakers’ problems with the first plan. If that second plan is rejected by lawmakers or the governor, a third plan is submitted by the LSA, but under the third plan, lawmakers can make any changes they want. So, if lawmakers don’t like the maps, all they have to do is keep rejecting them and run out the clock and then they can draw whatever maps they want.

    Running out the clock to impose unconstitutionally gerrymandered maps is exactly what Ohio Republican politicians did in 2021 and 2022.

    DeWine evaded questions about the fact that his proposal would leave politicians in charge by trying to be cute that it’s only the criteria for mapmaking that he likes about the Iowa plan. But DeWine is proposing to work with lawmakers to draft the plan — gerrymandered lawmakers. If gerrymandered lawmakers start with a model plan that leaves final authority over maps in their hands, what are the chances they will strip that out and give up their authority? Does DeWine think Ohioans are idiots?

    By trying to focus his comments on the criteria, DeWine spent the bulk of his time criticizing requirements for proportionality proposed by Citizens Not Politicians — meaning requirements that the districts reflect the actual political preferences of voters. The maps DeWine helped force on Ohio voters left us with a 67-seat Republican supermajority House in a 56% Republican simple majority state. So I’m not surprised that DeWine doesn’t give a damn about proportionality.

    The “Iowa plan” doesn’t mention proportionality in criteria at all. Instead it emphasizes that districts be compact and contiguous and preserve political subdivisions. It prohibits intentionally favoring a party, incumbent, person or group by disallowing political data from being used in map-drawing, but it should be noted that it’s fairly simple to draw a heavily politicized map by just using geography and not data.

    The Citizens Not Politicians plan that DeWine disparaged as “horrible” requires districts be contiguous, preserve communities of interest, and that they be relatively proportional: within three percentage points of overall voter preferences.

    As I have written before, fair maps ought to minimize the number of seats that have to be drawn safe and make the number of those districts proportional, and evenly maximize the number of competitive districts.

    DeWine was confronted Wednesday with the fact that the primary frustration of Ohio voters with our currently gerrymandered districts is that they do not reflect Ohioans’ actual political preferences, and he was asked if the Iowa plan would produce proportional maps.

    “I think they would,” is all DeWine could weakly offer. Sure. If we only trust Ohio’s gerrymandered lawmakers. Hey Charlie Brown, come try to kick this football again.

    The truth is, DeWine lost all credibility on the subject of gerrymandering when he repeatedly voted for illegally gerrymandered maps. Now he’s pitching a proposal that would have lawmakers draft redistricting reform based on an “Iowa plan” that leaves lawmakers with final authority.

    If you didn’t enjoy the last turd sandwich we forced you to eat, Ohio voters, perhaps you’ll let us serve you another one: refried and microwaved.

    Does DeWine really think he’s this slick? Does he really think Ohio voters are this dumb?

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

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    David Dewitt, Ohio Capital Journal

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  • Ohio Redistricting Reform Supporters Outline Problem and Proposal in Panel

    Ohio Redistricting Reform Supporters Outline Problem and Proposal in Panel

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    (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal)

    The Ohio Redistricting Commission meeting, September 20, 2023, in the Lobby Hearing Room at the James A. Rhodes Office Tower in Columbus, Ohio.

    Some of the leaders of a campaign to reform redistricting in Ohio say the process of drawing districts may be complicated, but making necessary changes to end gerrymandering isn’t: “Political insiders have no business being in the process.”

    In a Monday panel discussion on Ohio State University’s campus, retired Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, League of Women Voters of Ohio Director Jen Miller, political science professor Ange-Marie Hancock, law professor Steven Huefner, and the Brennan Center Democracy Program’s Yurij Rudensky discussed the impact of gerrymandering on political power, and why a third try at redistricting reform needs to be on the public’s radar if it hits the ballots in November.

    The panel members urged support for an initiative created by the coalition Citizens Not Politicians, in conjunction with O’Connor and what she calls “a group of brainiacs,” who developed the proposed ballot measure to undo the “failings” of voter-approved reforms made in 2015 and 2018 through separate constitutional amendments.

    “These two amendments were sold as the greatest thing since chocolate milk and sliced bread,” O’Connor said. “I mean, they just thought this was going to be the answer. It was not.”

    The drafters had perhaps known the amendments would not go as far as voters hoped, O’Connor posited.

    “As a result, there’s language in (the previous amendments) that limits the power of the people and enhances the power of the legislature,” according to the retired chief justice.

    Rudensky went so far as to argue that the 2015 and 2018 measures weren’t reforms at all because the measures “didn’t change anything.”

    “The reality is what those amendments demonstrated is that political insiders have no business being in the process,” Rudensky said. “As soon as they got the pen after those amendments, what they said are the safeguards are just there as aspirations.”

    In the last two years, the redistricting process was overseen by the Ohio Redistricting Commission, a group fully made up of elected officials, the majority of which were members of the GOP. Bipartisan co-chairs led the efforts, along with Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, Republican Auditor of State Keith Faber, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and Republican state Sen. Rob McColley in the most recent round of commission meetings. The two Democratic seats that completed the commission were most recently filled by House Minority Leader Allison Russo and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio.

    This version of the commission was the only version to adopt a district map with bipartisan agreement, something that helped the Statehouse district map, adopted in September 2023, when it was challenged in the Ohio Supreme Court. Justices cited the agreement as a key reason the majority ruled to leave the map in place, despite arguments that the newest ORC map is unduly partisan.

    The five other versions of maps adopted by the commission were struck down by the court due to unconstitutional partisan lean. The makeup of the court was different than the court that oversaw the challenge of the September map in one important area: then-Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor served as the swing vote that resulted in the rejection of those five Statehouse maps, and for that matter, the only two U.S. congressional district maps ever drawn.

    The congressional map that is currently being used is still one ruled unconstitutional by the O’Connor-led state supreme court.

    “The resulting maps clearly opened the door so that a supermajority will be established, and once that happens, unless there’s a change, such as the constitutional amendment that’s going to be on in November, this is self-perpetuating,” O’Connor said in the Monday panel. “This will go on and on and on.”

    The new measure would depart from previous redistricting reforms, the supporters said on Monday, by bringing about an independent commission to redraw the district maps, a commission that would be chosen through a vetting process done by judges and bipartisan members of a screening committee.

    This main goal of the new constitutional amendment – which is still in the signature-collection stage before it can be approved to appear on the November general election ballot – would take the map-drawing process for Statehouse and congressional districts out of the hands of elected officials, something those on the panel said has been the downfall of the previous reforms.

    But with the previous reforms not far off in Ohio’s history, panelist addressed concerns that voter exhaustion over the redistricting issue could come into play and cause Ohioans to wonder why yet another redistricting reform would matter.

    “The biggest thing I get as a concern is once again the court would not have the power, or concern that there would still be loopholes,” Miller said. “I’m proud to say that a lot of brilliant folks designed this policy to make sure that we have lots of guardrails, so that we can truly end gerrymandering.”

    The implementation of a new constitutional amendment on redistricting wouldn’t necessarily flip the political makeup of the state on its head, and it may not even change the majorities in the state, but it would bring Ohio’s partisanship down to levels that match voting trends, O’Connor argued.

    “There will be, in all probability, more Republicans members of the Ohio General Assembly than Democrats when this is done, but it won’t be a supermajority,” according to O’Connor, a registered Republican herself.

    Without the “wildly inflated numbers” in the majority, O’Connor said the impact will be widely seen, bringing more difficulty in overriding a governor’s vetoes, for example, and creating an legislative environment that will “force the representatives to work with one another.”

    “There will be products that are not extreme,” she said. “In other words, their legislation will be tempered by the fact that there’s a new mindset: we’ve got to work together and we need to work for the citizens; not lobbyists, not the people who funded our campaigns, not political bosses in Columbus or in my local county.”

    Despite their hope for change through the proposed amendments, the panelists didn’t mince words about the work still to be done even if the reforms are approved by voters.

    “Yes, there are changes that would come about as part of this, but there’s also … a lot of oversight and implementation that would have to take place afterward as well,” Hancock said.

    That would include making sure redistricting meetings are public and the work is done before the eyes of Ohioans.

    “Voters want to know that folks are not taking advantage, that folks are doing what they’re supposed to do, what their oath of office demands,” Hancock said.

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

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    Susan Tebben, The Ohio Capital Journal

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