Ex-trump campaign boss to chair Ohio GOP
Paduchik a longtime political operative
COLUMBUS – Few people understand Republican politics in Ohio like the party's new chairman Bob Paduchik.
Before Paduchik was Donald Trump's guy in Ohio, he was President George W. Bush's guy and Gov. Bob Taft's guy and Sen. Rob Portman's guy. The political operative and Akron-area native has helped elect Republicans up and down the ballot for about three decades.
The GOP'S governing body elected Paduchik, of Genoa Township, to replace Jane Timken, who resigned to run for U.S. Senate. He prevailed over former Rep. John Becker, who announced a bid last week. (Becker has bashed the
Ohio’s Attorney General is suing the federal government, claiming its delay of U.S. Census data wasn’t legal.
The bureau announced earlier this month that “Covid-19-related shifts in data collection” and processing would push the delivery of population data states need for redistricting from March 31 to Sept. 30.
That’s a problem for Ohio where voters recently installed a new process for drawing districts.
State House and Senate maps are constitutionally required by Sept. 1 with the federal Congressional maps due Sept. 30.
State lawmakers have already said they won’t be able to meet those deadlines.
And voting rights groups worry some of the gerrymandering protections they gained through these reforms will get pushed to the side for the sake of time.
“The many people who voted for redistricting reform deserve better than to have their efforts thwarted by a federal government that refuses to do its job,” according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
Attorney General Dave Yost sued the acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
He said that Congress could vote to delay the data, but the bureau couldn’t because the deadline was written in law.
“Laws cannot be arbitrarily changed by administrative fiat,” Yost said in a statement.
“Even if it’s inconvenient, the Census Bureau must do its job.”
Federal law imposes a March 31 deadline, “not an aspirational target date,” attorneys for the state wrote in the complaint.
In addition, Yost said he hopes the lawsuit convinces the census bureau to consider giving Ohio its data as it becomes available.
The current plan is to wait until all 50 states are finished.
“This is a matter of supreme importance to Ohio,” Yost said.
Other states don’t have the same constitutional deadlines.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank Larose asked Yost to look into legal options after the Census Bureau’s announcement.
“That’s unworkable,” Larose said of the Sept. 30 data deadline.
“And we’re doing something about it.”
The executive director of Ohio’s League of Women Voters said the state shouldn’t badger the census bureau into rushing out data.
“It could mean it’s not as quality as we need to make fair maps,” Jen Miller said.
“We would prefer the State of Ohio start conversations now about technical details that could be decided before we get the data and consider pushing back the primary.” astaver@dispatch.com @annastaver