GOP releases district maps
Would let Republicans keep veto-proof majority
With less than a week to hammer out a final map for state House and Senate districts, Republican lawmakers presented a map that would allow the GOP to retain a veto-proof majority.
Republicans could hold 67 of 99 seats in the Ohio House and 25 of 33 seats in the Ohio Senate, according to an analysis by Dave’s Redistricting App, a commonly used redistricting website that assigns partisan designations based on recent election results. Based on that website’s analysis, 16.5% of House districts and 19.8% of Senate districts would be competitive – defined as a partisan lean between 45% and 55%.
Republicans currently hold 64 of the 99 seats in the Ohio House of Representatives and 25 of the 33 seats in the Ohio Senate.
Voter-approved changes to the Ohio Constitution added guardrails to how mapmakers draw districts for the Ohio House and Senate. The commission must try to draw a map that does not primarily favor a political party, is compact and corresponds to the statewide breakdown of Democratic and Republican votes.
Yet Republican leaders say they never analyzed the partisan balance of their proposed maps for House and Senate districts. Ohio Redistricting
Commission Co-chair Vernon Sykes, a Democratic senator from Akron, said he doesn’t believe them.
“I don’t blame the speaker of the House or a president of the Senate for using the rules the best they can to craft the districts to help their cause,” Sykes said. “To present a map before this commission and say they aren’t aware of what it is and didn’t consider it at all, I think is disingenuous.”
Over the past 10 years, the statewide total of votes has split, on average, with about 55% of votes for Republican candidates and 45% of votes to Democratic candidates. Former President Barack Obama’s victory in 2012 was a good year for Democrats while 2014 was a great year for Republican candidates.
Senate President Matt Huffman, Rlima, said drawing a map with that split would amount to gerrymandering.
“The definition of gerrymandering is designing districts to benefit a particular political party so if we simply say we must design this so that 55%, 55 seats in the Ohio House of Representatives are
Republican, that’s gerrymandering,” Huffman said.
House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-lima, said the portion of the Ohio Constitution looking at how maps line up with recent statewide results is an “aspirational goal.”
“There’s a difference of opinion as to whether that is aspirational goal or a required goal if you don’t meet all the other criteria,” said Cupp, a co-chair of the commission.
Looking at race
Republican mapmakers didn’t consider racial or demographic data when putting their maps together, said Ray Dirossi, the Senate Republicans’ finance director. He said GOP mapmakers were directed by legislative leaders not to consider racial or demographic data.
“It’s illegal to use race in drawing districts,” Huffman said later. “That’s a violation of federal law.”
House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, D-akron, questioned how the proposed map could comply with the Voting Rights Act without considering race.
“You can actually look at race as a criteria. It just cannot be the only criteria,” said Deidra Reese with the Ohio Unity
Coalition. Reese said not considering race made her feel invisible and unheard. “If you cannot use race to crack a district apart to diminish the ability of a community of color to be able to have influence, how can you not look at race?”
Ohioans who testified Thursday morning expressed frustration with both the GOP map and the secretive process that led to it. They called the mapmaking process a “sham,” “an insult to democracy” and “more fascist than Democratic.”
Ohio Democratic Party Chairwoman Liz Walters blasted the Gop-made maps.
“These maps are not only unacceptable, they’re offensive to Ohioans who voted overwhelmingly twice for fair representation,” Walters said in a statement. “Ohioans are tired of politicians choosing their voters rather than the other way around.”
What comes next?
The seven-member Ohio Redistricting Commission is on a tight timeline to approve a map for those who represent residents at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. The commission accepted the Gop-made map as a working draft in a 5-2 vote along partisan lines.
The commission must allow the public to comment on the map at hearings across the state. The commission plans to meet at 4 p.m. Sunday in Dayton, 4 p.m. Monday in Cleveland and 10 a.m. Tuesday in Columbus. Exact locations were not known Thursday afternoon.
To approve a 10-year map, the commission needs “yes” votes from four of the seven members, including both Democrats on the commission. If they can’t reach a compromise, four members could approve a map that lasts for four years.
The commission missed its first deadline to present a map and is barreling toward its final deadline to approve a map: Sept. 15.
Meanwhile, Ohio lawmakers have until Sept. 30 to approve a 10-year map for congressional districts. Voters approved changes to prevent gerrymandered districts like the so-called “snake on the lake,” which stretches from Toledo to Cleveland.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.