Will of Ohioans trampled during redistricting
The Ohio Redistricting Commission started its work Aug. 6 with each member swearing to uphold the Ohio Constitution, which we reformed with bipartisan support after the gross gerrymandering of 2011.
Since that late but promising start, I’ve pondered what more I could have personally done to avert the ensuing train wreck.
I’ve watched the seven-minute Aug. 6 video again and again, searching for some caveats to those oaths, like “Except those pesky Article XI provisions about conducting the process in public, creating a map that corresponds seat outcomes to voting outcomes and not favoring a political party.”
How else to explain a near-repeat of the 2011 process?
Intense private negotiations between the two parties were needed for the basics of adopting committee rules and scheduling public hearings.
The committee even battled (privately) over hosting a basic ORC website to collect the constitutionally mandated public input. And I found my offers of technical help to define, detect and avoid partisan bias ignored by both sides.
Ten public hearings the week of Aug. 23 comprised an avalanche of citizen input demanding that the ORC adhere to the constitutional process for producing fair maps. A wide array of Ohioans, mostly Democrats but also some Republicans, spoke passionately on the need to respect the will of Ohio voters on this critical endeavor, as well as the legal perils of constitutional violations.
I participated in the Aug. 24 meeting in Cincinnati and could not be prouder of my fellow citizens.
The message to commission members (or their stand-ins; member attendance was quite spotty) was loud and clear.
Glimmers of hope emerged in the ORC’S second meeting on Aug. 31.
While Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-akron) pressed her colleagues to meet the looming Sep. 15 deadline, Secretary of State Frank Larose reminded us of his past role in championing these reforms.
He reiterated his passion to deliver a fair 10-year map, which required only two of the five GOP members of the ORC to compromise with the two Democrats. Still, there was no timetable for introducing a Gop-supported map.
Heeding Larose’s call, I spent an extended Labor Day weekend developing fair, competitive maps that would reward the GOP well for fielding strong candidates who resonate with voters.
To grease the political wheels, I gift-wrapped my maps with a full analysis of their compliance with all Article XI provisions and a narrative of superiority to the Dem-favored plans.
Larose’s director of constituent affairs committed to submit it promptly for legal review, and we agreed for me to post it on the ORC public portal Tuesday morning. Wednesday, we were informed of a Thursday pair of public hearings on new maps. Was the train back on the rails?
As I drove from Cincinnati on Thursday morning, Sen. Matt Huffman’s team presented a plan made public only that hour, with no analysis of compliance with Article XI’S Section 6 provisions.
By lunchtime, it was painfully obvious that Huffman’s plan was an unconstitutional nonstarter. And yet, the afternoon session began with all five GOP ORC members endorsing this flagrantly biased plan.
My 10-minute presentation slot was relegated to the afternoon’s end, after Gov. Mike Dewine, Auditor Keith Faber, Huffman and Larose had all left.
Perhaps to soften the blow of their conspicuous absence, Speaker Bob Cupp, R-lima, commiserated with me after the hearing on the broken state of Ohio politics.
Before pointing out a Statehouse plaque commemorating where Abraham Lincoln once spoke, he confided that the mapmaking process had been guarded to avoid making a mistake.
In the shadow of that great Republican statesman, I thought: “Trampling the Constitution and the will of Ohio voters? Probably the biggest mistake of all.”
Geoff Wise is a chemical engineer who resides in the Cincinnati area. His Statehouse maps tied for first place in Fair District Ohio’s mapmaking contest.