Leftists need to stop whining about districts and do better

As a high school student back in the 1980s, I was a winner of our school's Ohio history contest and was among the top finishers in the statewide competition.

Today, it's even more important than ever to promote the studying of Ohio's history, especially since the advent of term limits for members of the Ohio General Assembly.

Like it or not, and Ohio Democrats don't like it very much right now, elections have consequences, and we live in an increasingly partisan world.

While Ohio voters have changed the process, to some degree, in drawing state legislative lines, they kept the partisan process essentially in place.

With that in mind, they recognized that it was still very likely that these lines would be drawn in a partisan manner and thus required that any map that would pass with just partisan votes would only last for four years.

That process was an improvement that recognizes the fundamental partisan nature of this process and the fundamental partisan nature of most politically active individuals.

It is an improvement because it gives statewide voters additional chances to make changes, every four years of the partisan makeup of this commission.

If Ohio Democrats do not like these maps, then they will have an opportunity to win the offices of auditor of state, secretary of state, and governor in November 2022.

They could then redraw new maps for the 2026 election, instead of waiting for the next census after the 2030 census.

This reform gives Ohio voters the ability to make changes to state legislative districts six years earlier than they would have had under the previous constitutional provisions.

Ohio Democrats held 3-2 majorities on what was then known as the Ohio

Apportionment Board in both 1970 and 1980. They pushed aside any and all proposals to change the process when they held the majority.

''If they don't like the game, they try to change the rules,'' then Ohio Democratic Party James P. Leahy scoffed as part of a New York Times article.

In 1990, Republicans gained a majority on the Ohio Apportionment Board by regaining the offices of governor and secretary of state in the general election. Despite the redrawing of districts,

Democrats still held majorities in the Ohio House until 1994.

Since then, Ohio Republicans have been dominant in both statewide and legislative elections other than the 2006 statewide elections and the 2008 Ohio House elections. Because Democrats have been in the minority for so long, they, along with some Republicans, changed the rules. However, they did not change them completely from their historical partisan framework.

The alternative map proposed by the two Democrat members of the commission was also very highly partisan Democrat.

For example, my home county of Knox, despite having a population of over 62,000 people, would have been split between two Ohio House districts under their partisan plan.

To my knowledge, Knox County has never been split in this manner.

My neighboring county, Delaware, would have also been also split into two districts, while it would have crammed two Republican incumbent Ohio House Members, Kris Jordan (Ostrander) and Ric Carfagna (Genoa Township), into the same district.

I'm sure there are other Republican districts that attempted to employ similar tactics. If Democrats and their leftist allies do not like these districts, then I suggest that they get to work recruiting candidates for statewide offices.

Ohio voters have spoken consistently and have elected Republicans to the three statewide offices in both the 2010 and the 2018 elections.

Scott Pullins is an Ohio attorney, charter school board member, political consultant, and writer. He is exploring a race for the Ohio House in the newly drawn House District 98.

FRED SQUILLANTE/COLUMBUS DISPATCH Advocates with Fair Districts Ohio rally outside the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, after the Ohio Redistricting Commission held a meeting Oct. 28.