Ohio Senate Democrats pitch congressional district map
Ohio Senate Democrats pitched a congressional district map ahead of the first constitutional deadline.
The proposed maps would give Democrats three solidly blue seats in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus; three districts that lean Democratic in Toledo, Akron-canton and central Ohio north of Columbus; and one tossup seat west of Cleveland.
Six of the 15 districts would be competitive, defined as a partisan lean between 45% and 55% on Dave’s Redistricting
App, a redistricting website that incorporates election results.
But Republicans, who control all steps of the redistricting process, are unlikely to approve a map that reduces their advantage from 12-4 to 8-7 or 9-6. Ohio is losing a congressional seat because the state’s population grew at a slower rate than the nation’s.
Still, Democrats say their proposal, introduced in Senate Bill 237 on Wednesday, meets constitutional requirements approved by voters in 2018.
“The plan we are introducing today
is fair, keeps communities together and doesn’t gerrymander our state,” said Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko, Drichmond Heights.
Democrats offered the proposal as a starting point and as evidence that Republicans could have completed a map by the first deadline: Sept. 30.
Senate Republican spokesman John Fortney was not impressed by the districts’ shapes, especially after “far-left special interest groups” criticized the current map’s “snake on the lake” and Rep. Jim Jordan’s duck-like district.
“This new experiment in geometric shapes is even more interesting,” Fortney said. “A fatter snake on the lake, the district around Columbus gives new
meaning to the ‘horseshoe’ and the 7th looks like a big thumbs up for maybe a new member of Congress.”
Senate President Matt Huffman, Rlima, already said lawmakers would miss that deadline, sending the mapmaking duties to the seven-member Ohio Redistricting Commission in October.
If the commission can’t compromise on a map that lasts 10 years, lawmakers would once again hold the pen. They could approve a four-year map along party lines, but that map would have to meet certain standards, such as not unduly favoring a political party or its incumbents.
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.