'Just too far;' Ohio mapmakers spar over contempt threat

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Partisan mapmakers in Ohio made distinctly emotional pleas to the Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday, as justices once again weigh whether to hold the state's redistricting commission in contempt.

The bipartisan commission has sent five different plans for state legislative districts to the high court. Four were invalidated and, on the fifth time around, the commission opted to send over a previously invalidated map.

The endless fight, which long-suffering county election officials have likened to "Groundhog Day," prevented primaries for the Ohio House and Ohio Senate from moving forward May 3.

Republican commissioners have stalwartly defended their actions as making the best of time

constraints and a cumbersome, sometimes conflicting set of court decisions and criteria for carrying out Ohio's new political map-drawing system.

On Thursday, they took particular aim at persistent requests by

Democratic and votingrights groups who went them held in contempt of court.

"This all is just too far beyond what this Court can and should do," wrote lawyers for Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, the

sole Republican to vote against any of the commission's legislative plans. "These show-cause motions unnecessarily pull the Court away from what the Constitution

actually requires it to do: review the merits of a Commission-passed General Assembly-district plan."

Attorneys for the commission's two Democrats begged to differ, expressing not just disappointment but "sadness" at Republicans' unwillingness to involve the minority party in the Statehouse mapmaking process and, for the first time, recommending contempt.

"Contempt is a drastic remedy, especially against members of a constitutional body," state Sen. Vernon Sykes and House Minority Leader Allison Russo's filing read. "But the Republican Commissioners have so clearly violated their obligations, so clearly indicated they have no intention of complying with the Court's orders, that Senator Sykes and Leader Russo see no other reasonable choice."

Republican Secretary of State Frank Larose, both the state's elections chief and a member of the redistricting commission, insists that a single

date — April 20 — should be key in determining whether the redistricting panel was in contempt. That is the date on which any new state legislative map needed to be finalized in time for 2022 primary and general elections.

FARM SAFETY -- Wapakoneta High School FFA members educated youth at Wapakoneta Middle School during their annual safety day. Wapakoneta FFA president Braidon Lee said they were educating kids about being safe around equipment, making sure they know the do’s and dont’s around equipment and what they need to watch out for such as manure pit and grain bin safety. Members of the Wapakoneta Fire Department, Police Department and Wapakoneta’s Electric Department also featured safety. FFA Advisor Ron Brown sees it as an opportunity to prevent a bad accident and save lives.