So the Ohio State Supreme Court overturned the radically gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps a little more than a week ago & sent them back for a redo, as voted into the state constitution by more than 70% of the votes in 2015 (legislative) and 2018 (congressional).
First up was the legislative districts which the voters assigned to a redistricting commission which includes the governor (R), the auditor (R), the Secretary of state (R) and a member of each party from the state House and the state Senate. These 7 people reconvened on Thursday but did little more than swear in a new Democratic house member, Allison Russo, to replace the resigned Emilia Sykes, who is running for Congress.
There were stacks of available maps that conformed to the guidelines dictated by the voters — again, more than 70% — written by map geeks and good government types. They could’ve just plucked and voted on it. But noooooooo….
They waited until late tonight to rubber stamp — by a 5-2 vote of course — yet another heavily GOP-favoring map that ignores the will of the voters and stands a good chance of being struck down yet again by the state supreme court. This one is a really cynic wink behind the backs of the voters. They claim it gives Democrats a somewhat larger proportion of seats in the legislature. However, they’ve distributed voters so that these additional supposedly more Democratic districts are in fact virtual toss-ups which will require huge effort and funding to win. Most of the Republican districts are safely Republican. And anyone who jumps in and says “We just need to work harder” can stuff it. I don't know about you but I have limited money and time — and that’s true of most activists here in Ohio. It’s yet another obstacle making it difficult for Democrats to raise and deploy the resources needed to win, especially in an off year.
Of course the news came out just as Cincinnati won some football game which apparently interests some people a lot more than our constitutional rights. That was probably deliberate too. This all could’ve been done legally yesterday.
Undoubtedly these maps will be challenged again. We’ll see what happens next. More here at Ohio Capital Journal.
So disgusted. I’ve already called all the GOP members of the commission and told them off.