Cars and Parts Springfield Swap Meet
Carroll Commencement
Fairborn commencement
Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > June > 25 > Entry
Martin Gottlieb: Map drawing reform could help local Democrats, though it should be a wash statewide
It looks like local Democrats could get a break if the state adopts a nonpartisan approach to the drawing of congressional districts.
By definition, of course, a reformed system would have to treat the parties equally statewide. Any break the Democrats got in what is now Republican Mike Turner’s district would likely result in the Republicans getting a break elsewhere.
Still, this seems to be true: if a reformed system had been in place in 2001, the district that includes Dayton would be more winnable for the Democrats (though maybe not enough for them to beat Turner, who is strong).
As it is, the district went slightly for John McCain in 2008, indicating it’s pretty seriously Republican.
Percolating in Columbus is an effort to radically change the system for drawing districts in Ohio. The current system leaves the politicians completely in charge, functioning under very few rules.
Sometimes that means that one party is in complete control; sometimes (only as to congressional districts, not state legislature districts), it means the two parties have to work something out. Either way, political calculations prevail.
Some reformers decided to see what happens if there are rules about how districts can be drawn, and if there’s a contest — open to all — to see who can score the most points under those rules.
The proposed rules: Districts should, ideally, be compact. They should embrace complete counties and cities, to the degree possible. They should be winnable for either party. And, as to those that favor one party, there should be equal numbers favoring each, given that the state is closely balanced.
(For details on the contest, see www.ohio redistricting.org.)
In dealing with the Miami Valley, the contestants had to start with the fact that Montgomery County is, like the state, roughly a toss up, though it’s gone Democratic in several straight presidential elections. The county isn’t quite big enough to constitute a congressional district. And just about any direction one goes from Montgomery County, one finds very strong Republican outposts.
A look at the three highest-scoring entries:
• Stuart Wright, of Columbus, came up with a competitive Dayton-based district by cutting off the most Republican part of Montgomery County, the south (and the lightly populated west) and reaching into the southern part of Clark County for Springfield. Dayton and Springfield provide most of the Democrats in the district. Filling it out are Republican Greene and Miami counties in their entirety.
He lost points in the contest for breaking up two counties, Montgomery and Clark. But the district is fairly compact. He got points for that, as well as for the competitiveness. He leaves all the surrounding districts Republican. There’s no way around that. Rural and suburban southwestern Ohio is simply Republican.
• Tim Clarke, of Avon, created a competitive district around Dayton by lopping off the southern suburbs in Montgomery County and combining the rest of Montgomery with Greene County. He benefits in the scoring from breaking up only one county. And his district is also compact.
• Mike Fortner, a Republican state representative in Illinois, from West Chicago, combines the entirety of Montgomery County with northeast Greene County, which is to say, basically, Fairborn, a struggling area whose demographics are trending Democratic. This district, too, is competitive.
Important to remember: none of these maps will be adopted. They’re based on the 2000 Census and on Ohio having 18 congressional seats. After the 2010 Census — the next time the maps are redrawn — Ohio will have 17 or 16 seats.
But you get the idea.
Quite likely, the only way to have an intensely competitive district after 2010 will be to include Springfield.
Such a district would still be pretty good for Rep. Mike Turner, if he maintains his current political appeal. But it could make a race to succeed him wide open.
Or it could make for a juicy primary, throwing Turner and Rep. Steve Austria, of Beavercreek, who represents Springfield, into the same district.
Reform should not be either embraced or rejected because of what it portends for any local party or person. The point is the statewide situation. Why shouldn’t more competition be embraced as a good thing, if it can be accomplished without drawing weird looking districts?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Elections, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics, Ohio politics
Comments
By Rob
June 26, 2009 8:54 AM | Link to this
Treat the parties equally? No, only the two major parties. Clones of each other at the local levelBy Megan
June 26, 2009 2:08 PM | Link to this
Surpise suprise, the DDN is contradicting itself again?? In the article it appears they are pushing for a “fairer” redistrciting process that would require districts to be more compact, however, when looking at the maps supported by the DDN, they propose significantly splitting Montgomery County down the middle. How in the world is this compact?By Martin Gottlieb
June 26, 2009 2:34 PM | Link to this
It’s very decidedly compact compared to the current district, which stretches south and east past Wilmington through Highland County. Anyway, one of the three maps I highlighted keeps Montgomery County together (which the existing map does not).By Washington Township
June 28, 2009 11:41 AM | Link to this
I would probably like something like the Fortner map, keeping western Greene County in the same district as Montgomery County. There are a lot of reasons to consider this one community (things like commuting patterns and people moving between counties).