COLUMBUS — House Minority Leader Armond Budish and House Republican leaders disagreed Wednesday on whether Budish and a key Republican negotiator agreed to a compromise new map for 16 new Ohio U.S. House districts that could avoid “chaos” and a 2012 referendum on the map already created.

“I believe we do have an agreement,” said Budish, D-Beachwood. It was subject to review by House Democratic and Republican caucuses, he added.

Rep. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, the House Republican point person on redistricting with whom Budish negotiated, said, “Armond Budish and I never reached agreement.”

House Speaker William Batchelder, R-Medina, through a spokesman, agreed with Huffman.

“Conversations are ongoing, and we are hopeful that there will be some level of agreement in the very near future,” Mike Dittoe, Batchelder’s spokesman, said in an email. Republicans control the House, 59-40.

Input from GOP U.S. House members appeared to complicate negotiations. Republicans currently control the Ohio delegation, 13-5. The state is losing two districts as the result of lagging population growth.

Budish said that the compromise would create a map with six districts favoring Republicans, four favoring Democrats and six that are competitive, but Republican leaning. “Our goal has been to create more competitive districts,” said Budish.

He also said the compromise would avoid two primaries — one in March for state offices and the U.S. Senate, and a second in June for the U.S. House and president. Instead, there would be one primary in April, said Budish.

The map already approved creates 12 districts favoring Republicans and four favoring Democrats, according to the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting.

Democrats are gathering signatures to put a referendum on that map on the November 2012 ballot.

That new map kept Montgomery County in two districts and put U.S. Reps. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, and Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, in the same district.

The compromise would put all of Montgomery County in one district but keep Turner and Austria in the same district.

It would be one of six competitive districts, with a Democratic index of 46 percent, said Budish.

Rather than starting from scratch on a new map, Budish said he agreed to changes in the Republican-backed map already approved, even though it was “ugly” and “gerrymandered.”

“I made the decision not to play games with this,” said Budish.

However, Dittoe accused Democrats of backing out of providing votes for two deals, one to hold a single primary in May and the second on a slightly revised map.

Budish said to avoid “chaos” the new map needs to be enacted by Wednesday, the filing deadline for the March primary.