Who picks redistricting commissioners, and how, could be modeled after methods used by states with independent commissions (such as Michigan, Arizona and California).
Could fairly drawn districts produce a Republican-run Ohio House and state Senate (what Ohio now has)? Sure, especially considering Donald Trump’s Ohio victories.
But the status quo in Ohio is lopsided. Even the supposed grand master of map-rigging, 20-year Ohio House Speaker Vern Riffe, a Democrat from Scioto County’s Wheelersburg, never managed to rack up more than 62 of the House’s 99 seats.
The House Republicans caucus now hold 67 House seats. If House seats were pegged to Trump’s 2020 tally in Ohio — 53.2% of the statewide vote — Republicans would hold about 53 House seats, not 67.
And as noted here before, the state Senate margin is also vast — 26 Republicans, seven Democrats, the fewest Democratic state senators since Ohio reconfigured the number of General Assembly seats in November 1966, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings on how state legislators should be elected. (As U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the leading districting case, “Legislators represent people, not trees or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or” — outside Ohio, anyway — “economic interests.”)
If this were all inside baseball, as some people have said, the game still has real consequences. Time was when the General Assembly was a bully pulpit for advancing causes. Today, it’s a bully — for imposing them.
Given the legislature’s GOP’s majorities (even allowing for a mending split in the House’s Republican caucus) about all that can stand in the way of an ideological majority is Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto pen, which seems buried in a pocket protector.
And in the case of abortion, it seems fair to say that the governor, Republicans in the General Assembly, and the anti-abortion lobby are on the same page. Ohioans who support abortion have formidable opponents just about everywhere except, likely at the ballot box — assuming legislators don’t make it tougher to pass voter-petition-initiated constitutional amendments.
So much for the “equal protection and benefit” their constitution promises Ohioans — a constitution, that members of the legislature swear to uphold, except when they don’t want to.
MEANWHILE: In his second inaugural address, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine pointed out many of the advantages life in Ohio can offer.
Example: “If you want to live in a state with 75 — soon to be 76 — of the most beautiful state parks in the nation — come to Ohio!” the governor said.
And Ohio does have a treasure trove of parks and historic sites. Still, you have to wonder how much longer those pretty vistas will remain now that Ohio is going to let oil and gas producers frack the land that’s under Ohio’s state parks — that is extract those minerals from the rock formations under state park property.
Welcome to Ohio, where down up, up is down — and natural gas is green energy.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com
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