Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor – the swing vote on multiple 4-3 decisions – has since stepped down. New Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy – a former Hamilton police officer – had voted in favor of the maps, so the Republican-leaning court might just say “no harm/no foul.”
It’s all about “gerrymandering” of course, and Ohio voters didn’t really anticipate “illegal” Congressional districts when it approved the Ohio Redistricting Commission by a 75 percent vote in 2018. Partisan politics keeps side-swiping the will of the public.
Republicans who control the state would likely argue that their candidates have not necessarily been favored by the current map.
Ohio lost a seat in the U.S. House through national reapportionment, dropping from 16 seats to 15. When GOP warhorse Steve Chabot of Cincinnati lost in 2022, that left 10 Republicans and 5 Democrats representing Ohio in the U.S. House, a change from 12 Republicans and 4 Democrats. So, instead of having three-fourths of the Ohio congressional delegation, Republicans are now down to two-thirds.
Democrats would counter by pointing out that in 2020 and 2022, Republicans earned the same amount of overall Congressional votes – 56.4 percent – which should give the GOP eight or, at most, nine Ohio seats in the U.S. House.
Area Republicans won re-election by significantly more than that percentage – Jim Jordan of Urbana had 69.3 percent of the votes in the 4th District, Warren Davidson of Troy had 64.9 percent of the votes in the Ohio 8th, and Mike Turner of Dayton had 62 percent of the votes in the Ohio 10th.
That still leaves a lot of voters thinking their voices won’t be heard.
Migration south and west has cost Ohio significant clout in Congress. In 1968, Ohio had 24 House members in Washington, as opposed to today’s 15. While Ohio is slightly larger in population than it was in 1968 (11.69 million from 10.5 million people), other states have shown substantial gains and thus added seats. California, for example, more than doubled in population since 1968 – from 18.5 million to 39.37 million.
When my parents moved to Cleveland in 1951, it was the 7th largest city in the United States. Today, it isn’t even in the top 50 (54th).
Both parties throughout the country look at election maps that they can draw to their advantage as a reward for victory. While this issue may fly under the radar with many voters, the parties are certainly aware of what’s at stake.
The Ohio voting public clearly voted for more “fair play” in 2018 – and the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that other states’ voting maps are out of bounds. The court put a spotlight on Ohio, which is already dealing with an illegal map. The state should fix the map in time for 2024, and fix it in a way that is not so blatantly partisan. Period.
Dirk Q. Allen is a former opinion page editor of the Journal-News. He lives in Oxford.
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