The legislature, however, didn’t hold its first Joint Congressional Redistricting Committee hearing until Sept. 23. Republicans did not submit any proposed map before the deadline, despite Democrats unveiling a proposal on Sept. 10.
The process now kicks on to the Ohio Redistricting Commission, a smaller GOP-controlled board, which has until the end of October to pass a map with bipartisan support.
If the commission fails, the measure goes back to the legislature with an ultimate deadline of Nov. 30. At that point, lawmakers can pass a map with a simple majority.
Democratic lawmakers and plenty of testifying Ohioans this week expressed concern that the relative lack of Republican action signals that GOP lawmakers plan to wait out the clock and pass a map along party lines.
“I am deeply concerned that Republicans who control the legislature are violating the constitution in not attempting to pass a bipartisan map by the constitution’s deadline today,” Hamilton County resident Lawrence Austing said in testimony to the Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting on Tuesday.
He later expressed fears that the Republicans who control the redistricting process will “foist a heavily gerrymandered map on the public with little time left for analysis for the purpose of limiting public outcry over an unfair map.”
State Sen. Willis Blackshear, Jr., D-Dayton, said this process so far feels reminiscent of how the process played out in 2021, which ended in a GOP majority steamrolling maps through the legislature without Democratic support.
“This is deja vu; we’re seeing the process play out like it did before,” said Blackshear, one of four Democrats on the legislature’s redistricting committee.
“We have yet to see a map that has been introduced by the majority. The question is: what’s taking them so long to introduce that map?” Blackshear said. “The second thing is, will they leave room for debate for us to go back and forth? ... Is this truly going to be a bipartisan process?”
State Rep. Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, who co-chairs the legislature’s redistricting committee, told reporters after Tuesday’s hearing that he so far hasn’t seen a GOP map, even behind the scenes.
“There’s not a map that I know of. We’re conducting hearings, as we’re required to do, and that’s where we’re at right now,” Bird said.
Bird and other Republicans have contended that there’s plenty of time for the state to pass new maps, as the ultimate deadline isn’t until the end of November.
“It’s still early, I know that everybody wanted something done by today, but we’ve still got a couple of months and we’ve still got time to keep talking and listening,” he told reporters.
Also sitting on the legislature’s committee is Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, who told this outlet Tuesday he’s not sure why his party didn’t submit a proposal in this first stage.
“You know, that’s the way it’s turned out,” Huffman said. “I’m not sure why. But we have to deal with that and we’ll just keep going forward and meet our constitutional requirement.”
For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It’s free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening.
Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
About the Author
