Staff Writer Mike Burcham and The Cincinnati Enquirer contributed to this report.
By Ken McCall and Lynn Hulsey
Staff Writers
The Republican-dominated Ohio Apportionment Board unveiled its proposed Ohio House and Senate district maps on Friday to mixed reactions.
The 33 Senate and 99 House districts are redrawn every 10 years, following rules in the Ohio Constitution. The board will hold hearings on the new maps Monday morning in the Statehouse and must approve new maps by Oct. 1. Both Senate and House districts in Butler and Warren County would see changes under the proposal.
Mike Dittoe, a spokesman for the Apportionment Board, said the members “worked diligently” to follow the U.S. and Ohio constitutions and the Voting Rights Act in drawing up the maps.
In addition, he said, the state will now have 10 “majority-minority” districts, in which more than half of the residents are minorities, compared to the current five.
“These legislative districts are a result of a thoughtful and meaningful process that provides for a fair, legal and competitive map,” Dittoe said.
“Any insinuation of hyper-partisanship by the Democratic caucuses is wholly and knowingly without merit.”
But that’s exactly the position of House Minority Leader Armond Budish, the sole Democratic member of the Apportionment Board, who said the new districts “take partisan gerrymandering to a new extreme.”
“These new districts divide communities more than 250 times and disenfranchise voters throughout the state,” said Budish, of Lakewood. “Democratic voters have been quarantined into a third of these new House districts, despite the fact that they represent 50 percent of Ohio’s voters.”
A number of House and Senate districts in Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties were reconfigured because of population loss and shifts, according to Dittoe.
Each House district contains about 116,000 people, he said, while each Senate district includes three House districts.
“The last time districts were drawn, in 2001 (by Republicans), the Democrats said it was unfair,” Dittoe said. “But in 2006 they picked up seven seats and then picked up seven more in 2008 to take control of the House. After Democrats drew the lines in 1991, Republicans took control of the House in 1994. It’s silly to gripe about it when they had the chance to change it before the last election and they sat on their hands for 14 months.”
The House districts in Butler County may see a shift as portions of Middletown and Monroe that are now parts of the 53rd and 55th districts would become part of Rep. Peter Beck’s, R-Mason district. It would change from district 67 to 54. The current 54th District held by Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Hamilton would become the 51st.
The district of Rep. Margaret Conditt, R-Liberty Twp. would switch from the 55th to the 52nd under the proposal.
The 53rd District of Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Oxford would also be affected in the northeast portions of Butler County. Areas of the district near Middletown and Monroe would be absorbed by a new 54th District.
The Senate boundaries changed as well, but not as dramatically.
The district of Senate Bill 5 sponsor Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, is roughly the same, but picks up portions of Butler County. It will still be Senate District 7 but will include portions of Middletown and Monroe. Those areas currently fall in District 4 and to Sen. Bill Coley, R-Liberty Twp.
The city of Fairfield will remain split between two districts, the 28th and 52nd (now the 55th) along the Butler County line.
Ann Henkener, a board member of the Ohio League of Women Voters, said her organization has been hardily disappointed by the lack of transparency in the apportionment process. The league and other watchdog organizations have been requesting the maps for weeks, so everyone could have some time to analyze them.
It is not enough to strictly follow the Ohio Constitution, said Henkener, who is the league’s redistricting specialist.
“For voters to even have a chance of influencing the direction of Ohio and really having an effective choice of their representatives, the districts — at least some of them — need to be competitive so the voters can have a voice in the direction of Ohio.
“Right now, the political parties are directing the direction of Ohio.”
Approval by the board could come as early as Wednesday, Dittoe said.
The board consists of four Republicans - Gov. John Kasich, Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, Auditor David Yost and Secretary of State Jon Husted - and one Democrat, House Minority Leader Armond Budish of Beachwood.