Demonstrators demanding a fair congressional redistricting process join hands and surround the Ohio Statehouse during a September rally. (Photo: Susan Tebben/Ohio Capital Journal)
Facing an Oct. 31 deadline to adopt a novel congressional redistricting map, the Ohio Redistricting Commission will meet for the first time this month on Tuesday.
Last week, Gov. Mike DeWine’s office sent out an official statement in which the first meeting of the “reconstituted” commission was scheduled for Oct. 21 at 9 a.m.
The committee will meet in the Ohio Senate finance hearing room, where designated officers will be recorded in the minutes and committee co-chairs will be elected.
Gov. Mike DeWine is constitutionally required to officially reconvene the group and become one of its members. State Auditor Keith Faber, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and two members from the Ohio House and Senate, one from each party in each chamber, will also serve on the committee.
House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio have said they will serve on the committee. It was announced that state Republican Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, would be the nominee, but no Senate Republican nomination had been announced as of Friday.
The last time the commission reconvened, in 2023, attempts to appoint two co-chairs delayed the commission’s transition to the official agenda.
If co-chairs are elected at Tuesday’s meeting, the agenda will include “consideration of congressional maps.” The only two confirmed proposals on the list are Democratic maps, which Antonio and Isaacsohn introduced in early September.
Although the maps were introduced before the first deadline in the Ohio Constitution for the Legislature to adopt a bipartisan-approved map, the Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting did not take any votes. Several Republican committee members said the Democratic proposals were unfairly prejudiced, while only one member of the public spoke out against the maps.
The committee heard hours of testimony supporting the proposals during the two meetings it held. The Democrats’ proposal would create a congressional delegation consisting of eight Republican-leaning districts and seven Democratic-leaning districts.
The Republican Club map has not been made publicly available.
The Republican co-chairs of this joint committee argued that the constitutional deadlines include not only the Sept. 30 deadline, which passed without a vote on the map, and the Oct. 31 deadline for the Ohio Redistricting Commission, but also the Nov. 30 legislative deadline, giving them more time than offered by anti-gerrymandering advocates who argue that missing deadlines demonstrates a lack of good faith efforts.
If the commission is unable to reach a bipartisan agreement on the map by Oct. 31, the General Assembly will need a plain majority in Republican-majority chambers to approve the map. Lawmakers would have until Nov. 30 to make a decision.
The map must be approved before the 2026 elections, which means whatever is approved will have an impact on upcoming congressional races.
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