State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, talks to reporters after Thursday’s Ohio Redistricting Commission meeting. On Thursday, Stewart presented a map drawn by commission staff. (Photo: Susan Tebben/Ohio Capital Journal)
The novel map was presented Thursday at the second meeting of the Ohio Redistricting Commission and leaders said it represented a compromise between Democrats and Republicans on the commission.
The vote could take place at a meeting scheduled for Friday morning, although committee members did not indicate whether or not they achieved unanimity on Thursday.
“This is the process that works,” said state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, also a committee co-chair.
“There are pros and cons to all aspects of this process, but I think these legislators did what the constitution says, which is accept those pros and cons and come to an agreement.”
The latest map would create a state with 12 Republican-leaning districts and three Democratic-leaning districts, increasing the number of Republican districts in the state from the current 10-5 map.
The commission has until Oct. 31 to approve the bipartisan map or the process will return to the Ohio General Assembly.
The districts that will change the most in the novel map are those of Democratic members of Congress, including U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Greg Landsman and Emilia Sykes.
Landsman’s 1st district would lean Republican, with a vote split of 54% to 47%. Kaptur’s ninth district would lean Republican, with a Republican-to-Democrat ratio of 54.5% to 45.5%.
According to data provided by the committee, Sykes’ 13th District would be overwhelmingly Democratic, 52% to 48% Republican.
The biggest difference is in the 4th District, which is held by Republican Jim Jordan, where the voting percentage is 72% Republican and 29% Democrat. Democrats see a 78% advantage in the 11th District, which is currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown.
Minority Leader Nickie Antonio led most of the meeting, which was punctuated by complaints from the crowd and one person escorted by security.
Antonio did not say how he planned to vote on the map, but he stressed the flaws of the redistricting system.
“We have a broken redistricting system, and I think that’s also borne out by the testimony we heard today,” Antonio said after the meeting. “This is not what voters expected when we voted to end gerrymandering in 2018.”
Antonio said the process takes until the “11th hour” with this system.
“In the long run, the system we have will likely need to be repaired again, but today we need to consider how best to continue working on our congressional maps because we are committed to doing so,” she said.
(Photo: Susan Tebben/Ohio Capital Journal)
Gov. Mike DeWine told reporters Thursday that he supports the map, noting that he reviewed it early Wednesday morning. He said it was a welcome compromise between both sides.
“The goal was to get the maps and convince Democrats to use the map. It looked like that was going to happen,” DeWine said.
DeWine was not present at Thursday’s meeting, but he met with reporters in the hallway later in the meeting to discuss actions regarding SNAP funding and redistricting.
“What Republicans will get out of this is a certain map, it will get done, both sides understand it,” DeWine said. “These are all negotiations, and in negotiations, no one gets what they want.”
Since reconvening last week, the committee has met twice, with the first meeting to consider Democrats’ legislative map proposal. The proposal would divide the state into eight Republican-majority districts and seven Democratic-majority districts. Democrats say the map was based on voting trends in the state over the past 10 years.
Republicans on the Joint Congressional Redistricting Committee, which met in September, and the commission dismissed the map as an unfair gerrymander and questioned the employ of election results as a measure of what the state’s partisan breakdown should be.
On Thursday, Stewart presented the latest map to the commission, saying the proposal “follows the ‘one person, one vote’ principle because 13 districts have the same population and the remaining two districts are divided by only one person in each district.”
Members of the public who came to speak at Thursday’s committee hearing continued a familiar complaint during the renewed redistricting process, shaming Republicans for not showing up with a map earlier than October and condemning the process as a closed-door and incomprehensible method of redrawing districts that determine the members of Congress who will represent Ohioans at the Capitol.
Some cried, expressing anger and frustration, calling the trial “one big sham.”
“We are gathered here again, and in less than 48 hours the committee is expected to create more than just political theater,” said Dayton resident Zachary Gibbs. “And yet the drama continues.”
Even self-described Republican Paul Miller, who has testified for years at previous redistricting hearings sharply criticizing Democrats, had notes on the map.
“We had a ‘snake in the lake’ in the past and you turned it into an elephant,” Miller said. “…The map is bullshit, that’s all.”
Jen Miller of the League of Women Voters of Ohio said the commission’s actions clearly show that “politicians on the Ohio Redistricting Commission don’t care about voters or good government.”
“The public was excluded, the process was rigged and officials were favored,” Miller said in a statement. “The resulting congressional map still does not reflect the will of Ohio voters.”
Stewart previously said there was no point in introducing a map without assurances it would have bipartisan support, which is why Republicans haven’t released the map until now.
The announcement about Thursday’s meeting came almost exactly 24 hours before the scheduled meeting, and the GOP map was not made public until Thursday’s hearing.
The next meeting is scheduled for Friday morning, the same day the state constitution directs the commission to adopt the bipartisan map.
Once the maps are adopted, they can be challenged in the Ohio Supreme Court. There is also talk of a possible referendum that would once again question the state’s redistricting process. If the map is approved by the commission, no referendum can be attempted.
If the committee doesn’t get approval, the map goes back to the Ohio General Assembly, where it would be easier for a Republican majority to pass the map because it only requires a plain majority.
However, adoption by the General Assembly would open the map to a potential referendum to keep the current map in place for now.
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