Ohio Redistricting Commission moves closer to court ruling with new maps

(The Center Square) – The Ohio Redistricting Commission’s second attempt at drawing state legislative maps ended the same way as the first, with passage coming on a party-line vote resulting in maps that will need to be redrawn in four years.

The commission approved new maps Saturday night, just hours before an Ohio Supreme Court imposed deadline after it threw out the original maps. The court has the ability to review the new maps.

The court ordered a map that more closely reflected the state’s 54% Republican to 46% Democrat voting breakdown. The first maps favored the GOP by 62% in the House and nearly 70% in the Senate.

The new maps favor 57 Republican seats and 42 Democrat seats in the House, with a 20-13 GOP majority in the Senate.

Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, and House Minority Leader-elect Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, each voted “no.” The rest of the commission – Gov. Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, State Auditor Keith Faber, Senate President Matt Huffman and House Speaker Bob Cupp – is Republican and voted “yes.”

A unanimous vote would have meant the maps could stand for the traditional 10 years.

“Republican commissioners had a second chance to do right by Ohioans and produce fair maps, but they instead chose to prioritize partisan politics over their Constitutional duty yet again,” Russo said. “These gerrymandered maps are an insult to Ohio voters who overwhelmingly demanded fair maps not once, but twice.”

A spokesperson for Huffman said the new maps address the court’s issues.

“The maps approved by the commission address the majority opinion from the Supreme Court.,” Ohio Senate Majority Caucus Director of Communications John Fortney said. “Commission members and their respective staff together worked tirelessly over the last week to produce a constitutional plan that no one else, including the Democrats’ highly compensated outside contractors, could produce, including a six-figure payment to their main consultant.”

Russo said Democrats submitted maps that would have created 54 Republican-leaning districts in the House with 45 leaning toward Democrats and a map that produced an 18-15 GOP split in the Senate.

“Democrats clearly demonstrated with their proposal that this Commission could draw fair maps that closely reflect the statewide voting preferences of Ohioans in the past decade and comply with other voter-approved constitutional requirements,” Russo said. “Republicans refused to negotiate in good faith, and they also silenced Ohioans by refusing to allow public input. The Republican Commissioners should be ashamed because their lack of political courage has set these maps up to be ruled unconstitutional by the Court once more. Ohio voters deserve better.”

The commission spent Saturday pushing back a public meeting that was planned for 9:30 a.m. but delayed three times before eventually convening late in the evening.

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