The process to redraw the districts for Ohio's congressional districts began today. State lawmakers on the committee that will vote on the final map heard testimony from redistricting experts, some of whom have presented their own maps. But Catherine Turcer with Ohio Citizen Action says what really needs to happen at these hearings is that the public needs to see the maps that she's fairly certain lawmakers have been working on.
"We know that they're in back rooms, changing maps around, looking at maps, looking at district lines," Turcer says. "Well, why not get some proposed maps out there so that we can have a true conversation. And I would believe that the process was going to be fair if I could see those maps."
It’s widely suspected that the district that’s been occupied by Democrat Dennis Kucinich since 1996 will be a target of the Republican-controlled redistricting panel, but no one’s sure about which other Congressmember's district will be absorbed into the remaining ones. Two more hearings are set for next Tuesday and Wednesday.