A bipartisan committee of state lawmakers had its first meeting Monday morning to talk about a new 15-district congressional map, which needs to be approved by the end of November.
Minority Democrats have introduced a map that could result in eight Republicans and seven Democrats in many years, but likely has no chance of moving forward. Majority Republicans haven't put forward a map yet, and it's not clear when they are going to do that. A new congressional map must be drawn because the Republican-backed map that's been used for the last two cycles didn't get the constitutionally-required bipartisan support to last for ten years.
After the ground rules for the meeting were laid out, it became apparent there were two sticking points; what constituted "gerrymandering" and what the timeline is. Republicans said the Democrats' map is gerrymandered because it was drawn to yield a certain political result. Democrats have said political pressure from national Republicans to draw a map that will result in even more seats for the GOP is gerrymandering.
Democrats called the meeting a "dog and pony show" and "political theatre," saying Republicans, who control the legislature, are not serious about abiding with the constitutionally prescribed process.
“This is bullshit,” said Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus), one of the sponsors of the Democratic map, said after the meeting. “They don’t care about what Democrats think. They’re not going to care about what Democrats think. They are going to do what they want to because they have illegally gerrymandered Statehouse districts, they have the super majority and that’s why they are going to continue to get away with this because that’s what they want.”
But Republicans on the committee took issue with the Democrats' proposed map, which gives the minority party an advantage in 45% of districts but gives Republicans a 55% edge, which is similar to the results in the last three presidential elections. Sen. Jane Timken (R-Canton) said that doesn't line up with voter preferences.
“In the relevant time period that we are to consider those partisan races, Republicans have won 22 out of the 23 races and Democrats have only won one," Timken said. "So I question their logic of why it has to be 55%-45% when clearly the voters of Ohio have strongly supported Republicans over the last decade.”
The panel also heard from citizen advocates—many who have testified on redistricting before, and some who had submitted proposed maps to a website lawmakers set up.
Lawmakers have until the end of the month to pass a map with a vote of 3/5ths of the House and Senate, including half of all Democrats. But Rep. Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) suggested there was more time.
“There is no constitutional deadline for passing a bipartisan congressional map. We can pass one at anytime over the next couple of months," Bird said.
The panel plans one more meeting next week, but no date or time has been announced. If a map isn't approved by Sept. 30, the seven-member Ohio Redistricting Commission will have a month to approve one that also gets votes from its two Democrats. If that fails, it goes back to the legislature for a simple majority vote by Nov. 30, but that map would be good for only four years.
