A new bill in the Ohio Legislature would change the way congressional districts are drawn. The plan is sponsored by Republican Sen. Frank LaRose of Summit County, the same man who sponsored the last congressional redistricting bill, which didn’t get far. But as Statehouse correspondent Jo Ingles reports, LaRose says it’s different this time around.
LaRose says voters want congressional redistricting and his bill gives state lawmakers two ways to pass a redistricting plan.
“They could do so with a two-thirds majority, which takes a lot of members to do that. And in most scenarios that would mean both Republicans and Democrats, unless one party was just in a really small minority. The other way to do it is with a majority of each party so more than half of the Republicans and more than half of the Democrats.”
LaRose says if lawmakers couldn’t pass maps either way by August, a commission voters approved in 2013 to set up Statehouse districts would draw the map for Ohio's federal congressional districts as well. LaRose says lawmakers should act now, since a citizens group has been talking about putting its own redistricting plan before voters.
