Ohioans are hearing repeated mentions of a couple big words (and mechanisms): “Reapportionment” and “redistricting.” In plain English:
* Will the GOP continue to dominate Ohio’s General Assembly and U.S. House delegation, thanks to skewed legislative and congressional districts?
* And will the voting rights of Black Ohioans be respected?
There are 99 Ohio House seats. Republicans now hold 64 of them (or 65%). Ohio now has 16 U.S. House seats. (It is losing one beginning with the 2022 election.) Of the 16 seats, Republicans hold 12 (or 75%). Yet in 2020 and 2016, Ohioans cast 53.2% and 51.3%, of their votes respectively, for Republican Donald Trump for president — and in 2012 and 2008, 50.6% and 51.4%, respectively, for Democrat Barack Obama for president.
True, the presidential vote is a statewide vote, while a legislative or congressional district includes only part of the state.
So for example, until recently it was nearly unthinkable that a majority of Mahoning County (Youngstown) voters would support a Republican for president, but last November, a narrow majority backed Trump. Likewise, beginning with the Republican Party’s first-ever presidential nominee, John C. Fremont, in 1856, only in 1964 — when Barry Goldwater was the GOP nominee — has Clinton County (Wilmington), southwest of Columbus, ever voted for a Democrat (Lyndon Johnson) for president, and then by only 400-odd votes.
That is, there isn’t a one-to-one correspondence between Ohio’s statewide presidential vote and its congressional and legislative contests. Still: The GOP holds 65% of the seats in the Ohio House, and 75% of Ohio’s U.S. House seats?
That’s gerrymandering, and it’s brazenly partisan.
There are some rules for drawing Ohio House districts. In contrast, drawing U.S. House districts has been a free-for-all; last time, in 2011, then-U.S. House Speaker John A. Boehner, a suburban Cincinnati Republican, ordered up new districts from the Ohio legislature like takeout.
That led to such geographic absurdities as Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s Toledo-to-Cleveland district, with only Ohio 2′s Edison Memorial Bridge, over Sandusky Bay, connecting the district’s east and west wings. Also indefensible: Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan’s district, which stretches roughly 150 miles from Oberlin to west-central Ohio’s Urbana, Jordan’s hometown.
Redistricting and reapportionment evoke lots of falderal about what’s “fair” and “right.” But in Ohio, historically, it came down to (a) making it easy as possible for Ohio’s members of Congress — from both parties — to win re-election. And (b) assuring that one party will be likelier than its rival to win a majority at the Statehouse.
Redrawing General Assembly districts will be Ohio’s Redistricting Commission: Five Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine, and two Democrats. The commission’s two Democrats are Black legislators: Sen. Vernon Sykes, and House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, both of Akron. Sen. Sykes is Rep. Sykes’ father. (Sen. Sykes was prime co-sponsor of Ohio’s voter-ratified redistricting reforms — HJR 12, of 2014, and SJR 5, of 2018.)
The legislature, not the commission, will draw the 15 congressional districts to which Ohio’s now entitled, one fewer than the 16 Ohio has held. (U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a suburban Warren Democrat, is running for the U.S. Senate, making it easier for legislators to shrink 16 districts into 15.) If the General Assembly can’t fashion new Ohio congressional districts, that job would become the Redistricting Commission’s.
In the end, beyond the “process,” districts will, as a practical matter, likely be finalized in one of two ways: Judges (state or federal) will decide who gets what territory. Or to head off voting-rights lawsuits, Republicans will make sure redrawn districts won’t reduce the number of legislators of color whom Ohioans elected to Congress in 2020 (two: Rep. Joyce Beatty, of suburban Columbus, and then-Rep. Marcia Fudge, of Warrensville Heights, both Democrats) or to the legislature (19, all Democrats: five senators and 14 representatives).
Yes, as noted, voters reformed remapping in the ballot issues which they ratified in 2015 (for General Assembly districts) and 2018 (for congressional districts). But no one this side of the Pearly Gates can take the politics out of Ohio politics — and that miracle doesn’t seem to be on the agenda, least of all with 2022 contests looming for the governorship and the U.S. Senate.
Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.
To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@cleveland.com, 216-408-9474
Have something to say about this topic?
* Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication.
* Email general questions about our editorial board or comments or corrections on this opinion column to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com.
"really" - Google News
August 22, 2021 at 04:34PM
https://ift.tt/3D6il6n
‘Reapportionment?’ ‘Redistricting?’ Really? Thomas Suddes - cleveland.com
"really" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3b3YJ3H
https://ift.tt/35qAk7d
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "‘Reapportionment?’ ‘Redistricting?’ Really? Thomas Suddes - cleveland.com"
Post a Comment