House Republicans offer plan for redrawing districts

Paper: Blade, The ( Toledo, OH)

Date: May 5, 2006

COLUMBUS - Six months after voters soundly rejected a largely Democratic-backed proposal to revamp how Ohio redraws congressional and legislative districts, House Republicans yesterday unveiled a plan to try again.

But whatever bipartisan momentum that existed appears to be waning.

Buoyed by the results of Tuesday's primary election that saw the defeat of an incumbent Republican officeholder, Treasurer Jennette Bradley, to a virtual unknown, Democrats are less inclined to change the system.

Senate President Bill Harris (R., Ashland) was offering no commitments yesterday, even if the resolution should pass the House. Lawmakers have until Aug. 9 to pass the resolution in order to make it on the Nov. 7 ballot, but leaders plan to send members home for the summer before Memorial Day.

"At the end of the day, I don't know how somebody can be opposed to something that is eminently fair and clearly puts the parties on equal footing," said Rep. Kevin DeWine (R., Fairborn), the resolution's sponsor. "The current system has elected officials drawing lines. The temptation is for the party in charge to draw the lines to its advantage."

Currently, a five-member panel consisting entirely of elected officials redraws state House and Senate districts every 10 years to adjust for population shifts. New congressional maps are redrawn by the Ohio General Assembly.

Republicans have controlled both processes over the last two apportionment cycles and hold 60 of 99 state House seats, 22 of 33 state Senate seats, and 12 of 18 seats in Congress.

The new proposal would have all three maps redrawn by a seven-member, bipartisan commission on which no elected official could sit. A supermajority vote would be required to redraw districts and, for the first time, the Ohio Constitution would mention partisan competitiveness of a district as one of the factors to be considered.

Last November's ballot issue pushed by Reform Ohio Now - a coalition of labor, environmental, and government-watchdog groups, and other constituencies usually aligned with Democrats - would have made competitiveness the top priority.

"It seems to me that if the [House] speaker was serious about a bipartisan plan and wanted to pass something, he would have had conversations with the president of the Senate, the governor, and the statewide candidates, and we would be doing this in an atmosphere that isn't so politically charged," said Rep. Stephen Driehaus (D., Cincinnati), who attended two meetings on the proposal.

"We had an opportunity to work on this a year and a half ago when I had a resolution, and I didn't see a lot of enthusiasm from my Republican colleagues," he said. "Now they're very excited."

The Ohio Democratic Party never endorsed Reform Ohio Now's redistricting plan last year.

Republicans, however, successfully fought it, citing the potential for creating districts stretched across the state for the sake of competitiveness.

"I'm enthusiastic about [the new plan]. Whether we'll be able to build a coalition around it, I'm not sure." said Ed Jerse, a Democrat, former state representative from Euclid, and former director of the Reform Ohio Now campaign.

But House Minority Leader Joyce Betty (D., Columbus) said she believes it's too soon after the defeat of Reform Ohio Now proposal to go back to voters with a variation on the same theme.

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com

Author: JIM PROVANCE BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

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