Partisanship takes over on map-drawing resolution

JOHN McCARTHY

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Partisanship trumped policy in the Ohio House on Thursday as an attempt to change the way legislative and congressional districts are drawn - the most political of issues - failed along party lines.

It all happened in a rapid-fire series of strategic floor maneuvers led by ruling Republicans, who sought to put Democrats on the spot for opposing new rules for drawing the boundaries that closely mirrored those advanced by a Democrat-leaning coalition of election reformers last fall.

Lawmakers were considering the overhaul in response to complaints that one party is able to control the drawing congressional and legislative districts. A change to the process would have required voters to amend the state constitution, and with lawmakers not planning to meet until after the deadline to qualify for the November ballot, the issue likely is dead for the current session.

Republicans, in danger of losing all three seats on the board that draws legislative lines, fell just short of the 60 votes needed to pass the resolution, supplying 57 votes. All but one of the House's 39 Democrats voted against it.

"It was an objection based on politics," GOP Speaker Jon Husted said. "I'm very disappointed it was struck down along partisan lines."

Democrats saw it as a Republican tactic to blame them for the failure in election campaigns.

"It is as much political for them as people said it's political for us," said Rep. Joyce Beatty of Columbus, the House Democratic leader.

Husted, a Kettering Republican, said he thought the proposal had a chance and did not bank on it failing when he put it up for a vote. After the initial vote, which was 53-42, sponsoring Rep. Kevin DeWine, a Fairborn Republican, immediately substituted a slightly different plan Democrats had touted last year. That was the version that all but one Democrat voted against.

The proposal would have created a seven-member, bipartisan commission to draw boundaries after each Census, with the next one set for 2010. Currently, a board of the governor, auditor and secretary of state draws the legislative districts, and the Legislature decides the congressional districts. The Republicans have controlled those decisions since 1991, and critics complain the GOP has been able to draw districts to favor the party.

Husted gave a speech from the House floor, rare for a speaker, imploring members to support the plan Republicans had crafted with the help of former Democratic state Rep. Ed Jerse, a Cleveland attorney who represented the group that backed the failed ballot issue.

Putting the plan Democrats supported in the past up for a vote was a sincere attempt to take politics out of an important part of elections, Husted said. He had an admonition for anyone who voted against it.

"If you do, you lose the right to complain about it," Husted said.

DeWine chided Democrats who said Republicans wanted to change the system on their own terms.

"Those who make this criticism fail to understand this is exactly the right time," DeWine said.

The Democratic plan, introduced March 10, 2005, but denied even a committee vote in the GOP-controlled House, would have replaced the current line-drawing system with a five-member bipartisan board. Its sponsor, Rep. Steve Driehaus of Cincinnati, called the Republicans' maneuver on Thursday "cute."

"It was a stunt. It got our attention but it was nothing more than a stunt, Driehaus said.

Beatty said the Republicans wanted to resolve the issue before November because of anxiety about the election, when the three offices that control the legislative districts - now GOP-controlled - will be open seats.

"Why was it so important for them to do this prior to the election if everybody's so committed to working on it whenever?" Beatty said.

Husted said two of the three Republicans absent could have provided the votes necessary to get DeWine's resolution on the November ballot. Rep. Larry Flowers of Columbus is recuperating from surgery, and the wife of Rep. Joseph Uecker of Loveland has recently undergone surgery, Husted said.

The vote came one day after both parties embraced - and congratulated each other for - passage of a plan to protect home-buyers from predatory lenders.

Husted didn't rule out calling the Legislature back before the Aug. 9 deadline for November ballot issues but wouldn't commit to it either. DeWine said he wanted to see how serious the Democrats are about pursuing the issue. However, Beatty said the Democrats were willing but the Republicans must make the move to return.

"We (Democrats) don't control the calendar or the schedule," Beatty said.

The Beacon Journal

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/14666670.htm

May 25, 2006