Redistricting Plan Is Stalled - Decades-Old Practice For Drawing Boundaries Could End If Redfern And Husted Would Talk

Dennis J. Willard

January 26, 2010

The state legislature can move quickly and act decisively ? when it wants.

It took only weeks for lawmakers to put a constitutional amendment on last November's ballot to create a livestock board and appease the agricultural industry in this state.
The Ohio General Assembly will move quickly in the next few days on two more issues: to put a new Third Frontier issue on the ballot this May to raise the state's debt to invest in jobs, and to ask voters to allow the casino planned for Columbus to be moved to a site more appealing to capital city business interests.
A plan to end gerrymandering in our time ? a problem that has been on the legislature's radar for decades ? appears to be stalled, however.
Odds are that voters in this state will be stuck for an additional decade with a system of drawing legislative districts that undermines the one-man, one-vote ideals of our democracy.
The situation could be remedied if two ? yes, only two ? people got together, rolled up their sleeves and agreed to a resolution.
For years, Chris Redfern and Jon Husted were rivals in the Ohio House. Husted was the boy wonder Republican speaker and Redfern was the acerbic leader of the minority Democrats.
Today, Redfern chairs the Ohio Democratic Party and Husted is redefining himself as a reformer in the Ohio Senate as he ramps up his campaign for secretary of state.
In September, the Ohio Senate passed a resolution Husted sponsored that makes a dramatic change to the gerrymandering panel, known as the State Apportionment Board.
Currently, a majority of the five-member board draws the boundaries for state legislative districts once every decade, following U.S. census results. The party that holds two of three offices ? governor, secretary of state and auditor ? controls the mapping process.
The results have been perverse.
Ohio is considered a 50-50 state in terms of Republicans and Democrats, but the winning party has held supermajority margins in the Ohio House after drawing odd-shaped districts to ensure election results.
Primaries, not general elections, determine incumbency, so the legislature has also had more than its fair share of ideologues throughout the years from the left and the right.
Husted's resolution, which would need to be voted on by the Ohio electorate, would expand the board by two members, but, more importantly, no mapping plan could be adopted without two votes from the minority party.
It's not perfect, but it's an improvement, and it appears to be a dead idea.
Redfern admits he is holding up the resolution because he believes other criteria in the resolution will hurt competition and his party.
''When the lines are drawn fairly, we win because we are better on the issues,'' Redfern boasts.
Redfern said competitiveness should be a leading factor in drawing new lines. He believes Husted's resolution places too much emphasis on compact districts that respect city, county and political subdivision borders and communities of interest.
''What is a community of interest? It's very subjective,'' Redfern said.
And he can articulate why it is not necessary for one lawmaker to represent a whole city or county or township. For example, his legislative district crossed county lines on the southern border of Lake Erie, but the regions had something in common as tourist areas.
Husted, for his part, likes to dust off a map from 2004 from a union-backed group known as Reform Ohio Now that unsuccessfully asked voters to amend the Ohio Constitution to change the gerrymandering board.
During that election, a computer-drawn map to design competitive districts in the state looked like a Picasso reject. One district stretched from Youngstown to Portsmouth, while another started in the far northwest corner of the state before snaking through counties to the northern edge of Cincinnati.
Husted maintains this is what happens when competitiveness is the only factor in drawing districts.
Both leaders raise legitimate issues, but nothing that should prevent passage of a resolution to reform the current system.
Redfern distrusts his old House rival and vice versa.
A George Mason University study provides evidence that drawing compact districts favors a Republican majority in the Ohio House.
At the same time, Husted must be credited for stating he is willing to sit down with the Democrats in the House, where the resolution is stalled, and work out a compromise, including using competitiveness as one factor.
The Democrats, however, are divided.
Their labor support is reluctant to reform the system. African-American members in the legislature want to ensure they will be able to continue to win seats after the next maps are drawn.
The next reapportionment plan, like previous ones, most likely will be challenged in the courts to determine whether it violates the Voting Rights Act.
Drawing competitive maps that ensure African-American representation is challenging but not impossible.
For years, the Ohio League of Women Voters has worked to end gerrymandering. It appears the group's well-intentioned efforts once again will be met with resistance.
There are only a few days left.
The ball appears to be in Redfern's court to bring Husted to the table with the league ? and quickly.
Both men agree they must hit the Feb. 3 deadline to place the issue on the May ballot because the partisan bickering will only become more intense as the general election nears.
The deadline to place the issue before voters in November is in early August. By that time, both parties will have a good idea through polling whether they will win or lose two of the three seats on the gerrymandering board, and there will be no deal.
So now is the time for Redfern and Husted to come to the table and promise not to leave until they have a plan the nonpartisan league approves.
If not, the entire state will know the names to blame.

Caption: PHOTO: JAY LaPRETE / Associated Press

Memo: Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.

Edition: 1 STAR
Section: B
Page: B2
Index Terms: Ohio; Political parties Vote Election procedure Election results Elections Legislature Legislation Ballot
Dateline: COLUMBUS
Record Number: 10012610936789
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