COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine said Wednesday he will work to defeat a fall voting question aims to remake the state’s troubled political cartography system and, if approved, work with state lawmakers next year to advance a competing amendment based on the Iowa model.
In a press conference filled with corroborating images, DeWine asserted that the rules laid out in the Citizens, Not Politicians amendment would divide communities and require outcomes that fit the “classic definition of gerrymandering.” He specifically pointed to the proposal’s requirement for party proportionality in maps.
“Now, the idea of proportionality seems fair,” he said. “Yet we see that requiring the map drawer to draw districts, each of which favors one political party, with each district having a predetermined party advantage, and requiring a certain number of the districts to favor each party, obliterates all other good government objectives. They all leave.”
DeWine said Iowa’s system — in which mapmakers are prohibited from looking at past election results or protecting individual lawmakers — would remove politics from the process.
Supporters of Ohio’s fall ballot measure disagreed, pointing out that Iowa lawmakers have the final say over political district maps in that state — the exact scenario Ohio’s plan was designed to avoid. This happened after Ohio’s existing system, involving the state Legislature and a state redistricting commission made up of elected officials including DeWine, produced seven rounds of legislative and congressional maps rejected by the courts as unconstitutional.
Retired Ohio judge Maureen O’Connor accused DeWine of spreading misinformation about the ballot measure, which she supports, and supporting a plan that will allow politicians to “continue rigging the game.” She said she offered to meet with the governor to explain the proposal.
“Gov. DeWine has voted seven times with his fellow politicians in favor of unconstitutional maps and now says that what Ohio really needs is what he calls the ‘Iowa Plan,’ a system where the governor and other politicians have the final say on maps.” she said in a statement. . “For nearly a year, we have been publicly collecting signatures in all 88 counties, and now – 97 days before the election – he is telling Ohioans that he and his friends in the legislature are already planning to overturn what voters will approve in November.”
The fall ballot proposal calls for replacing the Ohio Redistricting Commission, made up of the governor, auditor, secretary of state and the four legislative leaders, with an independent body selected directly by citizens. Members of the new panel would be diverse by party affiliation and geography.
During the protracted process of redrawing district boundaries to account for the 2020 Census results, challenges filed in court resulted in the rejection of two Congressional maps and five sets of Statehouse maps as being unconstitutionally gerrymandered.
DeWine argued that it is less important who draws the maps than what criteria the state constitution requires them to meet. He said he will work with the Legislature in January to present Iowa’s plan to voters, and if lawmakers fail, he would even consider working to put it on the state ballot by initiative.
Asked why he chose not to call an immediate special session to address the issue, as he did recently to resolve a voting deadline problem affecting the presidential race, DeWine said the strategy lacked support in the Politically Fractured Ohio House.
A new session begins in January. It’s possible that by then, Republican Senate President Matt Huffman — who spoke out against the fall redistricting measure — will have succeeded. his effort to return to the House and win the speaker’s seat away from fellow Republican Jason Stephens. Stephens, whose tenure relied heavily on Democratsfailed to deliver on several of DeWine’s legislative priorities this session.
DeWine’s decision to use his bully pulpit to oppose the redistricting issue came on the same day that Citizens Not Politicians reported that his bipartisan election effort had raised nearly $25 million.
O’Connor said the success of the group’s fundraising effort — including donations from Republicans, Democrats and independents — shows that people across the political spectrum hate gerrymandering “because it is fundamentally unfair and only helps the political elite maintain power at the expense of interests.” of ordinary citizens.”
DeWine said voters should consider how much of the group’s support comes from national groups when deciding how they will vote.
