Ohio’s Republican state legislators are in the process of appealing a state supreme court ruling on congressional redistricting to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state’s high court has repeatedly ruled against maps created by Ohio’s Redistricting Commission. Despite the GOP having a one-seat majority, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor (R) has sided with the Democrats in redistricting cases. (O’Connor, who is 71, is retiring from the court after this year.)
In July the Ohio Supreme Court rejected the more recent of two Republican-drawn congressional maps. The Buckeye State conducted its 2022 primaries using the earlier GOP-designed plan and will not proceed with a newer map until 2024.
House Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima), Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) (pictured above), State Representative Jeff LaRe (R-Violet Township) and State Senator Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) jointly declared that the state Supreme Court arrogated unto itself power over election rules, something they noted the U.S. Constitution forbids.
“While many believe that the Ohio Supreme Court majority misinterpreted state law, there is also the broader concern that the Court assumed a role the federal Constitution does not permit it to exercise,” the lawmakers stated. “This is a matter that needs resolution by our nation’s highest court. The United States Constitution expressly puts the responsibility to prescribe ‘the Times, Places, and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives …’ with the legislature of each state.”
Legislative Democrats have denounced their colleagues’ lawsuit.
“It has been made perfectly clear over and over again that the power grab being attempted to take away Ohioans’ basic freedom to vote fairly is nothing but unlawful,” state House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said in a statement. “The power belongs to the people and this is just another blatant attempt by Republicans to ignore, erode and overrule the democratic process guaranteed in the Ohio and U.S. Constitutions.”
Democrats have complained they feel the map of Ohio’s 15 U.S. House seats too strongly favors Republican electability, a view the state court has echoed. The Cook Political Report considers 10 of the seats safe holds for the GOP and two of them safe for the Democrats; the other three could go either way. (The state has 16 congressional districts now but will lose one district because Ohio has not increased its population at the rate the rest of America has.)
One of those districts is the Youngstown-based 13th Congressional District, where Democrat Emilia Sykes is competing against Republican Madison Gesiotto Gilbert. The other two pit incumbents against relatively strong challengers: Republican Representative Steve Chabot is defending his Cincinnati-area 1st district seat against Democrat Greg Landsman and Representative Marcy Kaptur is defending her Toledo-based 9th district seat against Republican J.R. Majewski.
Former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley (D) has attempted to generate traction for her campaign by blaming her opponent, incumbent Governor Mike DeWine (R), for the failure of Ohio to settle its redistricting obligations in a timely fashion.
“The Ohio Governor sits on the state’s redistricting commission,” she tweeted. “Mike DeWine rubber-stamped rigged maps and now Ohio voters will have to be represented within unconstitutional districts. Ohio deserves better.”
Her denunciations have so far failed to resonate. The data aggregator FiveThirtyEight reports that the governor maintains a 16.8-point polling advantage over the former mayor.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Ohio Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo State Senator Matt Huffman by the Ohio Senate.
