The first statewide ballot in November asks a clear question to each and every Ohio voter. Shouldn’t you be running this state instead of having a bunch of partisan hackers control the state legislature?
That’s the problem. The goal is to stop Republican insiders from rigging Ohio’s congressional districts. These include eccentric political fringe figures who have drawn congressional districts favorable to Republican candidates. The powerful, market-magical competitive party doesn’t seem to like competition at all.
District rigging, or “gerrymandering,” skews the Ohio House and state Senate districts and is far more likely to keep Republicans out of the General Assembly.
That means Ohio’s representatives may not actually be elected in the November general election, but in the Republican spring primary.
And Republican primaries often hinge on who is the most right-wing. So while Ohioans’ personal incomes may be lagging behind, and legislators may be spending a lot of money on public schools, we still say, to give credit where credit is due, I Our unparalleled Congress is second to none when it comes to condemning transgender people.
As Gina Ferris and Yurij Rudensky of the Brennan Center for Justice reported earlier this year, “More than 9 million Ohioans (about 77% of the state’s population) believe that their state legislative elections are seriously contested. This means that these districts are either uncontested or even if they are formally contested because they give one party a disproportionate advantage in the general election. competitiveness is disappearing.”
So, for example, 15 of Ohio’s 99 House districts are uncontested this year, so the 15 at-large candidates nominated in the March 19th primary must register now at the Burn Riff Center. It may be better to choose an office. (About 1.5 million Ohioans live in uncontested state legislative districts, according to Ferris and Rudensky.)
Their data-rich research highlights this surprising fact. Subtracting the 15 uncontested districts in the Ohio House of Representatives leaves 84 districts, “but 62 (districts)…were successfully elected as either Republican or Democratic seats…so that… The result is…” There is no serious controversy…(that is)…approximately 9.1 million Ohioans, 77% of the population, live in uncontested and uncompetitive districts this November. ”
And that’s totally outrageous. Functionally, the General Assembly is no more representative than China’s National People’s Congress, which is not the government the people of Ohio want or deserve.
The statewide “Citizens, Not Politicians” campaign led to the success of getting Issue 1 on the November ballot, but the measure remains in effect if voters approve it with a “yes” vote. states. – Creates a 15-member Ohio Resident Redistricting Commission comprised of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. The commission would be required to decide on fair districts. The first bill would bar former politicians, party officials and state lobbyists from serving on the commission.
Salient features of the Citizens, Not Politicians campaign supporting Issue 1: Among its strongest supporters is former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor (Republican). (Mr. O’Connor previously served as Ohio Lieutenant Governor and Summit County Prosecuting Attorney).
As chief justice, O’Connor was part of a bipartisan group of judges who repeatedly battled statehouse insiders who sought to rig General Assembly districts to favor Republicans, according to the recent Yes-on- Issue 1” broadcast advertisement states the following:
“Career politicians so blatantly gerrymandered district maps seven times that the Ohio Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional,” O’Connor said. “I know because I was the presiding judge of that court.”
(Since her departure, the Supreme Court has retreated into the partisan Republican backwater it has long been, though it remained so for about a decade in the 1970s and ’80s when Democrats won a majority on the court.)
O’Connor says bigoted state politicians are lying about issue one. Issue 1 prohibits politicians from drawing voting maps. It would put power back where it belongs: in the hands of the people, not the politicians. ”
This mirrors the content of Ohio’s Bill of Rights, which promises that “all political power is inherent in the people.” This month and next, Ohioans should exercise their power by voting “yes” on Issue 1 and reclaiming for themselves the fair General Assembly districts that partisans in the state Legislature have denied.
Editorial board member Thomas Suddes writes from Athens.
Contact Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@cleveland.com, 216-408-9474
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