Though reform is the rallying cry in the latest efforts to stop legislative gerrymandering in Ohio, irony is the operative term on both sides of the aisle.
Recently, Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, announced plans to create a seven-member, bipartisan, independent commission to draw congressional and state assembly districts. In their current state, those districts are often oddly-shaped and incumbent-friendly thanks to the finagling of the dominant party in state politics, which happens to have been Republicans for the past decade or so. Ironic to be sure, and even more so when considering that last November many of those same Republicans opposed Issue 4, which proposed a similar commission but was defeated by a 70-30 margin.
But the knife cuts both ways here. State Democrats, many of whom supported Issue 4, seem poised to oppose the Republican plan. As The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported Friday, Minority Leader Joyce Beatty said of the plan, We are all like-minded
that this is something that we are not going to support at this point.
As things now stand, the Apportionment Board ' made up of the governor, secretary of state, auditor and two other members, one of which is appointed by each party in the state legislature ' draws districts for the Ohio General Assembly, which then decides congressional districts.
A solution to gerrymandering is needed, especially if tensions continue to rise. Redistricting conflicts previously have created crises such as one in Texas, where in 2003 Democrats left the state to prevent a quorum in protest of a proposed redistricting that eventually cost six Democrats their seats.
But with the Tom Noe coin scandal and other ethics violations in the public eye, both parties have become wise to Ohio's prevailing political winds and seem more keen on partisan expediency than actual reform. Republicans are feeling the heat and might be ready to support any plan that would be fairer to them in the event of significant Democratic gains in November. And Democrats no doubt smell blood and could be readying themselves to truly break the decades-long Republican grasp on state government ' ignoring the lesson of congressional Republicans, who in 1994 swept into Washington preaching change, only to become the very fat-cats they had denounced.
Redistricting practices must be reformed, but Ohio politicians need to learn that they can't achieve bipartisanship through partisan means. Husted has his current plan; Beatty has the failed 2005 issue. Somewhere in the middle is a compromise, and if this state's leaders can't find it, then this whole sad cycle of political fervor and disjointed districts will only keep repeating itself. 17
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