Dem
49
GOP
51
We had an item yesterday about anti-democratic behavior in Texas and Florida, and another one about the same in Pennsylvania. It seems like we never run out of material for these sorts of items, because today, we've got some sleazy, undemocratic behavior coming out of the people who run the show in Ohio.
As judged by recent presidential results, the Buckeye State is about 53% Republican and 47% Democratic. And yet, the Ohio U.S. House delegation is 60% Republican (9 out of 15 seats), while the Ohio state Senate is 79% Republican (26 out of 33 seats) and the Ohio state House is 68% Republican (67 out of 99 seats). The main secret of Ohio Republicans' success is, of course, gerrymandering. Nominally speaking, Ohio has anti-gerrymander laws on the books, but the net result of those laws is to put the responsibility for drawing maps in the hands of an "independent" commission that is dominated by Republican officeholders (among them, Gov. Mike DeWine).
In view of this, a consortium of pro-democratic and pro-Democratic activists, led by a group called Citizens Not Politicians, has placed Issue 1 on the November ballot. This would rectify the problems with the current situation by putting the map-drawing in the hands of a 15-person commission made up of private citizens (as opposed to elected politicians). This referendum has Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) and other Ohio Republicans scared witless, because a non-gerrymandered map would produce a blue wave the first time it was used. So, LaRose—in violation of state law, mind you—came up with an extremely misleading description of the referendum for the documentation that is sent to the state's voters. Not only is the description lengthy and difficult to parse, it includes this passage:
[The referendum will] [e]stablish a new taxpayer-funded commission of appointees required to gerrymander the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts to favor the two largest political parties in the state of Ohio, according to a formula based on partisan outcomes as the dominant factor...
And this:
Counties, townships and cities throughout Ohio can be split and divided across multiple districts, and preserving communities of interest will be secondary to the formula that is based on partisan outcomes.
Emphasis is ours. Needless to say, the anti-gerrymandering referendum does not REQUIRE gerrymandering, nor does it prioritize partisan outcomes over other concerns. That would be pretty much the opposite of what an anti-gerrymandering initiative is supposed to do.
Given that LaRose's language is not only false, but, again, a violation of state law (these ballot summaries cannot contain advocacy), Citizens Not Politicians filed a lawsuit asking the Ohio courts to substitute fairer and more accurate language. Yesterday, the state Supreme Court issued its ruling, declaring that the language will remain (basically) as it is. The vote was 4-3; you get three guesses as to how many Republicans there are on the Ohio Supreme Court, and the first two guesses don't count.
And so, the partisan, misleading language will remain in the paperwork that Ohio residents will receive. The good news is that many people don't actually read the paperwork. And, if California is any guide at least, the war will actually be won over the air. In fact, these shenanigans might give additional motivation to anti-gerrymandering voters, by reminding them of the kind of abuses that one-party rule allows.
Oh, and it doesn't have anything to do with Ohio, but as long as we are talking about judges who don't feel the rules apply to them, ProPublica had a report yesterday documenting that Judge Aileen Cannon has been channeling her inner Clarence Thomas, and has not been filing the disclosure paperwork required when she accepts trips and other benefits. She's not gotten a fancy RV, or a five-figure vacation to the South Pacific, at least not yet, but she has attended some chichi legal "conferences" on someone else's dime, and then decided not to share that information, despite being legally required to do so. The corruption is strong with this one. (Z)