Ohio Redistricting Reform Trails By Double-Digit Margin

[TJ in Oregon]

According to a PPP Poll, Ohio's Issue 2 Trails by a 48-35 margin with 17% undecided.

Question wording:
Issue 2 would remove the authority of elected representatives and grant new authority to appointed officials to establish congressional and state legislative district lines. It would create a state-funded commission of appointed individuals from a limited pool of applicants to replace the aforementioned. The commission would consist of 12 members as follows: four affiliated with the largest political party, four affiliated with the second largest political party, and four not affiliated with either of the two largest political parties. Affirmative votes of seven of 12 embers are needed to select a plan. If the election was today, would you vote for or against Issue 2?

[Bacon King]

Haha what? Why on Earth would a state that has to suffer such insane gerrymandering reject an opportunity to change it? Ridiculous.

"The districts Ohio deserves (but not the map it needs)"

[Vazdul (Formerly Chairman of the Communist Party of Ontario)]

Haha what? Why on Earth would a state that has to suffer such insane gerrymandering reject an opportunity to change it? Ridiculous.

Because people are stupid.

[jimrtex]

According to a PPP Poll, Ohio's Issue 2 Trails by a 48-35 margin with 17% undecided.

Question wording:
Issue 2 would remove the authority of elected representatives and grant new authority to appointed officials to establish congressional and state legislative district lines. It would create a state-funded commission of appointed individuals from a limited pool of applicants to replace the aforementioned. The commission would consist of 12 members as follows: four affiliated with the largest political party, four affiliated with the second largest political party, and four not affiliated with either of the two largest political parties. Affirmative votes of seven of 12 embers are needed to select a plan. If the election was today, would you vote for or against Issue 2?

The proposal strips out existing language that is intended to preserve counties and towns in legislative districts.  The proponents sued over the ballot language, and ended up with a detailed description of the process by which the the commission would be appointed.

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/upload/ballotboard/2012/2-language-a.pdf

Supposedly, this doubled the cost of postage for mail ballots.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Haha what? Why on Earth would a state that has to suffer such insane gerrymandering reject an opportunity to change it? Ridiculous.

"The districts Ohio deserves (but not the map it needs)"

The fact that the ballot question begins 'Issue 2 would remove the authority of elected representatives and grant new authority to appointed officials' can't be helping.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Well, figures that Charles Munger isn't so interested in reform when it would hurt his own party, and so isn't giving it millions. I guess gerrymandering is only bad when Democrats do it.

[muon2]

Well, figures that Charles Munger isn't so interested in reform when it would hurt his own party, and so isn't giving it millions. I guess gerrymandering is only bad when Democrats do it.

Unfortunately neither party wants to give up their chance at redistricting. Moreover both parties would prefer bipartisan redistricting such as the 2000 IL congressional plan. It reduces campaign spending for both sides if more districts are kept safe.

[minionofmidas]

Unfortunately neither party wants to give up their chance at redistricting. Moreover both parties would prefer bipartisan redistricting such as the 2000 IL congressional plan.

Which from a voter's perspective is arguably the worst option of all.

In Ohio it may not be helping that they want to be redistricting with the new rules in 2014, making it a partisan proposition and thus much harder for Republicans to vote for.

[morgieb]

It's because of the language. No other reason.

[TJ in Oregon]

The Cleveland Plain Dealer endorsed a No vote on the issue. Their logic was that while the current system is flawed, so is the plan to replace it. I would imagine that while newspaper endorsements are of little value in a presidential race, they carry a decent amount of punch on complicated issues few voters understand such as this.

[greenforest32]

Gerrymandering isn't going away till it's killed by Congress (fat chance any time this decade) or federal courts.

I think the Ohio initiative failing and the overall results of the 2010 redistricting cycle will give Democrats more incentive to push for a national neutral redistricting standard when they consider all the states with partisan legislative redistricting and no initiative systems.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

What you need is an independent group or organization to lead the charge, write amendment and do the legwork to gather the signatures. Once on the ballot, they can then shop around for the party most willing to embrace it and try to get them to push for it in that state with there machine. That way one party will carry most of the load, but you would have all the independents and probably a large number of the other party as well because it isn't an effort designed for, by, and of that one "more enthusiatic" party. They just support it more aggressively because they are the odd man out in the process trying to take advantage of an opportunity even the playing field after recognizing that legislative control is very unlikely in th future. Citizen United is there, they might as well take advantage of it and have a few concerned million/billionaries get to together to improve the process in other areas, before the window is closed off again and we go back to the mid 2000's era of gerrymandering, campaign finance reform protected incumbents desperately craved to maintain their hold on power.

[minionofmidas]

How badly did that fail?

[Benj]

How badly did that fail?

Very badly. 36.6% Yes, 63.4% No

It appears to have won only in Athens County (Ohio State), though it was close in Lucas, Cuyahoga and Franklin.

[Gass3268]

What would have happend if they put a picture of the map on ballot? Lol, we can only dream.

[Miles]

Thats a shame.

[Lief 🗽]

Is there anything Democrats can do to over-turn the gerrymanders in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina? Or are we effectively shut out of the House until 2022?

[Benj]

Is there anything Democrats can do to over-turn the gerrymanders in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina? Or are we effectively shut out of the House until 2022?

There's no law against mid-decade redistricting, but the Democrats would have to win the (equally gerrymandered) state legislatures. That said, at least some of the gerrymanders (Michigan, Virginia, parts of Ohio) are breakable, and I think the Democrats could win the House at some point this decade, with difficulty.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Is there anything Democrats can do to over-turn the gerrymanders in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina? Or are we effectively shut out of the House until 2022?

Democrats were trying to gain control of the Supreme Court here, to try and possibly get a favorable court to overturn the maps. They even ran Sam Ervin IV to try and take advantage of that name's Casey like status here, but it failed. He lost to incumbent Republican Paul Newby 52-48.

Technically these races are non-partisan but we know how it works with that.

[ilikeverin]

How badly did that fail?

Very badly. 36.6% Yes, 63.4% No

It appears to have won only in Athens County (Ohio State), though it was close in Lucas, Cuyahoga and Franklin.

The Ohio State University is in Columbus (Franklin).

[Benj]

How badly did that fail?

Very badly. 36.6% Yes, 63.4% No

It appears to have won only in Athens County (Ohio State), though it was close in Lucas, Cuyahoga and Franklin.

The Ohio State University is in Columbus (Franklin).

Whoops, you're right.

[Vosem]

Is there anything Democrats can do to over-turn the gerrymanders in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina? Or are we effectively shut out of the House until 2022?

I want to say that you're effectively shut out of the House until 2022, but with a strong enough wave you could probably still take control anyway before then.

[TJ in Oregon]

In Ohio, they can use a referrendum to overturn the district map IIRC and can amend the state constitution to change the process. However, like most things in Ohio, it will take them several attempts before most people give serious thought to the issue. Ohioans have a history of voting against things they don't understand and I'd wager less than 1% of voters remotely understood Issue 2. More favorable ballot language may have given the issue an extra 5% or so, but I have trouble believing something as long and complex as this could be passed on the first try.

Also, if we really want to fix this and get cooperation from voters of both parties, we should consider passing an amendment to change the process in the 2020 census. If the idea is driven in a partisan manner, you more or less take a good 30% of the vote out of play.

[politicallefty]

They can use a referendum to overturn a map in Ohio. However, enough minority Democrats defected on the new revised maps (as opposed to the first attempt) to get a 2/3 majority that prevents a ballot measure. That's why you saw a new redistricting proposal instead of a referendum. A more well-written initiative certainly would have done better, let alone a better campaign. Issue 2 seemed to have an abnormal amount of nonpartisan/independent opposition. I think the forces that support redistricting reform should take up Republican Jon Husted's proposal and put it on the ballot ASAP. There's no reason why any new redistricting amendment should not take effect immediately. With current lines as they are, almost all Republicans will oppose any new setup, even one that wouldn't take effect until the 2022 elections.

[minionofmidas]

Bipartisan linedrawing with some minimal provisions against crass incumbent-protect gerrymandering? Definitely miles better than the status quo.