COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio officials on Saturday headed back to the drawing board -- for a fourth time -- on drawing new state legislative lines.
The Ohio Redistricting Commission debated and charted a path forward during a Saturday meeting, their first since the Ohio Supreme Court rejected the latest Republican state legislative map plan on Wednesday as illegally gerrymandered in favor of the GOP. A majority of the court, with Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor joining the court’s three Democrats, ordered the commission to draw a new one, giving them until March 28 to do so.
On Saturday, the redistricting commission unanimously voted to identify and hire a pair of outside mapmakers and a mediator to resolve disputes, and scheduled meetings for Monday night and Tuesday morning, and a possible meeting for Sunday night. They also directed the mapping experts who work for state legislators to work together over the weekend while other hiring details get hashed out.
All suggestions were in response to feedback from the Supreme Court order, which this week and in previous decision faulted the Republican-dominated commission for having Republican mapmakers draw the maps behind closed doors, only presenting them to Democrats and the public shortly before a scheduled vote. The court said the commission “should” draft maps in public and hire an independent mapmaker to draw them.
Even if the commission meets the March 28 deadline, it will be too late to ready ballots for early April, when early voting starts. That means the election either will have to be postponed or split into pieces -- unless state officials get a different court to intervene.
House Speaker Bob Cupp, one of the five Republicans on the commission, raised doubts on Saturday that the commission could find and hire outside consultants and draw a map in public on the court’s timetable, with the May 3 election looming.
“I think there is some excessive optimism on how this can work in practicality,” Cupp said. “I’m a bit skeptical. I do agree we need to do something and try to move forward, and we need to come up with something that will satisfy the requirements of the court. The problem is that they keep changing those requirements, so it’s difficult to know what’s coming next.”
During Saturday’s meeting, Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who’s said he wants to play a greater role to try to prevent the maps from being rejected again, made several suggestions aimed at getting the process moving as quickly as possible. He said afterward he thought Saturday’s vote, a rare example of agreement between redistricting commission Republicans and Democrats, was a good first step.
“Whether this is feasible or not, I don’t think anybody knows yet. We are hopeful. I think everyone wants to try to make it work. Today was a good day, we made some real progress today, and we’ll see,” DeWine said.
Akron Sen. Vernon Sykes, one of two Democrats on the commission, said he thinks it’s possible the commission will strike a deal.
“We’re not starting from scratch. We’ve had three versions of this already. Our staffs will be involved even with some outside opinion and direction, so I think we will be able to make the deadline,” Sykes said.
Parallel to the state process, a federal lawsuit filed by state Republican activists in an attempt to bypass the Ohio Supreme Court is starting to pick up steam. A three-judge panel was appointed to consider whether to restore the map rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court, as the activists have requested.
The three judges chosen to hear the case are U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, and Judges Amul Thapar and Judge Benjamin Beaton, two appointees of former President Donald Trump.
Here are some other new state redistricting developments:
Congressional map challenges rejected on technicalities
In a late-night ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court on Friday rejected two challenges to Republican-drawn congressional map plans -- one filed by a coalition of voting-rights groups, and the other by a the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, led by former Obama-era U.S. attorney general Eric Holder.
The court’s ruling cited a technicality in how the lawsuits were filed, compared to how the new congressional redistricting language reads in the state constitution. It did not rule on whether the maps met the new standards in the state constitution, though. The court cited those standards in rejecting a previous Republican-drawn congressional map in January.
And in its written opinion, the majority of the court signaled it would accept a new challenge, as long as it was revised to address the technicality, stating “nothing in this order shall be construed as precluding the filing of a new original action challenging the validity of the March 2 plan.”
It’s not immediately clear whether the plaintiffs in the case plan to re-file their lawsuits.
Yost offers bipartisan mapmakers
Dave Yost, Ohio’s Republican attorney general, wrote redistricting commission members on Friday to offer some advice on how they might be able to break the legal logjam.
Most notably, Yost said he had hired Sean Trende and Bernie Grofman, a bipartisan duo of mapmakers who he said he would make available to redistricting commission members. The pair recently drew Virginia’s state legislative maps after the state’s Supreme Court hired them to do so, Yost siad.
Yost said he brought in the duo in response to the Ohio Supreme Court’s criticism. He also suggested the commission meet frequently to address the court’s criticism about the redistricting process’s lack of transparency.
Yost, who is the state government’s top lawyer but who plays no role on the redistricting commissions, said he was just trying to offer advice to the commission.
“I note that Court used ‘should” and not ‘shall,’” Yost wrote, “but given that this matter is heard in the Supreme Court without meaningful appeal regarding the limits of its authority, it would be wise to treat this suggestion with the degree of deference one might pay to the suggestions of one’s spouse.”
But Russo, the House Democratic leader, on Saturday raised concerns about Trende’s neutrality, since he worked as a hired expert for Republican legislative leaders during an earlier phase of the case.
“I think at the end of the day, we’re each going to pick who we want to be part of this process,” she said. “And hopefully we come to some sort of agreement. But I thought it was at least important to note.”
Here is Yost’s full letter: