How bad is the redistricting plan for Ohio's U.S. House delegation that Republican state lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich have approved? So bad that GOP legislative leaders now concede that their map faces a court challenge, and are shopping for friendly state judges who will help them get away with it.
None of this -- neither a Democratic effort to place the GOP plan before voters next November, nor the prospect of wasting $15 million in scarce tax money to hold a second primary election next spring, nor court intervention -- would be necessary if Republican lawmakers agreed to work with Democrats to reach a fair, bipartisan plan for effective congressional representation. But that option evidently is not on the table.
And time is almost up: Wednesday is the filing deadline for candidates in the March 2012 primary. If there is no compromise by then, there's no telling how the issue ultimately may get resolved.
Ohio needs a new congressional map to accommodate the loss of two of our state's current 18 House seats next year, because of sluggish population growth over the past decade compared with other states. The GOP's plan effectively grabs 12 of the 16 new districts for itself -- in a political battleground state in which Governor Kasich was elected last year with less than a majority vote.
The Republican gerrymander requires all sorts of grotesqueries. It divides not only metro Toledo but also the city itself into three House districts. It stretches one district from Toledo along the Lake Erie shoreline all the way to Cleveland, forcing longtime incumbent House Democrats Marcy Kaptur and Dennis Kucinich to run against each other.
The plan creates so many safe House seats, it would make the primary more important than the general election in these districts, forcing both parties to ideological extremes. That's a recipe for even more congressional gridlock.
Rep. Matt Szollosi of Oregon, the second-ranking Democrat in the state House, said late last week that his party thought it had an agreement with Republican leaders to make six of the new congressional districts more competitive, while still favoring the GOP. Instead, he said, Republican "arrogance" has perpetuated the impasse.
Various maps offered by good-government groups properly reflect the state's political balance. The districts they propose would be geographically compact, and would respect county and municipal boundaries, local communities of interest, and minority voting rights.
They could form the foundation of a compromise that would allow Ohio voters to choose their elected officials, not the other way around. But because they are not based on the assumption that an unwarranted partisan power grab is the most important goal of the reapportionment process, they evidently are beyond GOP consideration.
The U.S. Constitution requires congressional redistricting after every federal census. The growing possibility that the Republican plan will not go into effect for the 2012 election calendar is raising the prospect that a federal court would impose its own map.
In response, Republicans are asking a presumably sympathetic state judge to put their plan into effect immediately. Such a ruling almost surely would reach the state Supreme Court, where Republicans have a 6-to-1 advantage. GOP expectations that the high court would deliver a partisan ruling rather than a legally defensible one are at best cynical.
Arguments that Democrats would act the same way, given the opportunity, are irrelevant. Neither party should be allowed to control the redistricting process. It should be in the hands of an independent, nonpartisan commission.
But that's a long-term solution. More immediately, the GOP power grab can't stand. Ohio needs a fair congressional map and a single primary next year. To achieve these outcomes, Democrats must be prepared to remain flexible as well.
Republican lawmakers evidently think they have the power and numbers to force their map to prevail. They thought that Senate Bill 5 was a slam dunk too.
First Published December 4, 2011, 6:08 a.m.
