toledoblade.com --

COLUMBUS - House Republicans and backers of last year's failed election-reform ballot issues are closing in on a compromise to revamp how Ohio redraws congressional and legislative districts.

The proposal on the table for negotiation would create a seven-member panel - two Republicans, two Democrats, and three independents - to adjust district boundaries based on population shifts reflected in each U.S. Census every 10 years.

The three independents would be selected by a unanimous vote of the four partisan representatives named to the panel. No elected official could serve, and a super-majority vote of five would be needed to approve a map.

The goal is for lawmakers to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. After the election, insiders believe this window of bipartisan cooperation would probably close.

"That's the point when we'll know who the likely players are for the next apportionment board," said Rep. Kevin DeWine (R., Fairborn). "We'll know who the new governor, secretary of state, and auditor will be. Granted they would have to go through the election of 2010, but the chances are in Ohio that they would be re-elected.

"All of a sudden, either party, whoever is in control, will become less interested in dealing fairly on trying to come up with something that would be in the best interests of Ohioans," he said.

Mr. DeWine declined to comment on the specifics on the table, other than to confirm the size of the panel and the fact that the redistricting process would, for the first time, be limited to once a decade.

Those at the table largely consist of House Republicans and staff as well as a handful of those involved in Reform Ohio Now's failed ballot proposal last year. Although lawmakers would technically have until August to approve a ballot issue for Nov. 7, the General Assembly is expected to recess for the summer around the end of May.

"There has been bipartisan cooperation on this that I didn't see during my nine years in the House," said Ed Jerse, the former state representative from Euclid. He served as campaign director for RON, a coalition of largely Democrat constituencies.

Under current law, Ohio's 18 congressional districts are redrawn by the General Assembly.

The 99 state House and 33 Senate districts are redrawn by a five-member, all-politician panel - the governor, secretary of state, auditor, and one legislator from each party. In 2001, Republicans dominated the panel 4-1.

Both processes are considered inherently political, with the party in power using them to protect incumbents and limit the opposition's chances.

One sticking point in negotiations has been the minimum level of politically competitive districts that should be created.

Last year's failed RON proposal would have made competitiveness the top priority for all districts, prompting Republicans to argue that it would have lead to oddly shaped, noncompact districts that could have diluted the voting clout of predominantly Democrat, inner-city minorities.

"There are parts of Ohio where the regions are just too Democratic and too Republican and it would be a stretch to make them competitive," said Mr. Jerse.

But there is concern that setting a mandatory minimum of competitive districts could open the process to a legal challenge based on the argument that two sets of standards would be employed when drawing districts.

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