COLUMBUS — Maureen O’Connor, the Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice who was the Republican swing vote on seven decisions declaring politician-drawn maps unconstitutional, accuses those “politicians” in the latest TV ad promoting Issue 1 of “lying” to voters.
The former chief justice looks directly into the camera to respond to claims from the opposition that the proposed constitutional amendment written to ban partisan gerrymandering of maps is in fact a mandate to gerrymander.
“Seven times career politicians have so blatantly gerrymandered our voting district maps that Ohio’s Supreme Court ruled the maps unconstitutional,” she says. “I know, because I was chief justice on that court.
“Then those same politicians lied about Issue 1,” she says. “So let me set the record straight. Issue 1 bans politicians from drawing voting maps. It will restore power to where it belongs — with citizens, not politicians. Vote yes on Issue 1.”
Issue 1 on the Nov. 5 ballot asks voters to create a single 15-member commission — equally divided among Republicans, Democrats, and independents — to replace existing processes in the Ohio Constitution for redrawing congressional and state legislative districts each decade.
Politicians — elected and appointed officials, their immediate family members, staffers, consultants, and lobbyists — could not serve.
Former Chief Justice O’Connor joined the high court’s three Democrats in repeatedly striking down maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission as unconstitutionally favoring Republicans. Despite the rulings, those maps were used in the 2022 elections.
The Columbus-based firm Medium Buying has so far tracked about $19.3 million in advertising, most of it TV spots like the latest ad, purchased by Citizens Not Politicians, the committee behind Issue 1.
The opposition committee, Ohio Works, has spent nearly $2.1 million with some TV and cable spots in the Toledo market.
Former Chief Justice O’Connor was forced from the bench at the end of 2022 because of her age. She vowed on the way out the door to work toward a new constitutional amendment to correct deficiencies in processes approved by voters in 2015 and 2018 that allowed the existing redistricting commission to largely ignore court orders.
She played a role in writing the amendment’s language. But that language is not what voters will see in polling booths on Election Day or on their absentee ballots.
The GOP-controlled Ohio Ballot Board voted along party lines to approve the description of the amendment that voters will see.
The amendment requires final overall maps — not individual districts — to “closely correspond” with how Ohioans have voted statewide in recent elections. The ballot board’s majority contends that, to meet that test, the new citizens commission would have to engage in gerrymandering of its own. The GOP majority on the Ohio Supreme Court, while ordering the board to revisit some of the ballot language, upheld that section.
To date, Ohio Works, the opposition committee, has aired a single TV ad compared to several by the well-funded proponents.
The opposition ad claims the redistricting proposal in Ohio is part of a broader national effort by Democrats to change the rules and cheat to win elections.
“Democrats want to undo the redistricting safeguards that were supported by over 70 percent of Ohioans,” the ad’s narrator states. “All to rig the system. This isn’t democracy, it’s deception!”
“Don’t let Democrats rewrite the rules,” the ads says. “Protect Ohio’s voice! Vote no on Issue 1.”
Monday marks the last day to register to vote. Absentee and in-person early voting begins on Oct. 8.
First Published October 1, 2024, 3:27 p.m.