U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson is in Cleveland on Tuesday working to protect a system that has been good for Ohio Republicans but contemptuous of constitutional governance.
Speaker Johnson, Gov. Mike DeWine, and the entire Ohio GOP Congressional delegation are gathering for a fund-raiser devoted to opposition to State Issue 1, the redistricting reform that proposes to replace politicians with regular people.
The money raised will flow to a political committee with the hilarious name, “Ohio works.” If the state redistricting process really did work there would not have been seven Ohio Supreme Court rulings that the proposed 2022 districts violated the constitution’s anti-gerrymandering provisions.
State court-approved districts were never established. Ohio literally let time run out and forced a federal court decision ordering the election be held in districts ruled to be unconstitutional.
While the procedural chaos was fresh, Governor DeWine was supportive of reform efforts, telling The Blade Editorial Board in February, 2023 elected officials should be removed from the process. “It didn’t work, and we need to fix it,” Mr. DeWine said.
The Citizens Not Politicians-sponsored amendment would abolish the all-political Ohio Redistricting Commission made up of the governor, auditor, secretary of state, and two lawmakers from each party and replace it with a board of 15 state residents.
Five Republicans, Democrats, and Independents selected by a panel of retired judges from both political parties would take over the redistricting process if Ohio voters approve Issue 1.
The need to take self-interested politicians out of the process was shown by the repeated failure to make even small compromises in 2022. “I thought we could split the difference and move on. I was dead wrong. Neither side had any willingness to try and compromise,” the governor told us in that 2023 Editorial Board meeting.
Former politicians and party officials would be barred from redistricting commission appointment, as would lobbyists. The precedent that lobbyists should be banned from political appointment is crucially important far beyond redistricting.
The Public Utilities Commission nominating council which picked FirstEnergy bribe recipient Sam Randazzo as their recommendation for PUCO Chairman was led by FirstEnergy Lobbyist Michael Koren.
JobsOhio is chaired by Josh Rubin, another FirstEnergy lobbyist who was crucial to winning Randazzo the PUCO appointment and enacting the $1.3 billion bailout.
There is no doubt that 15 randomly selected people from anywhere in Ohio would do a better job establishing fair congressional and legislative districts than the Statehouse political professionals have ever achieved.
Mr. Johnson and Ohio Republican office holders know that too. That’s why the pen to draw district lines will have to be pried from their hands through victory at the ballot box in November.
The Speaker didn’t come to Ohio to facilitate good government; he came to perpetuate political power.
First Published August 27, 2024, 4:00 a.m.
