Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine greets state representatives before speaking at the State of the State address in Columbus.
Joshua Gunter/TNS
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine says Ohio needs to change how it handles redistricting. But he’s declining to try to force the legislature to advance an alternative to a measure voters will decide this November.
In a Wednesday news conference, DeWine made clear that he considered trying to force the issue ahead of an Aug. 7 deadline that’s just a week away. But he doesn’t believe there are the votes in the Ohio House to make it happen.
DeWine said if the redistricting measure is defeated in November, he would push lawmakers to pursue an alternate redistricting amendment modeled after how it’s done in Iowa, where the state legislature’s nonpartisan research agency draws maps that are then approved by the state legislature.
The proposed Ohio amendment, backed by a campaign group called Citizens Not Politicians, calls for putting a 15-member nonpartisan citizens’ commission — with criteria meant to screen out politicos and their direct family members — in charge of redistricting. It would be made up of equal parts Republicans, Democrats and political independents.
Voters last changed Ohio’s redistricting process in 2015 and 2018, passing reforms meant to make the process more bipartisan. But the process broke down the first time it was used in 2021, with Republicans eventually defying multiple orders from the Ohio Supreme Court that deemed the maps unconstitutionally gerrymandered in favor of the GOP.
If the November amendment is approved, the change likely would result in Republicans losing seats in the legislature and Congress, or at least would require them to win in more competitive districts, since the measure contains language requiring the districts to favor each party in proportion to statewide voter preferences, as measured by the results of recent statewide elections.
Under the current system, Republicans enjoy massive supermajorities in both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly and a 10-5 advantage among the state’s congressional delegation. Meanwhile, they’ve gotten about 56% of the vote in recent statewide elections.
The citizens’ proposal is backed by a left-leaning coalition, although Maureen O’Connor, a retired Republican Ohio Supreme Court chief justice, is playing a key role with the campaign. O’Connor cast the swing vote in the rulings rejecting the GOP-controlled maps.
The Citizens Not Politicians amendment campaign has signs of serious financial backing, reminiscent of last year’s successful ballot issue campaigns to pass an abortion rights amendment in November and to defeat an August amendment Republicans proposed in an unsuccessful attempt to block it.
The campaign pushing the citizen-initiated amendment has reserved nearly $15 million in TV ads that will start airing after Labor Day and run through the Nov. 5 election, according to Medium Buying, a political ad firm in Columbus.
There’s not yet any formal opposition campaign, although several elected state Republicans have come out against it.
