Cleveland Plain Dealer...
Ohio Democrats gambled, lost -- and now they’re angry
By Joe Frolik 
September  21,  2011 

When Statehouse Republicans unveiled their proposed map of Ohio’s soon-to-be only 16 congressional districts last week, Democratic leaders in Columbus reacted as they do to pretty much everything these days: 

First, a primal scream. Then, a threat to force a referendum -- a process that will at least delay use of the map until after November 2012. If that happens, it’s likely that a court -- Republicans would like it to be the GOP-dominated Ohio Supreme Court, Democrats prefer federal court -- would decide the lines for that fall’s elections. 

Ohio Democrats and their labor friends already have collected enough signatures to hold off implementation of Senate Bill 5, the effort to trim government costs at the expense of public-employee unions, until the voters have their say this fall. 

With help from the Obama campaign, Ohio Democrats are now circulating petitions to ice House Bill 194, a package of election-law changes, until the voters can weigh in next fall. 

Now they’re talking about a vote on the congressional map. And if Gov. John Kasich and his legislative allies manage to enact a new school-funding formula next year, you can expect to see it on the ballot, too. 

Nothing against small-d democracy, but I used to live in California, where the people vote on just about everything. It’s a recipe for deadlock. Capital-D Democrats presumably expect to be in charge in Columbus again someday. When that happens, do they really want every hot issue to go to the voters? Two can and will play this game, but it’s no way to govern. 

Neither is a system that allows politicians to pick their constituents and that can decide a decade’s worth of elections in advance. 

The map that the Ohio GOP unfurled last week may look like a kindergarten art project, but it is carefully drawn down to the precinct level -- splitting 68 of the state’s 88 counties, slicing up scores of cities and townships -- to produce a delegation with 12 Republicans and four Democrats. It throws together two Democratic incumbents in northern Ohio and two GOP lawmakers in southwest Ohio. It creates a new district around Columbus that is tailor-made for a Democrat -- and that allows mapmakers to pack more Republicans into nearby districts, thus making them safer than ever. 

Arguably the most competitive of the 16 districts is earmarked for Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette of Bainbridge Township. Though it leans toward the GOP and is probably safe for LaTourette, the proposed new 14th District conceivably could elect a Democrat who shared his genial nature and willingness to break with party orthodoxy. In a more perfect political world, a lot of districts would look like LaTourette’s: compact, competitive and likely to favor candidates with appeal across party lines and to independents. 

But dating back to the original “Gerrymander” in Massachusetts in 1812, politicians have done their best to avoid competition. Computers make it easier than ever. So does the tendency of Americans to sort themselves, as writer Bill Bishop has described it, into communities based on class and social attitudes. When you pack districts for partisan advantage, you make primaries more important than general elections -- and end up with legislative bodies where “compromise” is a dirty word (see: Congress, U.S.). 

Last year, when he was still in the Ohio Senate, Secretary of State Jon Husted tried to upset that dynamic with a constitutional amendment to change how this state redistricts. Husted wanted to create a seven-member apportionment board to draw new congressional and legislative lines. It would have taken five votes -- including two from the minority party -- to approve a map. More compact, competitive districts would have resulted. 

One problem: Husted needed Democratic votes to send his idea to the people. But some of the same Democratic leaders who now decry the GOP map -- and swear by the wisdom of the voters -- believed they would do well enough in November to control the current apportionment process. 

Because they were wrong, Ohio got a weird map -- and a primal scream. It may be too late to revive Husted’s idea for this round of redistricting, but down the road it might change Ohio for the better. If that’s what the politicians really want. 

Read it at the Cleveland Plain Dealer