Cleveland Plain Dealer...
House Republicans move to unify primary, avoid $15 million cost of second vote 
December 10,2011 

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- House Republicans want to pass legislation reuniting Ohio’s two scheduled primaries into one that would be held in May, and they hope Democrats will support the measure without tying it to a deal on a new congressional map. 

Rep. Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, introduced legislation Thursday to consolidate Ohio’s two primaries into one held on May 8. 

The move would allow the state to avoid the estimated $15 million cost of the extra primary. 

“There has been a great deal of discussion and interest regarding having two primary dates in Ohio over the last several weeks,” Huffman said in a statement. “We believe it is in Ohio’s best interest to have a single primary date and this legislation will move all primaries to Tuesday, May 8th 2012.” 

Said Huffman’s statement: “We look forward to moving quickly on this bill next week.” 

It was the GOP that pushed the legislation creating the second primary. It passed the House 55-36 on a party-line vote. 

And now they want to scuttle the move. Under the bill intorduced Thursday, the filing deadline for president of the United States and the U.S. House of Representatives would be March 9. 

In order for the bill to take effect before March 9, the 59-member House Republican caucus will need at least seven Democrats to vote for an emergency clause for the legislation. It would require a two-thirds margin. 

That’s far from assured as Democrats have always tied support for unifying the primaries to deal on an alternative congressional map more to their liking than the one passed by Republicans in late September. 

“Uniting the primaries into a single April primary was part of a proposed redistricting compromise,” said a statement from Sarah Bender, spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Rep. Armond Budish, a Beachwood Democrat. “We have not been approached about standalone legislation at this point in time, and will need to evaluate it once we see draft legislation.” 

Talks between the two parties on a second congressional map have bogged down in recent days as Ohio Democratic Party volunteers fanned out across the state trying to gather enough signatures for a referendum to block the new congressional map from taking effect on Christmas Day. Democrats are upset the congressional map has 12 solidly Republican seats and four Democratic ones. 

The signature gatherers reportedly have 135,000 signatures, but Ohio Democratic Party officials have been unable to augment their efforts with paid signature gatherers putting the effort in jeopardy. The signature gatherers need 231,150 valid signatures to get the initial congressional map on the ballot. 

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