Representative Jim Buchy
There's Nothing Good About Issue 2 

On November 6th, voters in Ohio will face many important decisions at the ballot box. This year, we're electing a president, a U.S. senator, our congressmen, our representatives at the Statehouse, and many important local elected leaders, as well. In addition to all these choices, Ohioans face one other very important decision on Election Day: whether or not to approve Issue 2, a constitutional amendment to change the way we draw congressional districts in our state. If Issue 2 passes, it will have grave consequences for our democracy. I urge all Ohioans to vote against Issue 2. 

In a previous column, I discussed my work on the redistricting reform task force and the redistricting process in Ohio. In that column, I demonstrated that our current redistricting process does work, and that the people who draw the maps are elected officials responding to the will of the voters. At first glance, Issue 2 appears to have the noble purpose of making the redistricting process nonpartisan and putting the process directly in the hands of the people. In reality, however, Issue 2 is attempting to fix a problem that isn't there. More importantly, Issue 2 is an attempt by Democrats, unions, and other liberal special interest groups to rig the system to favor liberal candidates in a manner that is both unconstitutional and unaccountable to the voters. 

Issue 2 would create a panel of unelected citizens chosen by judges to draw our legislative lines every ten years. Unions and other proponents claim this will someone make the process apolitical, even though these citizens will have political biases like everyone else. Even worse, because the panel is appointed and not elected, the voters do not have the option of voting them out of office if they don't like the end result. In fact, Issue 2 does not even include a way to remove panel members who abuse their power or accept bribes. Don't like the job your elected leader did on redistricting? Vote him out. Don't like the job the citizen panel under Issue 2 did on redistricting? Tough luck, you're stuck with it. And you're also footing the bill: Issue 2 gives the panel a blank check to spend as freely as they want. 

Justices on the Court of Appeals play an important role in how Issue 2 would work because they are the ones who have the ultimate authority to choose who will be on the newly created redistricting panel. This is such a bad system that the judges who are supposed to have this responsibility have come out in opposition to Issue 2! An association of Ohio appellate court justices has publicly stated their opposition to Issue 2 because the proposed amendment unconstitutionally violates the separation of powers between the three branches of government. Issue 2 gives the judicial branch the authority to draw maps for the legislative branch, which the justices themselves say is not in their job description. Issue 2 is trying to give unconstitutional responsibility to a group of people who don't want anything to do with it. 

Finally, Issue 2 is little more than a ploy by Democrats, unions, and liberal groups like the League of Women Voters to rig the maps, put more liberals into office, and force a liberal agenda on Ohioans by claiming to create “competitive districts.” Issue 2 mandates that maps be drawn so that the maximum number of districts be as close to 50% Democrat and 50% Republican as possible. This simply isn't possible. Ohio has many heavily partisan areas that would have to be torn up and gerrymandered in order to create “competitive” districts. Look at the 77th House District, which I represent: Preble, Darke and Mercer counties are all very conservative. To make a half-Democratic district including any of these counties would require tearing apart communities and townships and pairing them with more liberal areas halfway across the state. How is that good for Ohioans? 

Liberal proponents of Issue 2 would have you believe they're trying to put democratic power back in the hands of the voters. Creating an unaccountable and unconstitutional redistricting panel, however, is neither democratic nor in the hands of the voters. For this reason, I will be voting NO on Issue 2 on November 6th, and I urge you to do the same.