Ohio has once again adopted gerrymandered boundaries for its state legislative districts that favor Republicans.
In the 2020 state house races, Republicans got about 55% of the popular vote, but about 64% of the state house. Republicans will likely win veto-proof majorities in the 2022 state legislative races again with the new map. Ohio's Congressional election results were similarly skewed by gerrymandering.
Graphic provided by Dana Miller.
The new state legislative district maps which will be in place for the 2022 and 2024 elections are shown below:
Shortly after midnight Sept. 16, the Ohio Redistricting Commission passed revised district maps for the Ohio Senate and the Ohio House of Representatives, on a 5-2 party-line vote.The commission consists of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Auditor Keith Faber, Speaker of the House Robert R. Cupp, House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, Senate President Matt Huffman and Senator Vernon Sykes.Emilia Sykes is the daughter of Vernon Sykes. The two are the only Democrats on the commission, and the only two who voted against the revised maps. They said the maps have been drawn to favor Republican candidates and do not accurately represent the voters of Ohio. . . .
Every 10 years, the district lines must be redrawn for the Ohio Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives. Because the commission voted in favor of the maps but did not have the support of the minority party, they will only last for four years instead of 10. . . . the maps that were passed would likely give Republicans an advantage of 62-37 in the House and 23-10 in the Senate. These are both veto-proof majorities. There are about 23 competitive districts. Eleven of those districts currently have a Republican in office and 12 are currently occupied by a Democrat.
From the Oxford Observer.
4 comments:
Next do Illinois.
Do you have any leads to guide me?
Sorry, poking a bit of fun at you is all. You seem unhappy with Republicans using the gerrymander power. Illinois is dominated by the Democrats, and is famously gerrymandered to suit. The current round is causing renewed Republican howls of pain.
I don't find gerrymandering to be worth worrying about as a political issue. Note that Texas was long a Dem stronghold, and gerrymandered to protect that situation, but changing political tides swept that away. Gerrymandering can protect a party or individual politician for a cycle or a few, but doesn't prevent longer-term changes.
@TomBridgeland
I get what you are saying, but view the gerrymandering problem as more serious (and don't think that two wrongs makes a right, although that is the default constitutional scheme).
My concern is that the endgame is that Republicans see the long run prospects as scenarios in which they inevitably lose if they continue to abide by democratic norms and that derail democratic government entirely to prevent that from happening and cling to power. There are myriad examples of that happening in less developed countries and the U.S. seems to be regressing away from fully developed country status.
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