(THE CENTER SQUARE) – The Ohio Supreme Court called the Ohio Redistricting Commission’s latest attempt to draw state legislative district maps a sideshow and said months of spending taxpayer dollars has the state back where it started more than six months ago.
The court, in another 4-3 ruling Thursday, tossed out the commission’s fourth attempt at maps and set a May 6 deadline for new maps that do not violate a 2015 constitutional amendment approved by voters that says the commission must try to avoid favoring one party over another.
“(The fourth) plan was prepared by a member of the Republican legislative caucus’s staff, and the Democratic commission members and the statewide-officeholder commission members were effectively prevented from participating in preparing the plan,” the majority opinion read. “These facts indicate beyond a reasonable doubt an intent to favor the Republican Party at the expense of the Democratic Party in the commission’s fourth try at drafting the General Assembly – district plan.”
Justice Michael Donnelly was stronger in a concurring opinion.
“The independent map drawers’ efforts were apparently little more than a sideshow – yet more fodder in this political sport,” Donnelly wrote. “What appeared to be the start of a transparent redistricting process when the two independent map drawers were engaged by the commission became transparent only in the sense that it exposed the falsehood that some of the commission members had fulfilled their obligations under the Ohio Constitution. As to that, Ohioans are still watching and waiting.”
Republican members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission argued they did everything the Supreme Court ordered them to do and said independent map makers ran out of time, leaving tweaks to a previously unconstitutional GOP plan as the only option for new state legislative districts.
In one of three dissents, Justice Sharon Kennedy called the majority’s ruling “yet another wiping-egg-from-its-face moment.”
“The majority’s continued denial of the limitation of this court’s power may end up costing the taxpayers millions of dollars – money that is being consumed by the never-ending cycle of map drawing, litigation, and now, two primaries,” Kennedy wrote.
Democrats said the ruling was vindication and they are ready to return to independent map makers.
“This ruling vindicates the rights of Ohio voters who have been utterly betrayed by certain Republican commissioners in four rounds of map-drawing,” House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, said. “The fight for fair maps has been long and fraught, but we won’t give up, no matter how many times the majority commissioners try to subvert democracy for their own partisan gain. The Court has strongly suggested that we get back to work using the independent map drawers’ plan and picking up where they left off to finish the job. I am ready to do just that.”
Secretary of State Frank LaRose, also a commission member, said the ruling has no effect on the state’s May 3 primary, which began with early voting earlier this month and had state legislative races removed from ballots.
LaRose bristled at the court’s suggestion the state could hold its second primary after Aug. 2, saying in its opinion other states have primaries after Aug. 16. No date has been set for the second primary.
“The part I find most alarming about this ruling is the flagrant disregard for the critical timing and deadlines of Ohio’s elections process,” LaRose said. “Despite having the first-hand knowledge of a former chief elections officer on its bench, the court's majority ignores and, in fact, attempts to rewrite the key requirements of election administration literally spelled out in the law. We will reinforce those statutory timelines to the federal court and hope that constitutional convictions prevail.”
