Ohio Republicans are considering trying to foil a redistricting reform amendment that recently qualified for the November ballot by putting up a separate redistricting proposal of their own to compete with it, according to a Republican state lawmaker who said she has discussed the plans with legislative leadership.
Several state lawmakers who spoke with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer said they weren’t aware of any specifics. But state Rep. Sara Carruthers, a Hamilton Republican, said House Speaker Jason Stephens has discussed a redistricting alternative with Gov. Mike DeWine.
If both measures were to end up on the ballot, the one with the most votes would win, giving Republicans a chance to defeat the citizen-initiated amendment by seeking more support for their own.
But Carruthers said she thinks it’s unlikely that the second redistricting proposal will happen, given the challenges of rounding up lawmakers during the summer and an imminent Aug. 7 state deadline for legislative-initiated constitutional amendments. The legislature otherwise isn’t scheduled to meet until after the November election.
“I think it would look bad,” Carruthers said. “But I also don’t think you’d be able to get the warm bodies there.”
Gongwer News was the first to report the possible second redistricting amendment. The outlet, a legislative news service in Columbus, quoted Carruthers and several other Republican lawmakers who similarly raised doubts about the measure’s viability.
DeWine has declined to comment on the possibility of a second redistricting amendment. But he told reporters on Wednesday and Thursday that he will have a redistricting-related announcement soon.
DeWine otherwise hasn’t taken a stance on the Citizens Not Politicians proposal, although he’s expressed general support for the concept of removing elected officials from the redistricting process.
“I’m gonna have a statement on that in the next few days,” DeWine said Wednesday during an appearance at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus. “So I’m not going to talk about today, but it will be coming from me. I’ve looked at this stuff, spent a lot of time thinking about it, and trying to really understand exactly what it would do. We’ve also looked at what other states have done. So stay tuned.”
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced that a citizen-initiated redistricting reform amendment had qualified for the November ballot, after elections officials certified hundreds of thousands of voter signatures turned in by the campaign group backing the measure.
The “Citizens Not Politicians” amendment would replace the Ohio Redistricting Commission, a panel of elected officials that’s currently controlled by Republicans, with a citizen’s commission that would be made up of equal parts Republicans, Democrats and political independents. The new commission would draw Ohio’s state legislative and congressional district maps, which likely would result in Republicans losing seats in the legislature and Congress, or at least would require them to win in more competitive districts.
Under the current system, Republicans enjoy massive supermajorities in both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly and a 10-5 advantage among the state’s congressional delegation.
The proposal is backed by a left-leaning coalition of unions, Democrats and good-government groups, although Maureen O’Connor, a retired Republican Ohio Supreme Court chief justice is a key campaign spokesperson.
There’s not yet any formal opposition, although several elected state Republicans have come out against it. A de facto opposition leader is Senate Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican.
Carruthers said she learned about the redistricting plans through her conversations with Stephens, most recently about a week ago.
“He said the governor was talking about it, but nothing really had been done,” Carruthers said.
DeWine plays no legal role in proposing redistricting measures, although he could try to force the legislature to meet to consider one by calling a special session. He last did so in May, when the governor successfully pressured lawmakers to pass a law to help Democrats ensure their presidential ballot made the Ohio ballot.
Carruthers also said that Huffman is among the proponents of trying to propose an alternative redistricting amendment.
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer has left a message with John Fortney, a Huffman spokesperson, seeking comment for this article. Several Republican state senators said Thursday they hadn’t heard about any redistricting proposal.
State Rep. Jay Edwards, an Athens Republican, said he’s heard about the alternative redistricting proposal “through the rumor mill.” He said convening 60 of 67 House Republicans to vote for the proposal in the next couple weeks though would be a “logistical nightmare,” since some will be out of town for vacations – including Edwards – and conferences.
But Edwards, who personally opposes the Citizens Not Politicians amendment, also expressed wariness about trying to sabotage a potentially popular proposal with legislative maneuvering. Edwards similarly was critical when GOP lawmakers tried to foil a November abortion-rights amendment last year by proposing an August amendment that would have made it more difficult to pass.
The November abortion-rights measure passed anyway after voters approved it and defeated the Republican-backed amendment in August by similar margins.
“For some reason there seems to be this fear of the voters. That’s something that’s deeply concerning to me,” Edwards said.
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