The campaign to place a gerrymandering reform amendment on the May ballot has fallen short, today being the deadline for legislative approval of the measure.
As we reported on Jan. 23, recent political developments made bipartisan agreement at the Statehouse unlikely. http://www.licopac.org/licking_county_issue_pac/2010/01/redistricting.html
The Akron Beacon Journal this week had the best wrap-up on what happened - and didn't happen. http://www.ohio.com/news/83303097.html
Efforts continue to qualify this constitutional amendment for the November ballot but supporters really didn't want redistricting reform to get lost among the many issues and races already slated for the general election. In addition, there is concern that the necessary bipartisan support for reform will evaporate if, between now and the August filing deadline, either Democrats or Republicans feel confident the statewide races for governor, secretary of state and auditor will give them control of the Apportionment Board, the panel which redraws state legislative district boundaries every ten years.
The Central Ohio Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations, of which LICOPAC is a charter member, sent out this summary of the proposed reform amendment earlier this week. It was written by coalition board member and OSU Political Science Prof. Richard Gunther who has been working with citizen groups on the reform effort:
"As you know, I have been working with the League of Women Voters and Ohio Citizen Action to craft a reform of Ohio’s dreadful redistricting procedures (a.k.a. gerrymandering). We developed a system that was tested statewide last spring, with the assistance of the Secretary of State.
After the results were in and we became convinced that we had developed an excellent system that was both immune from partisan manipulation and, at the same time, simple enough to generate redistricting plans from over a dozen Ohio citizens, we set about to draft our own legislation that would implement this new procedure. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Speaker of the House, Armond Budish, very much liked our system, and assigned his top staff aide to work with us over the following months to draw up proposed legislation for House and Senate consideration, and for voter approval in either the this year’s primary or general election. Unfortunately, progress towards introducing this bill was seriously delayed by the state’s protracted budget crisis. Thus we may not be able to have this approved in time for placement on the May primary ballot (which would require approval in both houses of the legislature by 60% majorities by Wednesday). But better late than never, the bill was introduced in the House today, and was announced this morning in a press conference.
In order to put this on the ballot, both political parties, and both the Senate and the House, must support this reform effort. Last fall, the Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution #5, sponsored by Jon Husted. While it does not adequately establish fair criteria for drawing district boundaries, it did an excellent job of restructuring the redistricting board and requiring that two members of that board from the minority party support a plan before it can be adopted. I support the Husted bill’s restructuring of the board and testified in favor of it in Senate hearings.
Today we introduced our own plan, which perfectly complements the Husted plan’s restructuring of the board by setting in place procedures and criteria that will definitively end gerrymandering in Ohio.
It would be most helpful if members of the various clubs belonging to the Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations would write letters to the editor, phone in supportive comments to radio talk shows, etc., in support of this reform effort. Since control of the current Reapportionment Board is completely up for grabs (especially with both Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, and Auditor Mary Taylor, a Republican, both stepping down), both parties are interested in the possibility of a bipartisan compromise. Public support would greatly help.
We have had wonderful support from the press over the past several weeks, and an outpouring of public support might help to put this over the top.
I would be most grateful if you would circulate this attached statement to our fellow club members with a request that they speak up in support of this reform initiative."
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