Ohio's state Supreme Court has struck down the state's new congressional map as a Republican gerrymander that violates the state constitution.
The ruling is a boon to Democrats, who could've held as few as two of the state's 15 House seats after the next election.
"When the dealer stacks the deck in advance, the house usually wins. That perhaps explains how a party that generally musters no more than 55 percent of the statewide popular vote is positioned to reliably win anywhere from 75 percent to 80 percent of the seats in the Ohio congressional delegation," state Supreme Court Justice Michael Donnelly wrote in the court's majority opinion. "By any rational measure, that skewed result just does not add up."
The court — which voted 4-3 to strike down the map, with Republican Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor joining the panel's three Democrats in the majority — ordered the GOP-controlled state legislature to draw a new map that "is not dictated by partisan considerations."
Republicans in the state legislature drew a map that would continue their dominance of the state's congressional delegation, despite a voter-approved ballot initiative last decade to crack down on partisan gerrymandering. The map, which was signed into law by GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, would only have been in effect for the 2022 and 2024 elections, because it passed without Democratic support in the state legislature.
The new lines preserved two strongly Democratic seats, packed densely into cities: the districts currently held by Reps. Shontel Brown and Joyce Beatty in Cleveland and Columbus, respectively. But the rest of the state was carved into 13 districts designed to elect Republicans, albeit with competitive seats in Cincinnati, Dayton and along the state's northern border with Michigan and the western half of Lake Erie.
That northern Ohio seat could have doomed Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who was first elected in 1982. Her current district was won by now-President Joe Biden by 19 percentage points in 2020, but under the new map it would have transformed into a district Donald Trump carried by 4 points.
In 2018, Ohio voters approved a state constitutional amendment that put up guardrails for legislators during the congressional redistricting process. The amendment limited legislators' ability to split municipalities and forbade them from drawing a map "that unduly favors or disfavors a political party or its incumbents." It also said a map passed solely along partisan lines would only be in effect for four years, not the usual 10 years for most states' redistricting procedures.
The amendment passed overwhelmingly, with nearly 75 percent of voters in favor.
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By: Steven Shepard
Title: Top Ohio court strikes down state's gerrymandered congressional map
Sourced From: www.politico.com/news/2022/01/14/ohio-congressional-map-struck-down-527116
Published Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2022 12:25:20 EST
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