Politician map-drawing not the answer
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said on multiple occasions last year that he believed the redrawing of political maps should be taken out of the hands of politicians. He just did not believe Issue 1 on the November ballot was the right answer. Approximately 54% of Buckeye State residents agreed with him, and the measure failed.
But 46% of voters supported Issue 1, and no doubt there were plenty on the other side who understood our horribly broken system must be changed, even if Issue 1 was not the way.
Now, DeWine says he has a plan to get the job done differently. He told WVXU he’d like Ohio to emulate a plan that seems to be working for Iowa.
“It is time to take the politics out of drawing legislative maps completely,” DeWine told WVXU.
The only problem? The plan doesn’t take the decision-making out of the hands of politicians or remove politics from the equation at all.
Iowa’s plan is meant to draw compact districts that do not split communities. Here, DeWine proposes that work would be done by the Legislative Services Commission, the General Assembly’s nonpartisan research arm. Party affiliations or election results would, in theory, not be part of the decision-making.
Guess who gets the final say, however. According to WVXU, maps drawn by the LSC would be subject to review — and could be rejected by — lawmakers.
“It does involve the legislature,” DeWine told the station. “But an argument can be made that the legislature — at least with congressional districts — should be involved.”
Well, which is it? Should district redrawing be taken out of the hands of politicians operating in a general assembly heavily weighted toward one party; or should lawmakers retain the ability to permanently stall the process if they wish?
“Iowa’s legislature has a very different way of dealing with issues like this — Republicans and Democrats can get along,” Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio and supporter of Issue 1, told WVXU. “Ohio has brass-knuckle fighting.”
DeWine is right. It’s important to start the discussion. Maybe there is room for adjustment to Iowa’s plan that will make it a more worthy part of that discussion.
But taking map-drawing out of the hands of one set of politicians and placing it into the hands of another is NOT the answer.