COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Republicans have approved their latest state legislative map plan, abandoning an unfinished plan produced by a bipartisan pair of consultants and instead opting for a plan nearly identical to one the Ohio Supreme Court rejected as unconstitutional.
Following a similar trajectory as before, Republicans introduced the plan on Monday evening shortly before approving it at 10:20 p.m., just ahead of a midnight legal deadline set by the Ohio Supreme Court. The move to abandon the plan from the outside mapmakers, who have been drawing maps on a livestream since Thursday, drew immediate objections from furious Democrats. It also could set up Republicans to bypass the Ohio Supreme Court through a legal maneuver involving an ongoing lawsuit Republican activists filed in federal court.
Several Republican members of the redistricting commission, including Gov. Mike DeWine, said they only first saw it minutes before being asked to approve it. Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, described the surprise plan as a “parachute” meant to ensure the redistricting commission met the deadline.
“If at some point the Ohio Supreme Court doesn’t like this map, and they gave us additional time to prepare another one, we will do that,” Huffman said.
“We’re working with a number of bad options,” Huffman told reporters earlier Monday. “And if one of them is we do nothing, at least this is doing something.”
DeWine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Huffman and House Speaker Bob Cupp were the Republicans who voted “yes.” Republican Auditor Keith Faber joined the commission’s two Democrats, House Minority Leader Allison Russo and state Sen. Vernon Sykes, in voting “no.”
Faber has different objections than the Democrats -- he voted against the previous version of the plan for having too many community splits that were a byproduct of creating additional Democratic districts.
“I think there’s a decent chance this map won’t make the court’s test,” he told reporters after the vote.
Jen Miller, executive director of the Ohio League of Women Voters, said she thinks Republicans on the redistricting commission committed contempt of court by approving a map nearly identical to the one the court previously rejected. The LWV is among the groups that sued and successfully got the previous sets of maps thrown out.
“Clearly, the actions here defied all substantive expectations of the Ohio Supreme Court. And it’s disappointing to see,” Miller said.
Republicans did not share a partisan breakdown of the map, but described it as containing districts that lean 54% Republican and 46% Democratic. They said it has 17 slightly Democratic-leaning districts, three fewer than the one the court rejected. Dave’s Redistricting App, a widely used redistricting website, projects it as being functionally identical to the most recent plan rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court, and likely to maintain Republican’s veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature.
Cupp said Republican mapmakers tweaked three Democratic-leaning districts in the old plan, rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court on March 16, to make them slightly more Democratic-leaning.
The March 16 ruling from the Ohio Supreme Court faulted the old plan for containing a significant number of slightly Democratic-leaning toss-up districts, with no corresponding Republican ones. But besides the political leanings of the map, the court also faulted the process behind it, citing the fact that Republicans had their staff drew the map without Democratic input, introducing them shortly before approving them for a vote.
The same general description the court used to fault the old plan applies to the new one, too.
In response to suggestions from the court, the redistricting commission last week hired a bipartisan pair of mapping consultants, Michael McDonald from the University of Florida and Doug Johnson from a California consulting firm.
The pair spent four days drawing the maps in a livestreamed conference room, and the state agreed to pay them just under $100,000 for the work. However, they had not yet completed a Senate map. Just before Republicans approved their map, Johnson estimated he needed another 45 minutes to complete a draft Senate map, having completed a House one.
Around 11 p.m., Democrats produced what they said was a completed plan they finished with Johnson, and asked Republicans to approve it. They refused, criticizing some of the districts as appearing noncompact and strangely shaped.
Until Huffman announced on 5 p.m. Monday that he was ready to give up on the plan and have Republican staffers approve a new one, members of the redistricting commission had been under the impression that outside map drawers were working on something the commission eventually would pass.
He said he wanted a backup plan since he concluded the outside mapmakers were unlikely to complete their work on time. Although he didn’t publicly share his plan until Monday evening, he told reporters he decided to pivot to the backup map on Saturday, two days after the outside mapmakers began their work.
Russo, an Upper Arlington Democrat, called the process that led to the map a “farce.”
“This is exactly what the Ohio Supreme Court already has told us that we should not do,” Russo said.
Sykes, an Akron Democrat said: “There seems to be no end to the arrogance of the supermajority.”
Activists with different, allied groups, filled the Statehouse committee room where the redistricting commission met on Monday, booing and heckling Republicans as they approved the maps. Security escorted a few out for having large signs in violation of Statehouse rules.
Parallel to the state process, there is a Republican-backed lawsuit that seeks for a federal court to overrule the Ohio Supreme Court and restore the plan the state court rejected on March 16. A court hearing is set for Wednesday. It’s possible state Republicans will to convince the federal court to accept the plan adopted Monday night since, unlike the other state legislative plans, it hasn’t been rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court.
Democrats said Monday evening they plan for their mapmaking staff to continue working with Johnson, whom Republicans on the redistricting commission picked. The mapper brought in by Democrats, McDonald, left the Statehouse around 5 p.m. to catch a flight back to Florida, where he said he had to teach a class Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, Democrats said they believed Republicans never intended to seriously try to allow the outside mapmakers to finish their work and accused them of intentionally stalling by raising issues with the outside map and not sending their staff to help complete it on Monday.
“This is a classic, keep a map in the can and bring it out at the last minute,” Russo said.
Johnson and McDonald had shared a draft of an Ohio House map on Monday afternoon showing their work in progress. They had been working on it since Thursday.
The consultants’ map would favor Republicans to win 55 of 99 House seats. There are six competitive seats, three of which lean Democratic and three leaning Republican.
The Ohio Supreme Court gave the redistricting commission until midnight Monday to approve a new plan. It ruled the old one was illegally gerrymandered in favor of Republicans, citing Ohio’s new redistricting standards that voters added to the state constitution in 2015 as an anti-gerrymandering reform.
Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and the court’s three Democrats said the map’s significant imbalance between Democratic-leaning competitive seats -- there were more than 20 -- and Republican-leaning competitive seats -- there were none -- was evidence that Republicans drew the map to benefit themselves, in violation of the new rules.
It was the third time the Ohio Supreme Court had struck down a Republican-drawn state legislative map under the new redistricting standards.
The delays in redistricting have imperiled planning for the May 3 primary election since the state legislative maps are still not done, and early voting begins next Tuesday. In court filings on Monday, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said it’s now too late for the state legislative districts to be used for the May 3 primary, and said a second primary election would have to be held for the state legislative races.
Here is a partisan breakdown of the plan Republicans approved on Monday.
The Ohio General Assembly plan introduced by Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission on Monday, March 28, 2022. It is shaded for partisan lean, with darker shades of blue signaling more heavily Democratic leaning districts and darker shades of red indicating Republican ones. (Ohio Redistricting Commission / Dave's Redistricting App)