Akron Beacon Journal...
Drawn to excess  
September  25,  2011 

Republicans rammed their map of the state’s new 16 congressional districts through the legislature Wedneday on party-line votes, sending the plan to Gov. John Kasich in the same spirit of excessive partisanship evident from the beginning of the redistricting process. The state is headed toward a March 6 primary with 12 districts that heavily favor Republican candidates, a goal accomplished to a large degree by packing Democrats into several oddly shaped territories, among them a district stretching from Cleveland to Akron. 

Republicans argued the new 11th District, drawn to protect Marcia Fudge, a Cleveland-area Democrat who is the only African-American in the state delegation, must have a voting-age population that is 51 percent African-American. No such requirement exists in the Voting Rights Act. What the Republicans accomplished was a district with a Democratic voting index of 80 percent, opening suburban territory with better odds for the GOP. 

Gone was the moderation shown after the 1990 census, when Republicans adopted a map for the Ohio legislature under the guidance of Jim Tilling, then chief executive officer of the Ohio Senate. The results are evident today, with nine Ohio House districts with between 40 percent and 50 percent African-American voters, and five above. 

None shatters communities of interest as the new 11th U.S. House District does, leaving a pocket of Akron voters isolated. Of the nine legislative districts below 50 percent African-American, eight have African-American representatives. Of the five above 50 percent, four are so represented. In other words, getting to 51 percent means nothing, except to gain partisan advantage. 

In their zeal to lock down U.S. House seats, Republicans invite eventual retaliation by Democrats, contributing to a style of politics that seeks maximum short-term gains, with little chance for long-range compromise. 

Worth recalling is Jon Husted’s effort at compromise in 2009 and 2010, as a Republican state senator. Now secretary of state, he backed a bipartisan commission to devise congressional and legislative districts, while Democrats emphasized the adoption of formulas for compactness, competitiveness and overall fairness. In the end, the old system remained, Republicans controlling congressional redistricting by controlling the legislature and the governor’s office and winning the statewide offices that decide new legislative districts. 

Given the stakes, devising a system that eliminates political influences on new districts is an impossibility. The goal, as Husted correctly realized, is to inject bipartisanship, blunting just the kind of excesses his party demonstrated this week. 

Read it at the Akron Beacon Journal