Dayton Daily News...
Boehner could get more of Dayton, its suburbs
By Ken McCall and William Hershey 

COLUMBUS — The Ohio House today is set to take a politically charged vote on a map creating 16 new U.S. House districts that could pit two Dayton-area Republican congressmen, Mike Turner of Centerville and Steve Austria of Beavercreek, in an epic 2012 primary showdown. 

Today’s vote comes after a House committee Wednesday approved the Republican-drawn plan on a party-line vote that left minority Democrats fuming and Republicans blaming Democrats for not coming up with a plan of their own. 

The GOP plan was unveiled for the first time Tuesday. 

“This is a very reckless and dangerous railroad we’re running here,” said Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria. “Unfortunately, Ohioans are going to suffer.” 

Rep. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, chairman of the State Government and Elections Committee, said money was allocated to Democrats to draw their own map and they didn’t. 

“You can’t have input into the process if you’re not going to participate,” Huffman said. 

The legislature draws up new U.S. House districts every 10 years based on the Census, but this year’s process required shrinking the Ohio U.S. House delegation from 18 to 16 because the state’s population didn’t grow as fast as states that gained seats. 

Turner and Austria were the only two Republicans put into the same new district in a new configuration that also involved U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester. 

The map takes a sizeable chunk of Montgomery County that’s in Turner’s current 3rd District and puts it in Boehner’s new 8th District. The area includes parts of Dayton, Harrison Twp., Riverside, Huber Heights and Butler Twp. A Dayton Daily News examination of the two districts shows that 108,634 adults — or about 26 percent of those 18 and older — would be in Boehner’s district. 

Boehner currently represents a small part of northeastern Montgomery County. 

The rest of Montgomery County, along with Greene, Fayette, Pickaway and part of Fairfield County would be in the new 10th District, in which Turner and Austria would have to compete against each other. 

Based on previous election results, neither incumbent emerges as a clear favorite. 

In 2010, Turner got 152,629 votes in a landslide win over Democrat Joe Roberts, but just 102,187 came from Montgomery County. The new map that hands parts of Dayton and much of its northern suburbs to Boehner could cut into that total. 

Meanwhile, Austria received 135,721 votes that year in a landslide win against three other candidates. About 88,482 votes were in four counties that are part of the new district. 

Turner and Austria both expressed confidence Tuesday about running next year. 

The map has set off a firestorm of protest from Democrats across the state, including in Montgomery County. 

Republicans have defended the map, saying they had to make tough choices to reduce the number of districts and keep the new districts equal in population, a key requirement. 

“It’s a joke, but the joke is on the voters of Ohio, because they don’t get consolidated districts,” said Mark Owens, Montgomery County Democratic chairman. 

Montgomery County Republican Chairman Greg Gantt was not thrilled with a Turner-Austria primary — he’ll back Turner — but said the Republican mapmakers met a stiff challenge. 

“Like anything else, politics or sports, you play within the rules. If there’s an advantage and you can find some way, you take it,” Gantt said. 

One analysis, done by the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting, made up of groups supporting compact, competitive districts, found just two of the 16 redrawn districts can be considered competitive, and those two still favor the Republican candidate. The group found 12 of the new districts favor Republicans and four favor Democrats. The analysis was based on votes cast in the 2008 presidential race and 2010 races for governor, auditor and secretary of state. 

Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern today is to outline Democratic plans for challenging the new map. He said Wednesday this could include gathering signatures to put a referendum on the plan on the 2012 ballot. 

“The Republicans clearly have overreached once again,” Redfern said. 

The vote on the new map is complicated by a squabble between Republicans and Democrats over changing Ohio’s 2012 primary from March to May to give candidates and boards of election more time to prepare. A vote on the date change also is expected today. 

House Minority Leader Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, said Democrats no longer will keep an agreement to provide the seven votes needed to make the date change emergency legislation, taking effect immediately, because of GOP haste in passing the new map. 

That leaves a dilemma: Without those votes, the date change can pass, but only as a nonemergency requiring 90 days before becoming law. And those 90 days would take the state beyond the Dec. 7 filing deadline for a March primary, which means the candidates would have no time to file in their new districts. 

Huffman said one solution would be to have a separate primary for U.S. House candidates and presidential primary candidates in May. However, a second primary would be costly, he said. 

Read it at the Dayton Daily News