Gerrymandered Ohio --Hopefully Things Will Get Better
I posted this some time ago but wanted to re-post in light of some discussions we've had here on DU recently.
WASHINGTON — Ohio has some of the nation’s most-gerrymandered statehouse and congressional maps, according to a new Associated Press analysis — a fact that comes as no surprise to those who have successfully pushed to reform the district-drawing process after the next census.
With a firm grip on Ohio state government, including sizable majorities in the House and Senate, Republicans were able to draw legislative and congressional maps with pinpoint precision, helping ensure they would maintain those majorities even if the political tide turned against them for a cycle or two.
In Ohio House races last year, Republicans got 52 percent of the vote but won 61 percent of the districts, allowing them to continue to hold a super-majority despite losing five seats. Based on data compiled by the Associated Press, Ohio’s gerrymandered House districts allowed Republicans to win seven more seats than they otherwise should have judging by vote totals.
That means the House, according to the analysis, would be 54–46 Republican, instead of the current 61-38, if the map were drawn fairly.
The GOP-drawn districts also protected Republicans in Ohio’s U.S. House delegation. Republicans got 52 percent of the vote but won 75 percent of the seats — the same 12-4 margin that has existed since the current district maps were drawn in 2011. According to the AP analysis, Ohio’s maps allowed Republicans to hold three more seats than they otherwise should have.
Michael Li, senior redistricting counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, said Ohio has one of the most “problematic” congressional maps in the nation, with an impenetrable 12–4 GOP advantage.
While Republicans hold all but one statewide nonjudicial office, he dismisses the notion that the state is overwhelmingly Republican.
“Ohio may be trending Republican, but it’s not a 75 percent Republican state,” he said. The map drawn in 2011 was “a very deliberate prioritization of politics over everything else.”
More: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190321/bad-ohio-gerrymandering-is-among-nations-worst-good-it-should-get-better
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