Ohio Republicans choose to fight abortion amendment the hard way

[RandySF]

Earlier this month the Ohio Republican Party central committee met in a downtown Columbus ballroom. The state party has a lot to celebrate. Republicans across the country underwhelmed in 2022, but not in Ohio. The GOP carried the big-ticket statewide races, won every state supreme court race and two ballot measures.

But the prevailing mood was a cocktail of triumphalism, frustration, and fear. Plenty of committee members took a victory lap, but their boasts were often framed as a warning.

“We’ve changed this state from purple to red,” David Glass said as he cautioned fellow members that a “right to work” platform would threaten that success.

Echoing Glass, LeeAnn Johnson, wife of Congressman Bill Johnson, described moving to a solid blue Mahoning County in 2006.

“I have watched this region turn slowly into a very red, very Republican, very pro-Trump district,” she argued. “And we have had so much support from the trades from the unions and placing this plank in our platform is going to ostracize the very people that worked hard to get President Trump elected in Ohio.”

On a state supreme court endorsement proposal one member insisted, “we must endorse today, we absolutely have to.” Even the primary election in that race is still a year out. But other members justified the urgency by warning that Democrats — who they handily defeated about six months ago — are already campaigning.

That sense of precariousness — that Republicans’ success rests on a knife’s edge — may reveal a lot about the supermajority ballot measure likely headed for the August ballot.

An abortion rights amendment might go to voters in November. But rather than fight that on the merits, Republicans are doing it the hard way — forcing a debate over how to amend the constitution that threatens to alienate traditional allies and drive a wedge further into the party’s Statehouse supermajority.



https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/05/17/ohio-republicans-choose-to-fight-abortion-amendment-the-hard-way/

[Hope22]

1. Remember illegal gerrymandering has harnessed this state

In 2015, the Fair Districts=Fair Elections Ohio coalition supported a ballot measure addressing the gerrymandering of state legislative districts. The measure created a bipartisan redistricting commission to replace a heavily partisan process. The passage of the measure was the culmination of years of work of (c)(3)s, (c)(4)s, and unions to educate voters about how gerrymandered districts impact the state. Through gerrymandering, some voters are disenfranchised, and the number of competitive races decreases, which in turn can make it nearly impossible to remove ineffective elected officials. Voters had defeated three previous measures to create a less partisan method of drawing legislative districts, so coalition partners had focused on a state-wide effort to educate voters to secure passage of the 2015 initiative.

Because the 2015 vote only applied to the drawing of state district lines, the coalition stayed together to extend that initial victory to the redistricting process for congressional districts. This effort culminated with Issue 1 on the May 2018 ballot, a bi-partisan effort garnering 74.85% of support from voters.n

https://bolderadvocacy.org/story/redistricting-in-ohio/

Imagine after 74.85% of the voters supported correcting the problem in 2018 the Republicans have held up the process by imbalanced committees, refusing to allow Dems on committees and creating Congressional maps that continued to favor Republicans. Finally, the maps that came out of this corrupt system were rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court in 2022. Since 2015 Ohio has been dealing with unfair districts that give advantage to Republicans. since 2015 we are still suffering with a Republican Party that refuses to follow the voters will, the law and the Ohio Supreme Court! This is why I get so sick when people say….vote and your problems will be solved. We will face another Presidential election under illegal gerrymandered districts. The people who say gerrymandering does not affect Presidential elections are ignorant to the fact that over time this process has eroded our entire political process. In 2024 it will have been 10 years of voters patiently waiting for the solution to be implemented. Many ballots across the state are filled with republican candidates running unopposed because the expense of the campaign for a most certain Democratic defeat is not sustainable. As the article states, the gerrymandering has taken its tole on the system. But, the voters voted many many years ago to fix it. The Republicans refuse to fix it and appear to be getting away with it quite nicely. There is no end in sight. 2024 looms and nothing will change before that election. They changed this state from purple to red by illegally hogtying the Democratic Party of the state!