Republicans’ new legislative redistricting plan would make it easier for them to expand their House and Senate supermajorities, as well as create fewer competitive districts overall.
The redistricting plan, which legislative GOP leaders unveiled earlier this week, also is designed to help keep many incumbents from both parties in office, though it also hurts the chances for a handful of lawmakers – mostly freshmen – to win reelection.
Last year’s redistricting plan was repeatedly found by the Ohio Supreme Court to be unconstitutionally gerrymandered in favor of Republicans. The ruling means that the Ohio Redistricting Commission has to again pass new House and Senate district lines ahead of the 2024 election. A number of Stephens allies also would find themselves living in districts that are more GOP-friendly than they are now, including Republican state Reps. Al Cutrona of Mahoning County, Andrea White of the Dayton area, and Nick Santucci of Trumbull County.
On the other hand, many incumbents in non-competitive districts, especially Republicans in rural areas, would see no change to their districts at all.Republicans on Wednesday emphasized that they strove to meet a number of requirements laid out in the Ohio Constitution, including that the districts be compact, limits on splitting counties and cities into different districts, and ensuring that state senators who were elected to four-year terms in 2022.
The question is whether the redistricting commission this year should update that decade-long “lookback” to drop the 2012 election and include the 2022 midterms . That would justify Republicans in drawing a higher percentage of districts where their candidates have an advantage. “I’m going to draw people inherently into a district where they don’t feel like their representative represents them,” Faber said. “And that is the key when we talk about avoiding gerrymandering.”
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