After 503 days of doing absolutely nothing, the Republican majority on the Ohio Redistricting Commission met in Columbus Wednesday and did what most people involved knew they would do.
They rolled out new district maps for the Ohio House and Senate which, to the surprise of exactly no one, will achieve the objective they have had all along — preserving the GOP's supermajority grip on the Ohio General Assembly, at least through the 2024 election.
Something they could have done 14 months ago.
But, back then, they couldn't. They still had an Ohio Supreme Court in the spring of 2022 that slapped down five — count 'em, five — sets of maps, saying they violated the state's constitution.
This time around, though, Maureen O'Connor, the former Republican chief justice, isn't around to foil their plan by voting with the three Democrats on the seven-member Ohio Supreme Court.
This time, they will have a friendly court to deal with.
ANALYSIS: Maureen O'Connor may be retiring from Ohio's high court, but not from tormenting the GOP
So when they met Wednesday, the five Republicansrolled out their plan, after steamrolling over the two Democrats on the commission and their map, which was actually close to Ohio's voting patterns in recent years.
The Democratic plan won't even be considered by the majority Republican commission.
And the Republicans approved a series of three rapid-fire hearings for Friday, Sept. 22, as well as that following Monday and Tuesday.
If you live in Cincinnati, Toledo or Akron — the major cities most impacted by the GOP maps — you had better gas up the car. The first two are in state parks in Pickaway and Geauga counties, the third is in Columbus.
And they are only being held because the state constitution requires three public hearings to be held before maps can be adopted.
But Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, one of the two Democrats on the commission, objected to the "accelerated' nature of the public hearings.
"I question the ability to have meaningful public participation in this process," Russo said Wednesday.
The hearings will stretch out a few days beyond the Sept. 22 deadline for new maps set by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican member of the commission who said it would help boards of elections prepare for the March 2024 Ohio primary.
"There's a great urgency to this," LaRose said at Wednesday's meeting. "The sooner we can get this done the better."
That statement by LaRose begs the question, if time is of the essence, why did the commission waste 16 months without meeting?
If the goal of the Republicans is preserving their current veto-proof supermajority in the House and Senate — and that clearly is the goal — the maps they submitted Wednesday do just that.
Republicans have supermajorities of more than 60% of the House and Senate seats — the threshold for a supermajority.
The GOP would likely keep that under the maps they proposed, although they are to give up a few seats in the 99-member House and the 33-member Senate.
Their plan would likely result in a 23-10 split in the Senate (Republicans currently have 26) and a 62-37 split in the House, where they now have 67 seats.
Both chambers would result in GOP supermajorities.
The plan submitted by Russo and Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio would likely shake out to be 19 Republicans and 14 Democrats in the Senate and 56 Republicans and 43 Democrats in the House.
Under the Democratic plan, Republicans would still be the majority party, but not a supermajority, free to enact any legislation they see fit, without involving legislators on the other side of the aisle at all.
"The Republicans know exactly what they are doing," said David B. Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron. "They have no intention in giving up their supermajority.
"It is the way they will keep their power," he added. "Their maps are the key to holding on to power."
But, ultimately, if they can't get a Democratic vote for their plan, it will only be good for the 2024 election. With Democratic support, the maps could last through the next U.S. Census in 2030.
Redistricting vote could be in Ohio's future
Ohio Republicans keep giving their opponents on the Democratic side the best arguments for replacing Ohio's system for drawing legislative district lines.
A coalition of voting rights groups called Citizens Not Politicians — which includes former chief justice O'Connor — is working to get an issue on the ballot in November 2024 when there will be a high turnout presidential contest.
What they want is a new redistricting system that would take elected officials — Democrats and Republicans — entirely out of the process of drawing new maps.
A 15-member commission — made up of Democrats, Republicans and independents, all non-elected officials — would have the power to adopt maps.
It's roughly based on a Michigan system approved by voters there in 2021. It has worked well, so far.
ANALYSIS: What Michigan can teach Ohio about redistricting
But Citizens Not Politicians has had some trouble with Dave Yost, the Republican Ohio Attorney General. Yost has twice rejected the group's petition language, making it impossible for the group to start gathering signatures to place the plan on the ballot.
But they plan to keep trying until they can get it past Yost.
They are keeping their eye on the prize: creating a system for Ohio where voters choose their politicians instead of politicians choosing their voters.
