The Daily Briefing: Kasich will not seek congressional redistricting in budget

The Daily Briefing: Kasich will not seek congressional redistricting in budget

Kasich wants congressional redistricting reform in state budget | The Columbus Dispatch

Kasich wants congressional redistricting reform in state budget | The Columbus Dispatchjavascript:void(0)

We Was Warned This Could Happen

Joan Fitz-Gerald Former President, America Votes; Former President of the Colorado State Senate 
Stealing The White House One Gerrymander At A Time

Less vs More and Less Wins Every Time

DAVID DALEY

David Daley is the CEO of the Connecticut News Project and the former editor-in-chief of Salon.  His byline appeared on this article dated August 19, 2016 on the website "Moyers & Company"

The Real Way the 2016 Election Is Rigged 

Report on Election and redistricting

It's not #democracy when politicians pick their voters. We need #redistricting reform NOW. pic.twitter.com/aLf4onalc6

— DemocracyIsForPeople (@democracy4ppl) August 12, 2016

Surprise from Gov. Kasich

Kasich Calls For Dramatic Reform To Congressional Redistricting

By Andy Chow  Dec. 23, 2015

While looking back at the state’s accomplishments in 2015, Gov. John Kasich came out with a firm stance to reform redistricting both in Ohio and nationally. 

Gov. John Kasich said he wants to see dramatic reform to the way voting districts are drawn to stop the practice known as gerrymandering, where a district heavily favors one political party.

Kasich says gerrymandering is forcing politicians to take up more extreme stances.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, I think we need massive…I think we need to eliminate gerrymandering, we gotta figure out a way to do it, we gotta be aggressive on it and we gotta have more competitive districts. That to me is what’s good for the state of Ohio and what’s good for the country,” said Kasich.

He made this announcement with the House Speaker and Senate President sitting just to his right. The General Assembly helped pass state legislative redistricting, but they’ve pumped the breaks on trying to change the way congressional districts are drawn.

Copyright 2015 90.3 WCPN Ideastream. To see more, visit 90.3 WCPN Ideastream.

Found this article on WOSU Radio web page

Brennan Center Analysis of Evenwel v Abbott

The Impact of Evenwel: How Using Voters Instead of People Would Dramatically Change Redistricting

A big upheaval could be coming for America’s state legislatures. On December 8, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Evenwel v. Abbott, a closely watched case from Texas that will decide whether states must change the way they draw legislative districts. The new analysis in this paper shows that if the Evenwelchallengers prevail, the nationwide impact will be far greater than previously assumed.

Like other states, Texas currently draws districts so they contain a roughly equal number of people rather than voters. Indeed, over the course of American history districts have overwhelmingly been drawn this way. But the Evenwel challengers say Texas’s legislative plans are unconstitutional because while districts may contain approximately the same number of people, many vary widely in the number of eligible voters.

So far, a lot of the attention around the case has focused on how changing the way districts are drawn would impact fast-growing Latino communities in certain states. And to be sure, some of the biggest changes would be in booming metro areas, such as Dallas, Houston, and Los Angeles, which have high numbers of both children and non-citizen immigrants. Latino majority districts, in particular, would become much harder to draw in many parts of the country.

But this new Brennan Center analysis shows the impact of a change would be far greater than expected and not confined to just a few states. In fact, if the Evenwelplaintiffs win and the rules are changed so lines must be drawn based on citizen voting age population instead of total population:

• Every state legislative map in the country would become presumptively unconstitutional under Equal Protection principles and would need to be redrawn.
   
• Nationwide, 21.3 percent of state house seats and 16.7 percent of state senate seats would be presumptively unconstitutional. In eight states, the percentage of house or senate districts with constitutional problems would be more than 40 percent.
   
• Redrawing maps to comply with constitutional requirements would require changing far more districts because of cascade effects from changes elsewhere on the map. 

Read the full analysis here .

Speaker Rosenberger 71% Want Change

Cleveland.com Editorial Nov. 14, 2015

Congressional redistricting reform cannot be shoved to Ohio House's back burner: editorial

Ohio voters made it irrefutably clear on Nov. 3 that they want the state's General Assembly districts drawn fairly. Issue 1, a bipartisan plan sponsored by then-state Reps. Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, and Vernon Sykes, an Akron Democrat, drew "yes" votes from 71 percent of those voting on the measure, which carried all 88 counties.

Issue 1 changes how Ohio will draw its 99 state House and 33 state Senate districts after the 2020 Census.

State panel wants congressional redistricting reform

The goal is to present the General Assembly a proposal for drawing congressional districts that is similar to one voters approved overwhelmingly Nov. 3 that amended the process laid out in the Ohio Constitution for drawing legislative districts for the Ohio House and Senate.

The next step toward fairness should be an equally bipartisan mechanism for drawing Ohio's 16 U.S. House districts. But based on post-election comments by Ohio House Speaker Clifford Rosenberger, a Clarksville Republican, it appears that reforming how Ohio draws congressional districts will be a tough sell in Columbus. Rosenberger has to find a way to make it happen.

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Congressional districts are now drawn by the Ohio General Assembly. When the Republican-run legislature last redrew them, in a bill Republican Gov. John Kasich signed in September 2011, Butler County Republican John Boehner, then the U.S. House's speaker, had as much to say about the new district boundaries as anyone at the Statehouse. Aim: to maximize the number of Republicans in Ohio's congressional delegation. Boehner succeeded: Of 16 U.S. House members from Ohio, 12 are Republicans, four, Democrats, from a state that twice backed Barack Obama.

Public documents obtained by Ohio voter advocates show a key representative of U.S. House Speaker John Boehner was central in drawing the state's disputed congressional map.

Now pending in the General Assembly is a reasonable plan for fairly drawing Ohio congressional districts, sponsored by state Sens. Frank LaRose, a Copley Township Republican, and Tom Sawyer, an Akron Democrat.

The LaRose-Sawyer bill is a good starting point for legislative action. But there are two obstacles.

Problem One: Public pieties aside, Ohioans now in the U.S. House, regardless of party, likely don't want to change how Ohio draws its congressional districts because, after all, Ohio's current method got them where they are – in lavishly paid and essentially lifetime jobs.

Reforming congressional redistricting apt to take time

Reform has backers on both sides of the aisle, but it could be some time before voters see another ballot proposal. Ultimately, the most important opinions may come from those who hold the congressional seats that would be affected.

But Ohio voters have signaled they're tired of business as usual, which brings up Problem Two: Speaker Rosenberger wants "to see a conversation continue to happen" on redistricting, he told cleveland.com's Robert Higgs.

With all due respect, the General Assembly has talked itself hoarse about congressional redistricting; the outrages today's method allows are self-evident. Action is what Ohioans want -- not more talk.

This editorial was updated at 4:05 pm to correct the party affiliation for former state Rep. Matt Huffman of Lima.

Fair Design of Congressional Districts

Columbus Dispatch November 14, 2015

Letter to the Editor

Let’s extend fair design of districts to Congress

Voters sent a clear message on Nov. 3 when they approved State Issue 1: They want fair legislative districts.

We agree. The League of Women Voters of Ohio and our allies have long been calling for an end to gerrymandering, in the form of fair rules and a transparent process for drawing districts.

Passing State Issue 1 only got us halfway there. It created a new, fair process for drawing Ohio General Assembly districts but did not include congressional districts. The League, Common Cause Ohio, Progress Ohio and other allies seized on landslide voter approval of Issue 1 to call for extending the same fair-districts process to Congress, whose districts are even more gerrymandered.

Some political leaders didn’t even wait 24 hours before coming out as publicly opposed to congressional-redistricting reform. Why would Ohio’s political leaders who endorsed Issue 1 and praised this new bipartisan redistricting plan for state legislative districts in the same breath voice opposition to applying the same fair rules to congressional redistricting?

This is what Issue 1 will do:

• Create a bipartisan process for drawing districts so that one party cannot rig districts in its favor.

• Require districts to reflect the voting history of each community, instead of being manipulated to artificially favor or disfavor a political party or a particular candidate.

• Ensure transparency, in the form of public hearings and a public process for drawing maps.

• Keep communities whole, so that we don’t have oddly shaped districts that stretch long distances across numerous counties whose residents might have little in common.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted said Ohioans voted against monopolies, both economic monopolies in States Issues 2 and 3 and political monopolies in Issue 1. Of all three, Issue 1 won by the widest margin, with 71.5 percent of voters saying no to politicians rigging legislative districts in their favor. Issue 1 passed by wide margins in all 88 counties.

Voters clearly expressed their support of fair districts. And the people of Ohio deserve nothing less than a fair and open redistricting process for all districts, including those for Congress.

CARRIE DAVIS

Executive director

League of Women Voters of Ohio

Columbus