Following a similar trajectory as before, Republicans unveiled the plan Monday night shortly before approving it at 10:20 p.m., just before the midnight legal deadline set by the Ohio Supreme Court. The move to abandon the plan by outside cartographers, who have been drawing live-stream maps since Thursday, sparked outright opposition from outraged Democrats. It could also create Republicans to bypass the Ohio Supreme Court through a legal maneuver involving an ongoing lawsuit by Republican activists filed in federal court. Several Republican members of the Restructuring Committee, including Gov. Mike DeWine, said they saw it for the first time just minutes before being asked to approve it. Senate President Matt Huffman, a Republican in Lima, described the surprise plan as a “parachute” to ensure that the restructuring committee met the deadline. “If at some point the Ohio Supreme Court does not like this map and they give us extra time to prepare another one, we will do it,” Huffman said. “We are working with a number of bad choices,” Huffman told reporters earlier Monday. “And if one of them is that we do nothing, at least that does something.” DeWine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Huffman and House Speaker Bob Cupp were Republicans who voted “yes.” Republican Auditor Keith Faber voted “no” with the two Democrats on the committee, House Minority Leader Allison Rousseau and State Sen. Vernon Sykes. Faber has different objections from the Democrats – he voted against the previous version of the plan for the existence of too many community divisions which was a by-product of the creation of additional Democratic districts. “I think there is a decent chance this map will not pass the court test,” he told reporters after the vote. Jen Miller, executive director of the Ohio League of Women Voters, said she believed Republicans on the restructuring committee despised the court by approving a map almost identical to the one the court had previously rejected. LWV is among the teams that successfully sued and retrieved previous map sets. “It simply came to our notice then. “And it’s disappointing to see that,” Miller said. Republicans did not share a partisan analysis of the map, but described it as a region with 54% Republicans and 46% Democrats. It said it has 17 districts slightly to the Democrats, three fewer than the one rejected by the court. The Dave’s Redistricting App, a widely used redistribution site, promotes it as functionally identical to the most recent bill rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court and likely to retain a Republican majority with a veto in the state legislature. Cupp said Republican map makers modified three Democratic-leaning districts in the old plan, which was rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court on March 16, to make them slightly more democratic. The March 16 ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court overturned the old plan to limit a significant number of slightly sloping Democratic districts without a corresponding Republican. But in addition to the political tendencies of the charter, the court also sued behind the scenes, citing the fact that Republicans had their staff draw the map without the Democrats’ input, presenting it shortly before approving it for a vote. The same general description that the court used to accuse the old plan applies to the new one. In response to court rulings, the redistribution committee hired a bipartisan pair of mapping consultants last week, Michael McDonald of the University of Florida and Doug Johnson of a consulting firm in California. The couple spent four days designing the maps in a living room, and the state agreed to pay them just under $ 100,000 for the work. However, they had not yet completed a Senate map. Shortly before the Republicans approved their plan, Johnson estimated that it would take another 45 minutes to complete a draft of the Senate map, having completed a House plan. Around 11 p.m., Democrats presented what they said was a comprehensive plan they completed with Johnson and asked Republicans to approve it. They refused, criticizing some of the neighborhoods as non-compact and strangely shaped. By the time Huffman announced at 5pm on Monday that he was ready to abandon the plan and have Republican officials approve a new one, members of the restructuring committee had the impression that the external map drawers were working on something the committee would eventually go through. He said he wanted a backup plan after concluding that outside map makers were unlikely to complete their work on time. Although he did not publicly announce his plan until Monday afternoon, he told reporters he decided to turn to the backup map on Saturday, two days after outside map makers began work. Rousseau, an Upper Arlington Democrat, described the process that led to the map as a “farce.” “This is exactly what the Ohio Supreme Court has told us we should not do,” Rousseau said. Sykes, an Akron Democrat, said: “There seems to be no end to the arrogance of the majority.” Activists from different, allied groups filled the hall of the State House committee where the restructuring committee met on Monday, mocking and shouting Republicans as they approved the maps. Security escorted some out because they had large signs in violation of State House rules. Along with the state process, there is a Republican-backed lawsuit seeking a federal court to overturn the Ohio Supreme Court and reinstate the plan that the state court rejected on March 16. The court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. The state Republicans are likely to persuade the federal court to accept the bill, which was approved Monday night, as, unlike other state legislatures, it has not been rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court. Democrats said Monday night they plan to continue working with Johnson, who was elected by Republicans to the House of Commons. Democrat-brought cartographer McDonald left the Statehouse around 5pm to take a return flight to Florida, where he said he had to take a class Tuesday morning. Democrats, meanwhile, said they believed Republicans never intended to make serious efforts to allow outside cartographers to complete their work, accusing them of deliberately delaying foreign map issues and not sending staff to help complete it. on Monday. “This is a classic, keep a map in the box and get it out at the last minute,” Russo said. Johnson and MacDonald shared a draft map of Ohio House Monday afternoon showing work in progress. They have been working on it since Thursday. The councilors’ charter would favor Republicans winning 55 of the 99 seats in Parliament. There are six competing seats, three of which are pro-Democrat and three pro-Republican. The Ohio Supreme Court has given the Restructuring Commission until midnight Monday to approve a new plan. It ruled that the old one was illegally condemned in favor of Republicans, citing the new Ohio redistribution standards that voters added to the state constitution in 2015 as an anti-aggression reform. Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and the three Democrats in the court said the significant imbalance on the map between competing Democratic seats – there were more than 20 – and competing Republican seats – there was none – proves that Republicans designed the map to benefit themselves, in violation of the new rules. It was the third time the Ohio Supreme Court had overturned a state legislative map drafted by Republicans under the new redistribution standards. Delays in reshuffling have jeopardized planning for the May 3 by-elections, as state legislative charts have not yet been finalized and early voting begins next Tuesday. In court statements Monday, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said it was too late for the state’s constituencies to be used for the May 3 primaries, and said a second state overnight quorum should be held. The following is a partial analysis of the plan approved by Republicans on Monday. The Ohio General Assembly draft was introduced by Republicans to the Ohio Restructuring Committee on Monday, March 28, 2022. It is overshadowed by partisan austerity, with darker shades of blue marking more democratically inclined regions and darker shades. of red denoting Republican. (Ohio Restructuring Commission / Dave’s Redistricting Application)
