GOP starting rumors about Ohio redistricting

[OzarkDem]

Sounds like more GOP projection. What morans.

"But as Republicans wondered aloud in recent weeks about what those suddenly-powerful Democrats might have in store for them, the clearer it became. Statehouse Republicans were downright paranoid about what the Democrats might do with their newfound power.

That paranoia may have been to blame for rumors circulating among GOP lawmakers about what newly elected Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland were cooking up for them. The duo, which makes up two of three seats on the state apportionment board that draws legislative district lines after each decade's census, was said to be scheming to convene the board before the 2010 census and draw the lines early.

It might have been legal -- remember when Republicans pulled a similar stunt in Texas resulting in Democrats hilariously hightailing it for Holiday Inns just over the state line -- but it would have scuttled the bipartisan warm fuzzies that have been radiating from Strickland since his win. Anyway, it's definitely not happening, Strickland said."

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_openers/archives/2006_11.html#209738

[Doctor_J]

1. We don't need to cheat - just count the votes

If Strickland and Brunner clean up Whitewell's crimes, OH will be blue for the forseeable future.

[dsc]

2. It isn't cheating

the Supreme Court said so. We should redistrict immediately in Ohio and any other state we can.

[theHandpuppet]

3. Hell, I've been PRAYING for redistricting!

I'll be severely disappointed if redistricting isn't on the table and here's why:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/theHandpuppet/71
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2946873
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/theHandpuppet/70
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/theHandpuppet/69

[NoodleBoy]

three words: independent redistricting commission

[HereSince1628]

6. Is it possible to have such a thing?

Can anything really be independent? I'd like to believe it's possible, but I no longer trust appointees or software manufacturers.

[NoodleBoy]

8. the way Arizona's is structured, it's balanced toward the middle

basically, the floor leaders for both parties in the state house and state senate each select a commissioner, then those four have to unanimously appoint a fifth member who would serve as chair and is not a member of a party already represented, and no commissioner may have ever been a candidate, appointee to another office, or staff for a party or candidate's campaign.

Iowa has done some pretty good stuff... not sure how theirs works, though.

[pdxmom]

4. They come up with this stuff because they know that, at the first

possible chance, this is something they would do. They always, always, always project their own slimey ways onto others.

[WCGreen]

5. I think the House and the Senate get one seat each as well....

There are five seats, I believe, and the GOP still holds a majority...

Now I believe that the Governor has to convine the board...

[dsc]

7. Nope

The House majority and the House minority get one seat each.

[OzarkDem]

9. Ted says he won't do it on the sly, though

I recall the Ohio GOP making noises about off-year redistricting a couple of years ago, right after the Texas thing.

[WCGreen]

10. They didn't have to....

The seats were drawn by a republican committee after the 1990 census...

Remember, George V was Gov, Bob Taft was Sec State, and Jim Petro was Auditor...

Back then, we still had the House....

It wasn't unitl after the 1994 election that the Dem's lost the House...