The Ohio Redistricting Commission met for the first time Tuesday morning to consider how to draw congressional maps. But the meeting ended with no introduction of a new 15-district map. And that caused controversy.
Audience members jeered, telling the commission members to "do your jobs" as the first meeting ended Tuesday without introducing a map that Republicans would consider.
Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood), who's one of two Democrats on the panel, said majority Republicans are slow-walking the process.
“We’ve all heard rumors about taking our congressional seats down from the five that the Democrats hold right now, taking them down to two, taking them down to three," Antonio told reporters after the meeting. "We don’t know because we've not seen a map."
House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati), who's the other Democrat on the commission, agreed, saying without a map, the commission isn't doing its job.
"We know what happens if we let this run its course, because we've seen what has happened all over the country—that the party in charge, the majority party has gone for broke," Isaacsohn said. "And in Ohio, what that would look like is a 13-2 map in a state that is much closer to 55%-45% than anything else. We cannot afford to let that happen."
Commission Chair Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) said GOP legislative leaders have been talking about a possible map behind closed doors but aren’t ready to introduce it yet. And he said Democrats have the upper hand.
"I think the ball is kind of in the Democrats' court to decide what deal they are or not willing to take. And we started this process with Democrats coming out and kind of drawing a line in the sand and fundraising off it, saying 'we will accept nothing less than the five we have now. And actually, we really wouldn't accept anything less than the seven we'd like to get'," Stewart told reporters. “We're not going to just show all of our notes in public while you're trying to have discussions between legislative leaders about what they wouldn't support."
In her comments during the meeting, Antonio said if lawmakers don't come up with a bipartisan map, Democrats will consider going back to voters with another attempt to change the constitutional process for redistricting. Stewart was asked what he thought about that possibility.
"Obviously that's a consideration when we're deciding; both sides have pros and cons depending on which road you want to go down," Stewart said. "Republicans have the ability in a phase three to pass a map with a simple majority vote, but there are some downstream effects of that if folks want to go that route."
The Ohio Redistricting Commission is the second phase of the map-drawing process. A map would have to be approved by the commission, with both Democrats voting for it, by Oct. 31. The third phase, if needed, is returning to the full legislature for a vote on a map by Nov. 30. Republicans could pass a map with a simple majority vote. Since the GOP has supermajorities in the House and Senate, they could pass a map without a single Democratic vote.
Democrats and some Republicans backed an effort last November to change the constitutionally prescribed process to take it away from lawmakers and put it in the hands of a citizen-led panel. It failed with 54% of the vote.
Stewart pushed back on the assertions by Democrats that Ohio is a 55%-45% political preference.
"Donald Trump won by 12 points," Stewart said, referencing the 2024 election results in Ohio. And he said people wouldn't have to "squint very hard" to see what the contours of a map might look like in the end.
"I think that clearly the Toledo seat, the Akron seat and the Cincinnati seat are probably the most hotly contested races generally," Stewart said. "I don't think I'm giving away any secrets to political reporters. Those are probably the seats that are most discussed when we're talking about whether there's going to be a deal."
Those seats are currently occupied by U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Emilia Sykes and Greg Landsman, who are all Democrats.
With the deadline next Friday, Stewart said there will be another Ohio Redistricting Commission meeting, but he didn't say when.
