Democratic legislators file lawsuit over state legislative map

We've heard a lot of talk about the bizarrely gerrymandered and partisan congressional map drawn by the Republicans, especially after the early December release of a report from citizen groups like the League of Women Voters and Ohio Citizen Action revealing how corrupt and secretive the map-drawing process was.

http://www.moneyinpoliticsohio.org/2011/transparency.html

We hadn't heard much about the drawing of the state legislative districts, and theoretically we shouldn't have. Although not widely known the Ohio Constitution theoretically protects that map from the same sort of political predations as the congressional map, mandating compact, contiguous districts.

Theoretically.

I'm sure you know where this is going considering the current crop of elected Republicans led by a governor whose ongoing attitude has been, "I"m not going to let any constitution get in the way of what I want to do."

So the Republicans on the apportionment board didn't let any mere constitution stand in the way of their attempts to rig the makeup of the legislature forever. Now the Democrats in the legislature are fighting back; they've filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court. With a 6-1 Republican Supreme Court majority (purchased by big corporate money), we'll see if the Supreme Court believes it needs to uphold the Ohio constitution.

Here's the press release put out today by the legislative Democrats.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 4, 2012

New State Legislative Districts Violate Ohio Constitution, Says Lawsuit
GOP used political interests instead of state constitution to draw new lines

COLUMBUS – A lawsuit being filed in the Ohio Supreme Court today charges that Republican state leaders blatantly violated the Ohio Constitution by egregiously gerrymandering Ohio’s new state legislative districts. The suit challenges the constitutionality of the new lines because of over 250 community divisions and evidence that other criteria was used such as political indices and campaign contributions.

“Republicans violated the Ohio Constitution by ignoring restrictions on splitting apart communities and instead used criteria designed to maximize their political advantage and campaign cash,” said House Minority Leader Armond Budish (D- Beachwood).

Article XI of the Ohio Constitution was adopted specifically to prevent political gerrymandering by imposing detailed, objective, and politically neutral requirements on Ohio’s reapportionment process. In particular, the Constitution requires that districts be compact and contiguous, and that counties, townships, cities, villages, and wards not be split unnecessarily. Yet, the Apportionment map adopted on Sept. 30, 2011, divides 51 counties, 108 townships, 55 cities and 41 wards, totaling 255 divisions.

“These state legislative district lines show a blatant disregard for the Ohio Constitution,” said Senate Minority Leader Capri S. Cafaro (D-Hubbard). “By filing this lawsuit we are defending the principles of fairness embedded in our state’s Constitution and taking a stand against gerrymandering.”

On Dec. 12, 2011, the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting released a report entitled “The Elephant in the Room” which documented through numerous public records the considerations used by Republicans to draw state legislative lines. As the report documents, state legislative maps were drawn to ensure “a majority of seats that lean Republican (50% or better) on 2008 Presidential numbers,” and to “save millions” in campaign cash by making House Districts less competitive.

The lawsuit also charges that Republicans drew the new map behind closed doors in violation of the Sunshine Act. This was prompted by another finding in the report released by the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting, which revealed that Republicans rented a hotel suite, known as the “bunker.” This secret reapportionment office was used by Republican Apportionment Board members and their staffs to review and approve maps in secret without any public input.