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Angelica's avatar

I am really hoping that La Rose's stunt where he literally made the description of Issue 1 last year say it would CAUSE gerrymandering will make people who care about it realize we need to have someone who won't just lie about what's on the ballot for personal political gain.

Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

Why we need a strong candidate for auditor. Because otherwise we cede that slot to Frankie "Jim Crow" LaRose.

Dave Campbell's avatar

What you didn’t discuss is why did the Ohio redistricting commission vote in favor of the map? The commission has Democrats on it and they went along with it.

Julie Peterson's avatar

You can find the information about why Dems voted for the maps here, along with the current numbers Dems and GOP and hold in the House and Srnate compared to what they predict they will hold with the new maps, which is a decent gain for Dems, even though the map is still obviously gerrymandered. Passing these maps locked the map in for 8 years, so the GOP can't continue to make things worse.

https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2023-09-27/why-did-democrats-on-the-ohio-redistricting-commission-vote-for-maps-they-said-were-unfair?_amp=true

Val Zampedro's avatar

If no Democrats had voted for it, it would have allowed Republicans to gerrymander AGAIN in 2027.

Rosa Maria's avatar

The imbalance I just saw is staggering. A small percentage has more power than the bigger one. This reminds me of ancient Roman elections, where the populus had one vote per "district", while the senators had one vote per person.

Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

So why don't we have a candidate for auditor yet, especially considering that the GOP candidate for auditor should be in prison for crimes against democracy, not on the ballot?

Also is it still legal to have lopsided district populations? Because that would be the secret to Illinois abolishing all Republican districts. We could just bury downstate (what we Chicagoans call everyone outside of Cook, Kane, Will, Lake, DuPage and McHenry counties where 80% of Illinois' population lives.)

Virginia Di Lauro's avatar

It's NOT OKAY to not restack!

Maryann Stone's avatar

The Columbus Dispatch announced that the map was approved with "bipartisan support", making it sound legitimate, fair, and constitutional. Admittedly, I don't fully comprehend the implications of gerrymandering, although your piece definitely helps. It is frustrating. I am hopeful that "republicans" see that the current regime is so far off the rails that they lose majorities across the board. Enough of the madness!

Maryann Stone's avatar

Thank you for this info. Very sad state of affairs when a little say is better than no say in things. I am hopeful Ohio does better going forward. I grew up in Ohio 60/70s and left in 81 for Texas, then on to California in 88-2019 when I moved back to Ohio. What a change!!! From blue collar to full on maga. Very disheartening.