« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Ohio redistricting map out!

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  September 13th, 2011 at 02:30 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

(Via The Campaign Spot) And… it’s subtle. Executive summary:

  • Ohio loses two districts, overall.
  • Republicans Steve Austria and Mike Turner end up competing with each other in the same district.
  • Democrats Marcy Kaptur & Dennis Kuchinich, ditto.
  • Democrat Nancy Sutton loses her district and gets thrown into a district that heavily favors her new Republican opponent Jim Renacci – and she doesn’t get to bring her power base with her. Or she could compete with Democrat Tim Ryan in yet another district.
  • Columbus (Democratic stronghold) metropolitan area gets a shiny-new, presumably Democratic-leading, district.
  • Everybody else more or less stands pat, or gets strengthened.

So, on first glance… not too awful, right? They redrew districts to give both sides legitimate primary battles, and there’s going to be turnover, and, hey, the minority party in Ohio got a favorable district from the majority Republicans, so that was nice of them and everything. So why are the Democrats scowling? Well, it’s probably because the current map for Ohio is 13 Republican, 5 Democratic (it was 8R/10D last year); that the next map looks like it’s going to be … hold on, this is complicated… somewhere around 12R/4D (11R/5D if the Democrats catch a break); and sets up a potential brawl between two prominent Ohio Democrats (Kaptur & Kuchinich). And – because of that free Democratic district – there’s not much in the way of complaining that the opposition party can do about it, or the fact that most of the GOP incumbents have had their gains more securely locked in. Lastly, the risks for the Republicans overall are minimized: one Red-on-Red primary and a Red-on-Blue general election that has had the risks minimized. But other than that, there’s not much for Democrats to complain about.

As I said. Subtle.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Tags: , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • bk

    Or does that just happen with every redistricting map in the south?

    It’s totally unfair that the group who can ill afford to lose seats is stuck with 50% of the cuts. Typical Republican plan – hit the little guys so the big guys get off easy.

    What’s that sarcasm tag again?

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    Is it wrong for me to find this race analogous to a bum fight?

  • freemanja1991

    put Sutton, Kucinich and Renacci in one district. it would be a swing district went for obama by just under 2%. Make Ryans district go from Youngstown, get skinng and pick up Akron. make Kaptur’s slimmer and stretch all the way to Cleveland. we could loose no one and they loose 2.

  • LiveStronger

    Ohio is a very important state. I feel that the Ohio legislature should have spent more time figuring out how to create a map that better represents the State of Ohio.

    They are giving 1-2 seats to the Democrats. Shouldn’t they ask for some kind of favor before they provide that gift? It’s not like the Democrats who put out their map in Illinois will be returning the favor.

  • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/politics/24kucinich.html?pagewanted=all

    Or is that really a post from The Onion?

  • profnickd67

    That’s supposed to be the standard in redistricting, whether the Dems complain? The standard is: screw over your opponent as best as possible — you know, the standard that the Dems have.

    Sounds to me like Moe is saying the Dems are happy, which means the Republican state legislators didn’t do their job and screw over Dems enough, as did the MO GOP the Dems.

    The idea that it is possible for the GOP to lose *both* of Ohio’s two lost districts is inconceivable when the state legislature is overwhelmingly Republican, the Governor is Republican, and the state Supreme Court is Republican.

  • buckeye

    Oh well, the Republican leaning part of Cuyahoga County, the Cleveland West Shore is still stuck in a Democrat district, hanging off Toledo.

    However, between here and Toledo across the Lake Erie Shore it is pretty conservative, other than Lorain (Vermillion, Port Clinton, Put-in-Bay, Sandusky). Wonder if we can flip this one.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    8/10 (2008) to 13/5 (2010) to 12/4 for probably the next three terms is a bad deal for the Democrats, particularly when it means that they lose at least one incumbent and probably two. Locking in gains isn’t as flashy as getting them, but don’t discount the process.

  • lastgopinillinois

    Illinois lost one congressional seat from the reapportionment after the 2010 census.
    Illinois democrats immediately salivated over drawing new boundaries to destroy as many Republican controlled districts as possible. The final map, signed into law by Gov Quinn on June 24 puts several GOP incumbents into districts where they will have to run against other Republicans, and others into districts which strongly favor Democrats.
    Re-districting public hearings held prior to the release of the map were nothing more than “dog-and-pony” shows, while State dem’s conjured the map under the cover of darkness. Reportedly, the map was drawn without any input from Republicans or any consideration for the hours of testimony offered at public hearings.
    The suit claims that the map is little more than an attempt to undo the results of the elections held in Nov 2010 and that the public had no chance to review the map.
    Final deadline to have a redistricting plan in place is October 5th, 2011.
    Already, one Republican Ron Stephens has decided to resign his post as State Representative due to the new boundaries pitting him against a fellow Republican.

  • GOPlady

    Let’s see. Take a heavy D Cleveland lower income, add a heavy D Lakewood, Bay Village – a town where even the R’s voted for Dennis because they are drinking the koolaid, Avon Lake – heavy D, Lorain – heavy D, Sandusky, and on into Toledo, and we have created a lake front that will be in the hands of the Democrats for the next 10 years. What could go wrong?

    Good job you idiots in Columbus! You + the pooch = well, figure it out yourself.