Dems doubt GOP sincerity on redistricting

The past two presidential elections show that Ohio voters lean a bit to the right.
But you wouldn't know that if you look at the political affiliations of the members of the state Legislature and the Ohio congressional delegation.
Republicans control the Ohio House 60-39 and the state Senate 22-11. Among the 18 U.S. House members from Ohio, only six are Democrats.
Why?
There are two primary reasons.
First, Ohio Democrats -- outside of this election and some races in 1998 -- haven't done a good job recruiting, grooming and supporting candidates for Congress, the state Legislature and for statewide office.
The second reason is the Ohio Apportionment Board, which draws boundary lines for Ohio legislative and congressional districts every 10 years. The board includes the governor, auditor, secretary of state, and one Republican and one Democrat from the Legislature.
The Republicans had a majority when the lines were drawn in 2002 and in 1992. Instead of taking a bipartisan approach, the board created districts to protect sitting GOP officeholders and to make sure boundary lines were drawn to make as many districts as possible favor Republicans.
Democrats cried foul during both redistricting plans, particularly the one in 2002. The complaints for the most part fell on deaf ears.
Voters soundly rejected a redistricting plan promoted by Reform Ohio Now, a Democratic group, on the November 2005 ballot. Republican organizations spent millions of dollars to make sure the plan lost.
Shortly after that ballot initiative failed, Republican legislative leaders began working with some Democrats to craft a new and supposedly fair system to draw district boundaries.
Why?
There are competitive races in November for governor, auditor and secretary of state, and if Democrats win at least two of those match-ups and retain the seats in 2010, the Republicans would lose control of the Ohio Apportionment Board.
Sensing that possibility, Republicans on the Ohio House floor recently proposed a plan that would take redistricting away from the board and put it in the hands of a seven-member commission.
The commission would consist of two Republicans and two Democrats and those four would select the other three members. A new redistricting map would need five votes from the commission. If there is a stalemate, the Ohio Supreme Court would order the creation of a new commission.
The proposal needed 60 votes in the House to be on the ballot as a constitutional amendment. When that effort failed, Republicans called for a vote on a Democratic redistricting bill from last year. The move caught some Democrats by surprise. All but one Democrat voted against that legislation.
While Democrats received criticism for playing politics with legislative boundaries by rejecting the two bills, they were just doing what Republicans have done for years.
"They sense they're going to lose control and they're trying to save themselves," said state Rep. John Boccieri of New Middletown, D-61st, of Republicans. "Why now? Why did they decide to do this before the general election?"
Republicans had no complaints when the GOP-controlled Ohio Apportionment Board drew boundaries that favored their own. Now after seeing they could lose the advantage they've enjoyed for years, Republicans suddenly have a sense of urgency.
State Rep. Chuck Blasdel of East Liverpool, speaker pro tempore and R-1st, disagrees with that assessment. This is the perfect time for reform because nobody knows who's going to control the Apportionment Board, he said.
Blasdel also said Democrats "exposed themselves as hypocrites" because they supported reform last year and have no interest in it this year.
The Republican plan, endorsed by Reform Ohio Now and the League of Women Voters of Ohio, is the fairest redistricting plan for the state, Blasdel said.
But after being largely ignored by Republicans on the state level, Democrats rightfully so aren't overly concerned with being fair.