Documents: Boehner rep key in Ohio redistricting map

COLUMBUS (AP) — Public documents released today by Ohio voter advocates show representatives of U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and operatives at the National Republican Congressional Committee were central in drawing the state’s disputed congressional map.

Documents obtained through a public records request by the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting show Tom Whatman, executive director of a congressional campaign effort called Team Boehner, legislative leaders, mapmaking consultants and the National Republican Congressional Committee participating in the process.

The correspondence includes a pledge by GOP Senate President Tom Niehaus to deliver “a map that Speaker Boehner fully supports.” As the process kicked off this summer, William Batchelder, Republican speaker of the Ohio House, had said he would be open to suggestions from Boehner — as well as from U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat.