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Mahoning, Trumbull retain majority in new 13th District starting in 2013
YOUNGSTOWN
Congressional redistricting means Summit will replace Trumbull as the most populous county in the district currently represented by Tim Ryan.
But, when combined, Mahoning and Trumbull counties still will have a majority of the population in the new 13th District.
“We’re looked at as a region, so keeping a major-ity here is a positive for the Mahoning Valley,” said Mahoning County Democratic Chairman David Betras. “It’s also helpful for Tim Ryan.”
Ryan, a Democrat from Niles in Trumbull County, has represented the 17th Congressional District since January 2003.
Ohio is losing two congressional districts, effective with the 2012 election, because its population didn’t grow as fast as the rest of the nation’s. The new congressional lines take effect in January 2013, when the winners of the November 2012 elections are sworn in.
Trumbull, the most populous county in the current 17th, has 31.5 percent of the district’s population, followed by Mahoning with 21.5 percent, Summit with 21.4 percent, and Portage with 20.4 percent.
Congressional boundaries drawn by Ohio Republican leaders of what will be the new 13th District includes portions of those four counties and a small piece of Stark County.
At the request of The Vindicator, the Ohio Republican Party provided county-by-county breakdowns of congressional districts in the Mahoning Valley.
The new district’s most populous county will be Summit. That county will have 31.4 percent of the new district’s population followed by Trumbull with 26 percent, Mahoning with 25.9 percent, Portage with 12.8 percent and Stark with 3.9 percent.
The combined population of Mahoning and Trumbull will be 51.9 percent of the new 13th District, only a small decline from 53 percent in the current 17th.
“Congressman Ryan will still be strong,” said Trumbull County Democratic Party Chairman Dan Polivka. “It opens it up if Tim runs for something else down the road. It will make it somewhat competitive, but a [known candidate from] Mahoning or Trumbull would still have a very good chance to win.”
Trumbull County Republican Chairwoman Kathi Creed and Mahoning County Republican Party Chairman Mark Munroe said the new district won’t have much of an impact on their counties.
But redistricting lessens Mahoning County’s presence in the new 6th Congressional District.
Since the 2003 redistricting, the 12-county 6th District’s two most populous counties are Columbiana and Mahoning.
The new congressional lines for the 6th, which will have 17 counties beginning January 2013, keeps Columbiana as the most populous county.
But Mahoning will drop from second with 102,827 residents to sixth with 51,913 residents in that district. Most of that population loss is the removal of Boardman, with 42,518 residents, from the 6th to the new 13th.
The two counties combined currently make up 34.1 percent of 6th District residents — 17.8 percent for Columbiana and 16.3 percent for Mahoning.
Beginning in 2013, the two counties will be 22.2 percent of the new district’s residents — 15 percent for Columbiana and only 7.2 percent in Mahoning.
Republican Bill Johnson, who lived in Poland in Mahoning County before moving to Marietta in Washington County, is serving his first term in the 6th District.
Even with the reduced presence of Mahoning County in the new 6th, Munroe said, “I can’t imagine Tim Ryan or Bill Johnson not being committed to the Mahoning Valley.”
Columbiana County Republican Chairman Dave Johnson said he’s pleased his county is still the most populous in the 6th, and added that Mahoning County residents shouldn’t be worried that they’ll be ignored after redistricting.
The number of residents in Trumbull County will almost double in the new 14th Congressional District from the current one.
Trumbull is the least populous county in the seven-county district, represented by Steven C. LaTourette of Bainbridge in Geauga, with 1.9 percent of its population.
Trumbull will remain the smallest of the seven counties in the new 14th. But Trumbull will increase its population to 3.2 percent of the district’s residents.