In a win for a group of Democratic voters, a three-judge panel ruled Monday that the former chairman of the Republican State Leadership Committee must turn over emails and other documents about the 2011 redistricting of Ohio’s legislative maps. In May, a coalition of Democratic voters and groups, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, sued Governor John Kasich and other Republican lawmakers in Cincinnati federal court. They urged the court to enjoin a redistricting statute that the GOP used to redraw maps, arguing it gave an unfair advantage to Republicans at the expense of Democratic voters. The Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute, an advocacy group for black trade unionists, and its co-plaintiffs claim the Republican State Leadership Committee sought to control the redistricting process to “solidify conservative policymaking at the state level, and to maintain a Republican stronghold in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next decade.”
They also say the committee targeted Ohio and forked out $1 million to promote Republican candidates for the state’s House of Representatives prior to the 2010 election, during which the Republican Party took control of the Ohio Legislature.
GOP officials in Ohio rented a room at the DoubleTree in Columbus to gerrymander the congressional map behind closed doors, according to the lawsuit. The hotel room went by the codename “the bunker” and the officials tasked with redrawing the maps allegedly used their personal email accounts to communicate with each other.
Governor Kasich signed the amended district map in 2011.
Full Article: Republicans Ordered to Hand Over Records on Ohio Maps.