Lawmakers who think it’s time to end Ohio’s hyper-partisan process for drawing congressional districts aren’t giving up the fight. As Ohio voters prepare to vote this fall on changing how Ohio draws its legislative districts, a bipartisan pair of senators is again pushing to also change congressional redistricting. Sens. Frank LaRose, R-Copley, and Tom Sawyer, D-Akron, introduced a resolution on Wednesday that would give a bipartisan commission the authority to draw congressional lines, instead of the current process in which the House and Senate draw the districts to benefit the majority political party.
“Our goal is to establish a redistricting process that works for Ohioans, not politicians,” LaRose said. “I’m proud of the plan we developed last year to achieve a more balanced way of drawing state legislative lines, and there is no good reason not to extend its provisions to federal districts as well.”
A key reason legislative leaders gave for not passing congressional redistricting last year was a pending challenge of Arizona’s new, independent congressional redistricting panel before the U.S. Supreme Court. The court upheld Arizona’s commission in late June.
“That concern is gone. So let’s talk about the merits,” LaRose said.
Full Article: Ohio senators push for congressional redistricting | The Columbus Dispatch.