Remember the "Reform Ohio Now" drive back in the fall of 2005? Issue 4 would have amended the Ohio Constitution to put into place a new system for drawing legislative and Congressional districts. Under our current system, Congressional districts are redrawn in the year following a census (e.g. 2011) by the state legislature, with the Governor having veto power. State legislative districts are drawn in the same year by a 5-person Reapportionment Board, consisting of the Governor, the Auditor, the Secretary of State, a person selected by the majority leadership of the state legislature, and a person selected by the minority leadership of the legislature. In 2001, the Republicans controlled the process. Most Democrats think that they will control the process in 2011. And that's the problem…
If, that is, you consider partisan and incumbent-protecting gerrymandering a problem. Some people think it's the way things should work — to the victor belong the spoils. Some others worry about being the spoils.
The Democrats will say now that they need to keep the present system through 2011 just to re-balance the state. Ohio is famously nearly a 50/50 red/blue state these days, but currently has an 11 Rep. / 7 Dem. split in its Congressional delegation (and a 21/12 split in the Ohio Senate). (And the Congressional delegation split would be 12/6 but for the Bob Ney debacle…) But now is the time for the Democrats to step up and make a good proposal for redistricting reform. Given the current election climate in Ohio, I think the Republicans would be wise to go along.
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Why don't we just get to our final destination, already? Balkanization.