The Ohio Redistricting Commission has approved new state House and Senate maps that is likely to guarantee a Republican supermajority for the next four years. The move comes after days of debates behind closed doors and even those who voted for the maps say they believe the plans will be challenged in court. Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports.
Just after the clock struck midnight, the redistricting commission approved the new Ohio House and Senate district maps by a vote of 5 to 2, with the two Democrats on the panel voting against.
Republican Senate President Matt Huffman says these maps, which he proposed, follow all the guardrails created in the Ohio Constitution.
"I think it's important that this Commission vote on a map that is constitutional. This is the only map and, with this amendment, will continue to be the only map that is constitutional."
But others disagree with the constitutionality of the maps.
The new maps would create districts that would lean towards 62 Republican seats and 37 Democratic seats in the House. In the Senate, Republicans are likely to win 23 out of 33 seats, leaving 10 districts favorable to Democrats. Right now there are 64 republicans in the House and 35 Democrats, and 25 Republicans and 8 Democrats in the Senate.
House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes says this is clearly gerrymandering, and that it fails to follow certain section of the Constitution created by a 2015 ballot issue that voters approved overwhelmingly - and that state lawmakers supported.
"No General Assembly district plan shall be drawn primarily to favor or disfavor a political party. Quote. In contrast, the maps adopted today go to absurd length to create a Republican monopoly on legislative power that they have not earned at the ballot box."
Here father and fellow redistricting commission member, Democratic Senator Vernon Sykes, has been working on redistricting reform for years, and was a key leader in getting the 2015 ballot issue passed.
Sykes says these maps fail to accomplish the goal of fair districts.
"There's no way that I would slap the people in the face that promote fair districts and put them in the misfortune that we've been suffering for decades for another ten years."
While Vernon Sykes and Emilia Sykes voted against the maps, the five Republicans on the commission voted for them. But the statewide elected officials prefaced their votes with their disappointment in the process, which went into the eleventh hour of the Constitutional deadline to approve maps.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose was among the leaders who said they were trying to find a compromise, working with the Democrats on finding common ground. But the process ran into a stalemate.
"It didn't have to be this way. Some of us worked in good faith in a bipartisan way to try to get a compromise. There are members of this committee who I do not believe worked in good faith to try to reach that compromise. But here we are."
LaRose stopped short of saying who specifically was acting in bad faith.
Gov. Mike DeWine also voiced his frustration with the parties not being able to reach an agreement, saying he had to vote yes because there was no end to the stalemate.
"We know that this matter will be in court. I'm not judging the bill one way or another. That's up to a court to do. What I am sure in my heart is that this committee could have come up with a bill that was much more clearly, clearly constitutional. I'm sorry we did not do that."
Voting rights groups, such as the League of Women Voters of Ohio, have also voiced their opposition to the maps. It is likely groups will mount a legal challenge and take these maps to the Ohio Supreme Court.