October 31

Legislative Black Caucus holds leverage in redistricting fight

Sunday October 30, 2011 6:57 AM

Tom Suddes

The late Dayton Democrat C.J. McLin surely smiles from afar at the Ohio Statehouse, where his fellow black Democrats are sitting pretty.

McLin, who died in 1988, quarterbacked the political circumstances that helped make that happen. (Former Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin is his daughter.)

Today, almost a quarter-century after McLin’s death, half of the Democrats in the state Senate are black Democrats. And almost one-third of the Democratic representatives in Ohio’s House are black Democrats.

Those who read the cover, not the book, will say correctly that Republicans run the Statehouse. So a Democrat, black or white, can’t broker power.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2011/10/30/legislative-black-caucus-holds-leverage-in-redistricting-fight.html

Drawing the map isn’t as easy as it looks

Sunday October 30, 2011 6:55 AM

Robert T. Bennett

Columbus Dispatch

If drawing Ohio’s congressional district lines were as simple as many of the state’s editorial writers have claimed, the job would be finished when majority Republicans produced a map that made minority Democrats smile. Follow that smile up with a strong cup of coffee and a firm handshake, and even the editorial writers would be happy.

I disagree with that view from the ivory tower. However, where the editorial writers, Ohio House Speaker William G. Batchelder and I are in absolute agreement is that the threatened redistricting referendum and resulting need for two separate statewide primary elections is to be avoided if at all possible.

But, before we can avoid the expense of two primaries, all interested parties must recognize that the problem goes well beyond normal partisan bickering.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2011/10/30/drawing-the-map-isnt-as-easy-as-it-looks.html

Friday, October 28, 2011
Lawmakers continue redistricting talks behind closed doors
House Republicans will need to get at least seven Democrats to back a new congressional map
by WKSU's STATEHOUSE CORRESPONDENT JO INGLES

Ohio’s legislative leaders are working behind closed doors, to create a new congressional redistricting map. In order to pass a replacement map that would go into effect immediately, two thirds of lawmakers, or at least seven Democrats in the House, will have to vote for it.

Mike Dittoe is spokesman for Republican Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder. He says they hope to avoid a referendum or a long court battle. If they’re successful, Dittoe says there would still be time to move the presidential and congressional primaries, now scheduled for June, back to March in a single primary.

http://www.wksu.org/news/story/29775