Democrats launch petition drive to dump redistricting map

By Jim Siegel

The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday November 2, 2011 5:27 AM

Ohio Democratic Party leaders formally kicked off their effort yesterday to overturn the new GOP-drawn congressional districts, though talks among legislative leaders continue regarding a new map that would avoid the referendum.

State Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern said the first batch of petition forms to put the issue on the November 2012 ballot has been distributed. On Election Day next week, he said he expects party staff and volunteers will hit the busiest voting locations and collect 50,000 to 75,000 signatures. Collectors, he said, also will have copies of the new map.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/11/02/dems-launch-petition-drive-to-dump-map.html

House districts could be on ballot

Dems want referendum vote on GOP’s map.

By William Hershey, Columbus Bureau 12:45 AM Wednesday, November 2, 2011

COLUMBUS — Ohio Democrats are poised to launch a referendum on the 16 new U.S. House districts drawn up with mostly Republican support.

Although efforts continued to reach a compromise, state Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern on Tuesday formally began the campaign to gather signatures from 231,150 registered voters to put the current plan before voters in November 2012.

The deadline for turning in the signatures to Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted is Christmas Day, Dec. 25. The office will be closed, but arrangements will be made to accept the signatures if necessary, said Matt McClellan, Husted’s spokesman.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/election/house-districts-could-be-on-ballot-1278209.html

Republicans and black Democrats can't reach deal on new map as referendum drive starts

Published: Tuesday, November 01, 2011, 7:55 PM Updated: Tuesday, November 01, 2011, 9:33 PM

By Aaron Marshall, The Plain Dealer

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Statehouse Republicans and black Democrats were at an impasse Tuesday after the black lawmakers rejected an alternative congressional map redrawing districts for Ohio's major urban cities.
Rep. Sandra Williams, a black Cleveland Democrat who heads the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, said a GOP offer to draw black voters together into districts unifying cities wasn't enough for her caucus, primarily because it didn't alter the map's 12-to-4 ratio of Republican-to-Democratic districts.
"Accepting a 12-to-4 map is not something we are going to do," she said. "That is unacceptable to me and other members of the black caucus."
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/11/republicans_and_black_democrat.html

Republicans try to woo black legislators for Ohio map deal

By Andy Brownfield
Associated Press

Published: November 1, 2011 - 07:29 PM

COLUMBUS: Ohio Republicans continued efforts Tuesday to resolve a dispute with Democrats over the state’s new congressional districts, even as the head of the state Democratic Party vowed to move forward with a campaign to get the Republican-favoring map thrown out by voters.

The disagreement has thrown into limbo congressional lines in a key battleground state ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

The 15-member Ohio Legislative Black Caucus was at the center of the negotiations because of the bargaining clout associated with minority representation among voters. Its members told the Associated Press that the verbal concepts for a new map that they’d heard from ruling Republicans were a good start, but their ideas didn’t meet the larger Democratic demand for an entirely new map with more competitive districts.

An analysis by voter groups of the map passed in September suggests that 12 of the 16 congressional districts favor Republicans while the other four lean Democratic. Ohio is losing two congressional districts because of slow population growth; both parties stand to lose one seat each.
http://www.ohio.com/news/politics/state/republicans-try-to-woo-black-legislators-for-ohio-map-deal-1.243216

Published: 11/2/2011

Democrats start petition drive on redistricting

BY JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF

COLUMBUS -- Ohio Democrats Tuesday formally launched their petition effort to subject a Republican-drawn congressional map to a voter referendum, hoping that pictures of cardboard boxes containing so-far blank petitions will up the pressure for a deal.

"We're investing resources in this effort because it's worth it," said state party Chairman Chris Redfern of Catawba Island.

"If you live in Cincinnati and your neighborhood has been cut up like a pepperoni pizza, if you live in downtown Toledo and you've never heard of Jim Jordan and now you're thinking he's going to be your member of Congress [and he] lives more than 100 miles away … you expect the state party to stand up and invest on your behalf," he said.

Sandra Williams, chairman of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, issued a statement denying Republican suggestions that a compromise map is imminent. Negotiations continue on a map that would attract at least seven Democratic votes that House Republicans need to allow it to take effect immediately without threat of referendum.
http://www.toledoblade.com/Politics/2011/11/02/Democrats-start-petition-drive-on-redistricting.html

OhioDemocratic party making good on threat

Published: Wed, November 2, 2011 @ 12:05 a.m.

By Marc Kovac

news@vindy.coms

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Democratic Party is making good on its threat to launch a referendum on GOP-drawn congressional lines unless the majority party submits new maps with more competitive districts.

State party Chairman Chris Redfern said Tuesday that opponents of the redistricting plan have begun collecting signatures on petitions to force a November 2012 ballot issue on the plan.

“Every petition circulator will be given a copy of the map proposed by the Republicans in order to show that map to potential signers,” Redfern said. “We have no doubt that once Ohioans see for themselves just how ridiculous their congressional map is, they will not hesitate to help us to stop the map from being adopted.”

He added later, “The map is unacceptable to me and it is unacceptable to virtually every Ohioan who has taken a look at it except those in the General Assembly who forced it on the people of the state.”
http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/nov/02/ohio-democratic-party-making-good-on-thr/

Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Ohio Democrats move closer toward congressional map referendum
Ohio's Democratic Party chairman say they'll collect many petition signatures on election day
by WKSU's STATEHOUSE CORRESPONDENT JO INGLES

The fight over Ohio’s new congressional map is escalating. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports that Democrats are once again trying to go straight to the voters.

The head of Ohio’s Democratic Party says legislative members who’ve been working to hammer out an agreement on a new congressional map are not having any real success with that effort. But that doesn’t mean the party isn’t having success of its own.

"The Ohio Democratic Party this year will raise more money than at any off year time in the history of the party," said Chris Redfern, the Ohio Democratic Party Chief.
http://www.wksu.org/news/story/29803

Will Big Labor’s Bucks Kill Kasich's Reforms in Ohio?

by John Gizzi

Human Events

11/02/2011

With Ohio voters heading to the polls November 8, pundits and pols nationwide are studying the huge political story in the Buckeye State: Whether the landmark economic and labor reforms enacted by the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed into law by GOP Gov. John Kasich earlier this year will go down in flames, victims of Big Labor’s massive money machine.

The Kasich-backed reforms include elimination of binding arbitration for state government employees, a requirement that government employees pay 15% of the premiums for their health insurance, and ending the right of state employees to strike. With all of the measures lumped into one ballot initiative known as Issue Two, voters must vote “yes” on Two to maintain them as law and “no” on Two to take them off the books. The most recent Quinnipiac Poll showed that, among likely voters, the “no” forces were leading by a margin of 57% to 32%.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47276

No Redistricting Deal Yet; Dems Prepare Referendum

Hannah Report 11/1/11

The head of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Tuesday denied that a deal was near on a new congressional redistricting map as Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern held a press conference to announce the start of a petition drive to put HB319 (Huffman), the map passed by the General Assembly in September, on the November 2012 ballot.

Multiple media outlets Tuesday quoted Republican sources, including former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett and Rep. Matt Huffman (R-Lima), the sponsor of HB319, saying that a deal was nearing with the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus on a new map. Legislative Republicans have been meeting with members of the caucus in order to secure the votes needed to pass a new map with an emergency clause, making it effective immediately and immune to a referendum.

But Rep. Sandra Williams (D-Cleveland), the head of the Legislative Black Caucus, dismissed those reports in a statement Tuesday morning.
http://www.hannah.com/DesktopDefaultPublic.aspx?type=hns&id=187595

DEMOCRATS LAUNCH REFERENDUM ON GOP CONGRESSIONAL MAPS; STILL NO DEAL

Gongwer 11/1/11

Democrats on Tuesday announced the start of a referendum effort to invalidate the Republican-drawn congressional map amid accusations from the House speaker that the minority party was misleading voters.
Meanwhile, black Democrats say they are united with their legislative and party leaders and will not strike a deal with Republicans for a map that merely tweaks urban districts.
Standing next to a stack of boxes filled with blank petitions at his headquarters in Columbus, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said the party and Ohioans for Fair Districts would begin collecting the 231,150 valid signatures required to place the "unfair, gerrymandered congressional map" on the 2012 ballot.
http://www.gongwer-oh.com/programming/news_articledisplay.cfm?article_ID=802110201&newsedition_id=8021102&locid=2

Group Sees Polling as Call to Action on 'Heartbeat Bill'
Hannah Report 11/1/11Anti-abortion activists who've been urging the Senate to grant committee hearings and a floor vote for the "heartbeat bill," HB125 (Wachtmann), unveiled polling results Tuesday they say demonstrates broad support for the measure among Ohioans.

The poll, conducted by Wenzel Strategies and commissioned by Faith2Action, pegged general support for granting legal protections to unborn babies once a fetal heartbeat is detected at 63.7 percent, compared to 20 percent opposed. Strong majorities of Republican and independent respondents indicated support, as did a plurality of Democrats.

Specifically, the pollster asked 614 likely Ohio voters the following: "Please tell me whether you agree or disagree with this statement: If a doctor is able to detect the heartbeat of an unborn baby, that baby should be legally protected."
http://www.hannah.com/DesktopDefaultPublic.aspx?type=hns&id=187598

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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

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