COLUMBUS: New U.S. House districts Ohio Republicans have proposed include one that stretches from Toledo to Cleveland and a crescent touching parts of 13 counties from Appalachia to Amish country.
The proposal would pit six incumbents against each other in contests for three congressional seats, including Republicans Mike Turner and Steve Austria in southern Ohio and Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur vying for a district along the Lake Erie shore.
It would squeeze Democrat Betty Sutton into the district of Republican Jim Renacci.
Summit County would experience a major makeover. It would be carved into four congressional districts from its current three.
“Sometimes if you have more representatives, you have more people to talk to to get things done,” said Summit County Executive Russ Pry, who had not seen the proposed map.
Sutton, D-Copley Township, saw little to like in the proposal, however, and lashed out at Republicans.
“This map, written in secret by Washington and Columbus Republicans, does a complete disservice to the people of Northeast Ohio,” she said in a prepared statement.
“At a time when we should be coming together to strengthen our middle class and create jobs, we’re getting a partisan agenda pursued behind closed doors and out of sight of the people we have been sworn to serve. Over the coming days and weeks, I will review Ohio’s new districts.”
Sutton said she remains “committed to continuing my service for the people of Northeast Ohio in the years to come.”
A new map is required because Ohio’s congressional landscape must shrink by two seats as a result of population shifts nationally. The deadline for a final map is Dec. 7 — 90 days before the currently scheduled March 6 primary.
Renacci, R-Wadsworth, would see his district move into southern Summit County and western Cuyahoga County and out of much of Stark County. He issued a statement that made no judgment about the proposal.
“For the past eight months I have been steadfastly committed to working for my constituents in our nation’s capital,” he said. “That will not change, regardless of any proposed changes to Ohio’s congressional map. I remain focused on rebuilding our broken economy and tackling the issues facing northeast Ohio and the United States.”
U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Warrensville Heights, would see her district snake from Lake Erie in Cuyahoga County deep into the northern and western suburbs of Akron.
Like Renacci, she held off commenting on the map itself.
“Whatever the boundaries are, my priorities remain the same,” she said in a prepared statement. “I intend to listen and to be a voice for the people of my district. The hard-working families of Northeast Ohio, our elderly and our children deserve the best service and highest quality of life.”
The proposed map adds a new Democrat-leaning district in Columbus, wrapping a backwards ‘C’-shaped district for Republican Steve Stivers into 13 counties around the city. From his home in Republican-heavy Upper Arlington, a Columbus suburb, he would represent the Amish in Union County and the liberal college town of Athens.
Timing criticized
State Rep. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, chairman of the House State Government and Elections Committee, said many factors were taken into account when drawing the districts, and those factors often conflict.
“Let me be clear that this map complies with constitutional mandates and other federal laws that it has to comply with,” Huffman said. “Our legal counsel has said our map is constitutional.”
Many committee Democrats criticized the proposed three-day time frame from the introduction of the map in committee Tuesday to a potential vote Thursday.
“I have concerns about the hyper speed at which this is moving,” said Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria. “Hyper-partisanship, this hyper speed, it’s just not good for Ohio.”
Ohio House Democratic Leader Armond Budish backed out of an agreement to move the state’s 2012 presidential primary from March to May in a protest of the redistricting timetable.
In a letter to House Speaker William Batchelder of Medina, Budish said the once-per-decade process of redrawing congressional lines had not been transparent.
State Rep. Kathleen Clyde, D-Kent, who also sits on the redistricting committee, said she’s disappointed in the process and proposed map.
She said state lawmakers are being asked to vote on the plan within 72 hours of the map’s release, which provides little time for scrutiny, feedback and debate.
The map itself “is clearly drawn to maximize partisan power,” with Summit and Portage counties being glaring examples of gerrymandering, Clyde said.
Portage has two congressional representatives now, but the county would be split among three districts with “zigzag lines,” she said.
“It’s just going to be a mess,” Clyde said. “Voters aren’t going to understand who their representative is. It’s going to be confusing, and it’s going to minimize Portage’s influence. People are going to wonder if they are going to be listened to.”
She said “Ohioans deserve better.”
The map could be sent to the House, where Republicans hold a 59-40 majority, by the end of the week. The Republican-controlled Ohio Senate would still need to sign off on the plan.
Beacon Journal staff writer Rick Armon contributed to this report.
