COLUMBUS, Ohio — Following the Ohio Supreme Court ruling Monday night that ordered the Ohio Redistricting Commission to redraw the state legislative districts, efforts to pass Congressional maps in the legislature by Sunday's deadline stalled with the body likely to let the clock run out sending it also to the Redistricting Commission.
The Ohio Senate was to take up the matter Tuesday afternoon but that meeting was canceled as was the House of Representatives tentative meeting for Thursday, the day they were expected to vote on the maps. The official line is that work still continues on them but Common Cause Ohio Executive Director Catherine Turcer told News 5 since the Commission was already getting back together it was most likely they'd be handling both especially considering Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday and Ohio's Cincinnati Bengals are playing.
"The likelihood that the legislature is going to come together, work on a map, and get it done by their deadline is highly unlikely and it certainly becomes more unlikely when they don't actually show up and have a committee hearing," Turcer said.
Turcer was one of the leaders behind the voter-approved constitutional changes to this and the state legislative redistricting process. That means the 7-member Ohio Redistricting Commission will have 30 days to come up with maps. The same commission that only last night had their state legislative maps rejected for a second time by the Supreme Court and given until February 17 to redraw them.
"So 10 days is a very short period of time but it does take more time to gerrymander or engage in shenanigans than it does to create good state legislative of for that matter congressional districts," she said.
