Guest Column: Ohio’s Majority Floor Leader challenges those who oppose the new legislative districts
Editor’s Note: On Jan. 12, 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the state House and Senate maps that Rep. Bill Seitz argues for in the following column. The column was written before this ruling was made and represents his views during that time. On Jan. 14, 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the congressional maps as well.
Contrary to what liberal groups, Democrat front organizations and much of the media would have you believe, the Ohio Constitution does not require that newly redrawn legislative districts mirror the voting preferences of Ohioans over the last 10 years. That concept is known as “representational fairness.” What the Constitution actually says is that after the Redistricting Commission meets certain mandatory requirements around population equality, compactness, contiguity and avoiding too many splits among counties, cities and townships, the Commission “shall attempt” to achieve representational fairness.
But even if the representational fairness concept was a mandate, the new legislative districts in Hamilton County meet that goal or even disproportionately favor Democrats, not Republicans. Biden beat Trump 58%-42% and Cordray beat DeWine 53%-43% in Hamilton County. Hamilton County now has seven Ohio House of Representatives seats—four are held by Democrats, three by Republicans—for a 57%-43% majority favoring Democrats. That’s representational fairness.
The newly adopted maps preserve this same split and based on the most recent political indices, the more likely split among these seven seats will be 5-2 Democrat, which would give the Democrats 71% of the seats, which is well in excess of the 55% benchmark they would get under representational fairness. And remember, these newly adopted maps were drawn by the Republicans on the Redistricting Commission.
The glaring hypocrisy of the Democrats and their leftist shills is demonstrated by the last map offered to the Commission by its two Democrat members, though. Under that map, Hamilton County would have seven House seats with a likely 5-2 split in favor of the Democrats! That means the Democrats would have over 71% of the seats in a county that gives Democrats only 55% of the vote. All of which goes to prove that representational fairness is just a euphemism for maps drawn to benefit Democrats.
Even worse, an “expert” hired by plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the Redistricting Commission map now pending in the Ohio Supreme Court claims fair maps would give Republicans only one of the seven Hamilton County seat—an 86%-14% advantage to the Democrats!
So, for those opposing the Redistricting Commission’s new map that gives Republicans a likely statewide 62% of the Ohio House seats, when Ohioans’ vote is roughly 55%-45% Republican, how do they justify giving Democrats 86% of the Hamilton County seats when Hamilton County only votes roughly 55%-45% Democrat?
Now I suppose our liberal friends will respond by saying that Democrats get 30%-40% of the vote in Butler, Clermont and Warren counties adjacent to Hamilton County, yet haven’t elected a Democratic State Representative in decades. True, but in order to draw a Democrat-tilting district in any of those counties, one would have to draw the Democrat-leaning parts of Hamilton County into districts in those counties, and that is the very kind of jurisdiction-splitting that the Ohio Constitution expressly and unequivocally forbids. All that proves is that the Democrats’ proposed Hamilton County map unfairly favors Democrats by over-representing their numbers because they know the Constitution forbids the kind of snake-like line-drawing they would need to employ in order to create representational fairness in those collar counties adjacent to Hamilton County. That is why the Constitutional amendment does not require representational fairness, but rather only compels an attempt to do so once the mandatory requirements stated elsewhere in that amendment are met.
A lifelong resident of Western Hamilton County, State Representative Bill Seitz is known for his colorful floor speeches and legal acumen. Seitz began his public service career as a member of the Cincinnati Board of Education and the St. Antoninus Parish Education Commission. He was twice elected Green Township Trustee. Beginning in 2000, Seitz served in the Ohio House of Representatives for almost seven years. There, he rose through the ranks, serving as Majority Whip and Assistant Majority Whip. Seitz then went on to serve in the Ohio Senate from 2007 to 2016 before returning to the Ohio House where he is now serving as Majority Leader.
