Republican state legislative leaders say they’re putting together a bipartisan group to come up with a new way to draw Congressional districts.
Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports this comes as a citizens’ group frustrated with inaction on the issue is planning its own proposal to present to voters.
Sen. Matt Huffman of Lima says the plan will be modeled after the one created by lawmakers and approved by voters in 2015, which overhauled the way state lawmakers’ districts are drawn. That issue was endorsed by a group now circulating petitions to put its own Congressional redistricting plan on next year’s ballot. Huffman says the one lawmakers will present won’t be perfect, but will be constructed with a careful process.
“Keep in mind that the last two efforts that were put on the ballot, really, by an outside group who said, ‘We’re just going to do what we think is right’ have failed pretty miserably.”
The group Fair Congressional Districts for Ohio has said its members support legislative efforts to change the map-drawing process, but that they’ll take it to the ballot themselves if necessary.
