Ohio elected officials are now less than 10 days away from blowing a second deadline to pass a bipartisan Congressional map.
Gov. Mike DeWine convened the Ohio Redistricting Commission for its first meeting Tuesday morning, though he and other members of the commission met for less than thirty minutes, gaveling out without a map. The seven-member commission skews right, but needs both Democrats on board by next Friday to pass any plan—which seems increasingly unlikely.
DeWine said he believes it’s in “everyone’s interest” to come to consensus before that clock runs out.
“It always gives the public more confidence, if there could be something worked out between the parties,” DeWine told the Statehouse News Bureau. “I don’t know that that’s going to happen, I don’t know that that won’t happen. I hope it happens.”
And DeWine said he still wants further redistricting reforms.
“We need to go to a system like Iowa has, some version of that, where politics can't be considered at all, it’s illegal to consider politics,” DeWine said. “We don't have time to do that for this.”
Ohio was always due for this mid-decade redraw because of 2018 reforms to law, but now, the state is another one Trump and national Republicans are eyeing for more friendly seats. Democrats may lose as many as three of their five seats, a worst-case map for them.
If the commission misses its deadline, legislators alone take over again and face a final deadline of Nov. 30. Republicans—who hold supermajorities in the Ohio House and Senate—only need a straight-line vote of 50% of the General Assembly but are under stricter requirements of how districts can be drawn.
DeWine on Tuesday went from the commission meeting in Columbus to a fireside chat about bipartisanship with Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky in Cincinnati, where the two remarked on current issues, from the National Guard to the government shutdown.
