In this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, hosts Mike Thompson and Steve Brown discuss Ohio's Congressional redistricting process that could actually yield more competitive races.
Believe It Or Not: Ohio Congressional Races May Soon Be More Comptitive
Because of population shifts, Ohio will lose a congressional seat in 2023, which will drop the state down to 15 house seats.
Experts have said the new maps proposed by Ohio Republican lawmakers would make it so Republicans would have a built-in advantage to win 13 seats and Democrats only two.
Believe it or not, the new maps, one drawn by Republicans in the House and another by Republicans in the Senate are actually more competitive than the current maps.
While that is not really saying much, they are more competitive. The website Dave’s Redistricting found six or seven districts are competitive, which means partisan margins of less than 10%.
Snollygoster Of The Week
The charade is over! Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill this week that allows Ohioans to legally shoot off fireworks around certain holidays. Until now, fireworks could be purchased at Ohio shops, but you had to agree to take them out of the state to shoot them off.
The new law allows adults to set off fireworks around New Year's Eve, Chinese New Year, Cinco De Mayo, Juneteenth, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Diwali and of course the Fourth of July.
For years lawmakers have wanted to stop the charade and make it legal to set off fireworks. Up until this week, Mike DeWine opposed it and even vetoed a bill to legalize fireworks last year.
However, after lawmakers passed a bill that legalizes fireworks with limitations Dewine signed it into law.
Send questions and comments to snollygoster@wosu.org.
