Issue 1 - From Accountability to Anonymity

The Passage of Issue 1 is vital to Reforming the Ohio Republican Party

The Ohio Republican Party launches another incompetent attempt to stop the Democrat led Issue 1. The current redistricting system has produced more gerrymandered districts than the previous. To say that voting no on issue 1 will stop gerrymandering is just as idiotic as the current redistricting commission.

With Ohio’s Republicans dominating the politics of the State of Ohio - Ohio more resembles a progressive Democrat run state more than ever. Ohio leads the nation in drug addicts per capita, human trafficking - Ohio is ranked 3rd, Ohio has exorbitantly high taxes, high overall unemployment, Violent Crime is up, the liberalization and wokeification of K-12 and Universities is alive and well as we train the next generation of petulant ANTIFA wannabes. All of this is to say is that Ohio’s Republican Party and its officeholders are doing a very poor job and doesn’t reflect, in any respect, a fiscally conservative organization. A shake up within the entrenched establishment of the Ohio Republican Party is good for conservatives and good for all Ohioans. This is why I urge Republicans to not vote for or against issue 1.

Ohio’s redistricting saga is a lesson in the corruption of power and the abandonment of rational governance. We began with a system that, while imperfect, was firmly rooted in the legislative branch—a system in which the boundaries of Ohio’s legislative districts were drawn by those elected to represent the people. It was a system where Ohioans could hold their legislators accountable for the decisions made on redistricting, and thus, it was a system rooted in the idea of representative government.

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou - who at this point - has lost all credibility. Is leading an anti-gerrymandering campaign to maintain the current “brought to you by Eric Holder and Barack Obama” Redistricting Commission instead of the new “Eric Holder and Barack Obama” Redistricting Commission. It is no wonder that very few people have been attending these bus tour rallies.

But the forces of collectivism, masquerading as “gerrymandering reformers,” set their sights on this process. They claimed that Ohio’s legislative districts were gerrymandered, manipulated to favor one party over another, and that fairness could only be achieved by wresting the power to draw boundaries from the legislature. They weren’t wrong about the gerrymandering - but their solution was worse than the one we had. In 2015, they succeeded in creating the Ohio Redistricting Commission—a body that promised transparency but under Republican control delivered only chaos. While passed in 2015 the redistricting commission would not meet until the census was finalized in 2021 to draw the 2022 Ohio House and Senate districts.

Under the guise of fairness, we moved from a system of legislative accountability in the legislative branch to a process dominated by the executive branch. The commission, comprised of seven members, is heavily influenced by the governor, who directly or indirectly has undue influence over at least four of the seven seats. This structure shifted the balance of power from the hands of the many—our elected representatives in the legislature—into the hands of the few, where the governor’s influence looms large over the entire process.

The outcome was unequivocally disastrous. The commission, operating after the 2020 census, plunged Ohio into a redistricting debacle. The result? A split primary that cost the state more than $30 million and districts just as gerrymandered as before—if not worse. In August 2022, after months of legal battles, Ohioans still did not know where their district lines would be drawn, making campaigning nearly impossible for new candidates. This chaos served only to protect incumbents and entrench power further.

This, we are told, is progress.

Now, in 2024, we are asked to accept yet another change from the same people that brought us disaster number one: a proposal where Ohio’s legislative districts will be drawn not by elected officials, but by judges. Retired judges, to be precise—men and women who have no accountability to the electorate and no stake in the outcome of their decisions. Judges, chosen not by the people, but by an opaque process that guarantees Ohioans will never truly know who holds the reins of power in the redistricting process. We have gone from a system of legislative oversight to a commission dominated by the executive, and now, to a proposal where the people are removed entirely.

Is this the best we can hope for? No. It is merely the lesser of two evils. The current system, with its corruption and inefficiency, cannot stand. But neither can we celebrate a solution that replaces one form of unaccountability with even greater unaccountability. What Ohio needs is not this half-measure. What Ohio needs is a return to rational governance, where the people—the true source of political power—are again in control of their destiny.

Issue 1 offers a choice. If we allow it to pass, Ohio’s legislators will have the opportunity to craft a better system—a system that reflects the will of the people. A system where districts are not arbitrarily drawn, but instead aligned with the most logical, natural boundaries in the state: our counties.

Imagine a system where each county is its own State House district. Ohio has 88 counties—88 distinct, meaningful divisions in the Ohio House of Representatives that Ohioans identify with. In the Senate - each Senator would represent two counties. Under this system, representatives would no longer be chosen by the whims of judges or the political calculations of a commission. Instead, each county would send its own representative to the Ohio House, and larger counties, with greater populations, would imbue their representatives to have proportionally greater voting power.

This system, based on population-weighted voting for legislators representing permanent county districts (each state legislator representing a county gets at least 1 vote and 1 vote for every 100,000 in population beyond the first 100,000), would end the redistricting fight once and for all. No longer would politicians draw maps that suit their personal ambitions. No longer would judges or commissions manipulate district lines. The boundaries would be permanent, tied to the counties Ohioans already know and understand, and the value of each representative’s vote would reflect the population of the county they represent.

It is no surprise that in poll after poll 9 out of 10 Ohioans support this idea. It is a system based on logic, fairness, and accountability—values that are the foundation of any rational political structure. If Issue 1 passes, Ohio’s legislature will have the opportunity to draft such a proposal and finally return power to the people. If issue 1 doesn’t pass - there is no reason for the Republican Party to do anything.

The solution is clear. We can continue down this path of increasingly convoluted, unaccountable redistricting schemes, or we can embrace a system that ensures every Ohioan’s vote matters, that every county’s voice is heard, and that our state’s districts are shaped not by power-hungry politicians or unaccountable judges, but by the simple and unchanging reality of Ohio’s geography and population.

It is time for Ohio to reclaim its integrity. It is time for us to say no to gerrymandering, no to commissions, and no to unelected judges drawing our districts. Let us choose a system that reflects the true will of the people—a system based on county boundaries and population-weighted votes for legislators. Let us choose a future where every vote counts, and every voice is heard.

My recommendation is to either not vote on issue 1 or vote for issue 1 - so the Ohio Republican Party will be forced to get up off their duff and do something meaningful and substantive.

Ohio’s destiny is in our hands.