It's Redistricting Time, Which Means It's Time for Mischief

Elbridge Gerry, the governor who signed the bill creating the misshapen Massachusetts district, was a Founding Father: signer of the Declaration of Independence, reluctant framer of the Constitution, congressman, diplomat, and the fifth vice-president. Well-known in his day, Gerry was a wild-eyed eccentric and an awkward speaker, a trusted confidant of John Adams and a deep (if peculiar) thinker. He could also be a dyspeptic hothead—a trait that got the better of him when he signed the infamous redistricting bill…

…The word “gerrymander” was coined at a Boston dinner party hosted by a prominent Federalist in March 1812, according to an 1892 article by historian John Ward Dean. As talk turned to the hated redistricting bill, illustrator Elkanah Tisdale drew a picture map of the district as if it were a monster, with claws and a snake-like head on its long neck. It looked like a salamander, another dinner guest noted. No, a “Gerry-mander,” offered poet Richard Alsop, who often collaborated with Tisdale. (An alternate origin story, which Dean found less credible, credited painter Gilbert Stuart, famed portraitist of George Washington, with drawing the monster on a visit to a newspaper office.)

The testimony at an auditorium at Washington Township RecPlex West went on for hours, with much of it mirroring the feelings of the Fair Districts coalition, who said the map the Ohio Redistricting Commission is currently considering “fails” in constitutionality and representational fairness. Various Ohioans pleaded with the ORC to produce maps that avoid extremist views they’ve heard expressed by some state legislators. “What you’re doing now is getting rid of all that (election) competition and allowing the crazies and extremists from your party to dictate what happens,” said Matthew Baron-Chapman, of West Chester.

The 5-2 vote along partisan lines came after hours of back-and-forth negotiations broke down. The final map gives Republicans a veto-proof majority. Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said the map would likely give Republicans a 62-37 advantage in the House and a 23-10 advantage in the Ohio Senate. Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Gov. Mike DeWine, all Republicans, expressed frustration with the mapmaking process but ultimately voted for the final product. Democrats excoriated the GOP-approved map and the messy process that led to them.

There's no demographic reason to draw Forest Park, a majority-minority city of 20,189 residents, into a new House district with western Hamilton County's more Republican and white residents. No reason except Democratic Rep. Jessica Miranda lives there. "On so many different levels, it doesn’t make sense," Miranda said. "On a more basic trying to get at me level, that’s exactly what they are trying to do."

In 2018 Miranda won a tight race against Republican Rep. Jonathan Dever for the 28th House District by 56 votes. She expanded that gap to more than 2,300 votes against Republican challenger Chris Monzel in 2020. The district is one of a handful statewide that is perennially competitive. The GOP map would combine Forest Park with Harrison, Whitewater and Colerain townships in western Hamilton County. Unless Miranda moved, she would face Rep. Cindy Abrams, R-Harrison, in a new 29th House District.

On Wednesday, that prediction began to bear out: Facing a deadline to release a single proposed map reshaping New York’s congressional and state legislative district lines for the next decade, a 10-member bipartisan panel said they could not. Instead, Democratic commissioners proposed one plan, Republicans another. If the gridlock continues in the coming months, it could well empower Democrats who control both houses of the state Legislature — for the first time in decades — to redraw the lines themselves, the very scenario the 2014 constitutional amendment was supposed to remedy. When the Legislature has been allowed to draw its own lines, that has invited gerrymandering, the practice of drawing district lines to give advantage to one party based on voter enrollment and other factors.

The redistricting commission has four appointees of Democrats in the state Legislature and four appointees of legislative Republicans. There are two at-large members — selected by the other eight members of the commission — although one of the independents leans Republican, and the other towards Democrats. Indeed, the sides deadlocked 5-5 on the maps, the scenario some good-government groups feared in 2014. Those groups wanted an independently appointed commission, rather than a process dictated by partisan appointees of the Legislature.

The delay has already prompted one lawsuit that was dismissed Thursday by the Michigan Supreme Court. But observers are expecting additional lawsuits in a process that could be upended by legal challenges. But supporters say the missed deadline is inevitable — and understandable — given a four-month delay in decennial census population counts that commissioners needed to begin drawing maps. That data, typically published in April, was released Aug. 12.

Critics contend the deadline violation is symptomatic of larger dysfunction that threatens to undermine a new process to redraw political boundaries, a task that had previously been controlled by partisan lawmakers every 10 years. "It's a pretty brazen disregard for the amendment, for the voters and for the people seeking to represent us at the ballot," said Tony Daunt, a Republican operative who sued to try to block the commission and is now executive director of FAIR Maps Michigan.

"It’s unfortunate that we continue to have misinformation kind of pop up on the internet," said Dr. Clarke, "There’s absolutely no evidence that it works." She's referring to Betadine, which is the brand name for one of the most commonly used antiseptic solutions. You’ve likely used it before to clean minor cuts, scrapes, or burns. But recently, the company had to clarify to customers its products, “have not been approved to treat coronavirus,” after reports some people were swallowing it. "Taking iodine in orally is not good. There are too many risks," said Dr. Clarke.