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Kildere53's avatar

The Ohio redistricting referendum failed because the amendment would've required the districts' partisan lean to match that of the state, which was a dumb idea from the start and, as OH Republicans used to their advantage, would've required more gerrymandering.

The Republicans' usual redistricting strategy (in all the states they control, not just Ohio) is to pack urban areas into a small number of deep-blue districts and then combine light-blue suburbs with dark-red rural areas to create their Republican districts. A better idea would be to put an amendment on the ballot that requires that, to the greatest extent possible, contiguous urban and suburban areas to be in different districts from the surrounding rural areas. This would 1) prevent them from eliminating Landsman's seat, 2) force the creation of a new all-suburban district in Columbus that would lean Dem, and 3) either shore up Kaptur significantly or create another Dem-leaning district in northeastern Ohio.

It's highly unfortunate that states like NC, GA, TN, and TX don't have ballot initiatives, because an amendment like this would significantly curtail Republican gerrymandering in those states.

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