Opinion: Issue 1 Pros and cons

Election Day is here.

Issue 1 one of the most consequential measures Ohioans will find on their ballot.

Approval of the amendment would remove elected Republicans and Democrats from drawing districts for seats in Congress, the Ohio House and Ohio Senate.

Instead, the constitutional amendment would create a balanced independent commission of citizens to draw boundaries for 15 congressional districts, 33 state Senate districts and 99 state House district.

The issue organized by Citizens not Politicians and endorsed by The Columbus Dispatch Editorial Board as a way to give more power to voters has generated much debate and guest columns.Tthe decision is yours.

Below are excerpts from three columns in favor of Issue 1 and three against it.

For Issue 1: These Ohio election decisions will have enormous influence over life, work here

Click here to read full column by columnist Thomas Suddes.

Excerpt: Proposed by voter petitions, it’s called the “Citizens Not Politicians” amendment and would end gerrymandering (partisan rigging) of Ohio’s General Assembly and congressional districts. Gerrymandering gives one party (currently, Ohio Republican) an unfair advantage over the other party (currently, Ohio Democrats).

And that makes for hyper-partisanship and extremism. Result: A legislature and a Congress more interested in grandstanding than governing. And that’s the kind of dysfunction that Issue 1 targets.

If, somehow, you’re fine with the way things now are at Ohio’s Statehouse and at the U.S. Capitol, you probably should set up appointments with (a) an ophthalmologist and (b) an audiologist — and maybe, for good measure, a shrink. (Of course, if you’re a political hack, Ohio’s status quo is peachy-keen.)

What voters say:Ohio Issue 1 on gerrymandering and redistricting reform has 10 saying ‘yes’

What voters say:: Ohio Issue 1 will affect voting districts. Here’s why 10 Ohioans are voting ‘no”

Against Issue 1: Don’t be bamboozled. Issue 1 is profoundly anti-democratic and elitist

Click here to read full column by columnist Phillip Derrow.

Issue 1 proponents think it should be a handful of unelected and unaccountable retired judges, career bureaucrats, a “professional search firm” and appointed “special masters” when the inevitable litigation ensues. 

Special masters? Seriously?

Didn’t our nation’s founders declare independence from the unelected special masters of the King of England?

Most of the recent commentary from Issue 1 supporters has come from those complaining about the language used to present the issue to Ohio voters when they cast their ballots.

This language is determined by the Ohio Ballot Board, a bi-partisan commission chaired by the Ohio Secretary of State, currently Republican Frank LaRose. 

The length and complexity of Issue 1 is why a lengthy summary for voters was necessary. While it’s true the language was approved by a 3-2 vote along partisan lines, it is also true the language they chose is accurate. Issue 1 supporters just don’t like that LaRose pulled back the curtain hiding their unholy creation.

In favor of Issue 1: Dollar General couldn’t put thumb on scale neither should Ohio politicians

Click to read full column by Mike Curtin is a former editor and associate publisher of the Columbus Dispatch.

Excerpt: No one acting in good faith would draw a map connecting Franklin and Shelby counties. Or Mercer and Lorain counties. Or Hamilton and Darke counties. Or Auglaize and Ashland counties. These are just some of the examples of extreme gerrymandering of Ohio’s congressional districts.

There is a growing national movement to end gerrymandering, to get thumbs off the scales when drawing districts – a practice that helps drive the extreme partisanship plaguing our nation.

That’s why it’s good a citizens’ group is working to qualify a proposed state constitutional amendment for the Nov. 5 election. If passed, it would create an independent process for drawing Ohio’s congressional and state legislative maps.

The proposal has the potential – at long last – to force Statehouse politicians to give Ohioans the honest, fair districts they deserve.

Against Issue 1:  Issue 1 would create unelected, unaccountable commission. Don’t sell out Ohio.

Click here to read full column by Rob McColley is the Majority Floor Leader of the Ohio Senate.

Excerpt: Who is behind this progressive power grab? It isn’t Ohioans. Citizens Not Politicians has raised a staggering $26 million, but less than 1% of the money raised come from individual citizens of our state. What’s worse, millions have poured into Issue 1’s bank account from a group tied to foreign nationals who are not citizens at all.

Issue 1’s biggest donor is a liberal, Washington, D.C.-based group called the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the largest dark money organization in the U.S. It’s part of a multi-billion-dollar progressive political machine that wealthy elites use to influence election outcomes.

One of Sixteen Thirty Fund’s largest donors is Hansjorg Wyss, who has pumped at least $243 million into the group.

Thanks in no small part to this bonanza of foreign money, the Sixteen Thirty Fund has poured over $100 million into state ballot campaigns. That includes more than $20 million spent here in Ohio to influence elections and remake our state’s constitution.

Poll:Will you vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on Issue 1? Voice your opinion.

For Issue 1 ‘Creepy’ Click, ‘Batty’ Beth Lear and crew have too much power. Ohio Issue 1 key.

Click here to read full column by State Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus.

Excerpt: The majority party in the Statehouse has taken Ohio from a place that used to lead the nation in all the “good” categories, like public K-12 education, higher education, renewable energy and energy efficiency standards, investments in infrastructure, etc., to the current situation where we are one of the leaders in the child poverty rate, the infant mortality rate (especially among people of color,) spending on private school vouchers, persecution of transgender citizens and corruption.

Our do-nothing legislature has passed the fewest amount of bills of any legislature since the 1950’s.We are burdened by out of touch far right nut jobs like “creepy” Gary Click and “batty” Beth Lear, that get elected because of districts that are drawn to ensure they only have to appeal to the far-right MAGA lovers who vote in primaries, so they come to Columbus not to try and solve the state’s problems, but to make headlines for their outrageous behavior.

Issue 1 would ensure that our districts align to the actual make-up of Ohioans.

Against Issue 1: Citizens Not Politicians a con. Flawed amendment must be rejected

Click here to read full column by Medina County Republican Party Chairman Jim Renacci.

Excerpt: The “Citizens Not Politicians” amendment proposal is nothing but a fraud on Ohioans.

How is it fraudulent? Let’s start with its leadership.

Retired Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor was the longest serving woman elected statewide in Ohio history. Her tenure as a career politician included over 21 years on the Supreme Court of Ohio as both an associate, then chief justice.

Before that, she served four years as the lieutenant governor of Ohio. O’Conner practiced law in the private sector for just four years outside of law school before being appointed as a court magistrate. The Republican then was elected a judge and county prosecutor in Summit County.

Maureen O’Connor is the epitome of a career politician. To say now that she speaks for citizens and not politicians is beyond belief.

The group claims to be nonpartisan, but its list of endorsers is a who’s who of left-wing activist groups, leftist public figures and government employee unions.