REDISTRICTING

Akron Beacon-Journal (5/29/06)
A fair and far-reaching plan to reform the way legislative and congressional districts are drawn failed last week in the Ohio House on a narrow, highly partisan vote. That's unfortunate…. Legislative districts are now drawn by an apportionment board dominated by the governor, auditor and secretary of state. The legislature draws congressional lines.... The losers are Ohio voters. Rather than districts in which competition is lopsided, they deserve the kind of robust debate that stimulates a search for creative solutions. Too often, sharp partisan divisions aggravated by gerrymandered districts stymie progress. Too bad House Democrats acted in that narrow spirit, failing to seize the larger good in change.

Columbus Dispatch (5/14/2006)
For decades, Ohio has used a system that awards gerrymandering power every 10 years to the political party that wins two of the three races for governor, secretary of state and state auditor. That power has been abused by both parties, most recently Republicans, who have ensured their legislative majorities by virtually eliminating competitive elections. Of Ohio's combined 150 congressional and legislative districts, fewer than 25 can be won by either party. The rest are slam-dunks, meaning that lawmakers have to appeal only to their parties' extremes - Republicans to the right, Democrats to the left - to get elected…. The new plan would create a seven-member commission chosen equally by Democrats and Republicans to draw districts that are compact and competitive. Five of the seven members would have to approve the final map, ensuring support from both parties. Independent watchdogs, such as the League of Women Voters and Citizen Action, praised it…. [I]f Democrats end up killing it, they will undermine their rhetoric as reformers and signal more of the same to come in Columbus.

Dayton Daily News (11/7/2005)
[Issue 4, the redistricting reform initiative] would make Ohio the national leader in a major realm: injecting competition into legislative elections. It needs to be supported. No longer could the politicians design districts to suit themselves. They couldn't jam voters for the other party into a few districts that that party can't lose, so that the party in power gets a great many more districts it can't lose. That practice is the national norm, and it is an outrage…. When not a single congressional seat in the state changes parties in an election like 2004's, and the average race is decided by 39 percentage points, we are talking about a system in which the politicians are free from worries about the general public. They only have to please their parties. Then we wonder why Washington and Columbus can't devise policies that appeal to Americans generally, but only to one party or another.

Toledo Blade (11/6/05)
The current rules for drawing legislative districts give power to an apportionment board dominated by the governor, auditor and the secretary of state. Win two of those offices, and your party holds the pencil for adjusting boundaries using new census data. U.S. House districts are drawn by the legislature. In Ohio, Republicans hold all statewide executive offices and control both legislative chambers. They’ve created districts that amount to lifetime tenure for incumbents, effectively cementing their hold on power.

Akron Beacon Journal (10/23/05)
The main point about competitiveness is this: Without it, there is, in very important ways, no real democracy. If a particular party can hardly lose in a particular district that matters. It makes the elected officials less responsive to the broad public, and more responsive to their own parties. It makes them worry more about primaries than about general elections. That pulls them away from the political center and fosters polarization in the country.

Dayton Daily News (10/22/05)
Moral indignation marked the words of state Sen. Jeff Jacobson last week as he railed against the proposed constitutional amendments that would take political redistricting out of the hands of politicians, reduce campaign contributions and more. He called “Reform Ohio Now,” the advocacy organization pushing the proposed changes, “a front group for wealthy liberals in California and New York who want to hijack our elections.” If Sen. Jacobson were really incensed by outside money—all of it—Ohio might not be leading the nation in home mortgage foreclosures. And Montgomery County might not have the highest rate of these losses in the state. Look at the campaign coffers of the powers that be in Columbus—such as Gov. Bob Taft, Senate President Bill Harris, House Speaker Jon Husted and Sen. Jacobson, the Senate’s No. 2 leader—and you’ll find that, for years, they’ve been lined with contributions from the financial services industry, including mortgage lenders and brokers. The money poured in as Ohio lawmakers championed the industry’s interests, passing legislation that insulates it from consumer claims while offering little protection to abused borrowers.

Columbus Dispatch (8/7/05)
In the decade since the 1996 congressional election in Ohio, only three of the 74 races for seats in the House of Representatives have been decided by fewer than 10 percentage points. How strongly can we say it—three out of 74! Last year Ohio’s closest congressional race was decided by 18 percentage points. That’s still a blowout. The scandalous part is that it can take up to 20 years to change the system since district boundaries can only be redrawn after a census, and the party out of power needs time to win some races and gain control of the state apportionment board. What happens? The minority party, finally in the majority, demands its turn, and a new cycle begins. Issue 4 would provide much fairer and competitive districts….

ELECTION ADMINISTRATION

Dayton Daily News (6/14/06)
In the wake of [the 2004] election, Sen. Jacobson and Ohio's Republican-dominated legislature have imposed new rules on part-time "registrars." Those are the people who are hired by private organizations to hunt for new voters and to sign them up. Now registrars are required to take an online training course and officially register as registrars. The law also requires them to personally turn over their new registrations directly to the county board of elections or the secretary of state, rather than give them to an intermediary, such as a library…. A League spokesman says that first giving the cards to a sponsoring organization - which then turns them in - is a way to make sure the registrations are valid before the documents go to the government. Also, requiring the registrars to go to Columbus or the nearest elections board - facing the new law's felony charges if they do something wrong - will discourage people from being registrars, critics say…. The 2004 push to get people registered was a good thing. More registration drives ought to be nurtured. Some regulation of those campaigns is defensible, but when regulation seems to amount to pointless hassling of individuals, a political backlash is to be expected.

Columbus Dispatch (6/11/06)
Voter registration should be as simple as possible, provided rules are in place to discourage fraud. Republicans worry a lot about voter-registration fraud, but Ohio has seen only a few such cases. On the other hand, Democrats worry about Republicans suppressing voter registration and turnout. In fact, the voter registry grew rapidly in 2004, as both parties conducted successful registration campaigns for the Bush-Kerry race…. Because he's leading the statewide GOP ticket, Blackwell is under the microscope for all of his decisions as elections chief. Complaints about his decisions must be carefully analyzed to determine which are legitimate and which are politically motivated smears by those who think they can achieve an advantage by undermining trust in the electoral system.

Cincinnati Enquirer (12/14/05)
[W]e urge the House to strip the ID requirement today when it reconsiders HB 3 - and we hope Gov. Bob Taft will put pressure on lawmakers to do so…. Democrats point out there have been almost no confirmed cases of vote fraud at the polls in Ohio, and virtually no evidence that ID requirements have prevented vote fraud in the 22 states that impose them…. HB 3 already includes measures to ensure the integrity of the registration process, including a provision that requires IDs at the polls for first-time voters. Isn't that enough? Showing an ID shouldn't be a hardship for the vast majority of voters, but some could be disenfranchised through no fault of their own. We urge the House to consider the good of all Ohio voters and remove it from an otherwise admirable reform bill.

Lancaster Eagle Gazette (9/18/05)
The right to vote and the transparency of the voting process are two fundamental tenets of democracy.Ê Problems and concerns with the voting process, most notably in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, have brought about intense public debate and a series of proposed reforms..... Ultimately, neither political party has a vested interest in the independent administration of elections.Ê As voters and citizens, all Ohioans do have such an interest.Ê The independent administration of elections would increase the transparency of the voting process and encourage public involvement with that process.Ê An independent Board of Elections Supervisors could dispel claims (like those in 2004) that Ohio's electoral process was politically manipulated — by either party.

Toledo Blade (6/15/05)
Legislation being pushed quickly through the General Assembly appears to have one prime motivation - to make it harder rather easier for Ohioans to vote…. Voter registration drives would become problematic and probably increasingly rare under a provision that would make it a felony to return a completed registration form anywhere other than directly to the registrant's county board of elections. Current law conveniently allows registrations to be sent to any board of elections or to the secretary of state's office for forwarding. There is no reason to make the process more difficult, unless the intent is to suppress voting…. [D]isrupting Ohio's time-tested system of nonpartisan voter registration in favor of allowing registrants to declare a party is just one more unnecessary obstacle to participation in the political process. In short, House Bill 3 would be more harmful than helpful to the conduct of elections in Ohio. It ought to be defeated.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Youngstown Vindicator (5/6/2006)
Ohioans will be treated to a hard-hitting campaign that will center on coingate, the investment scandal involving the Bureau of Worker's Compensation money. A key player in the scandal is Tom Noe, an influential Republican Party operative who contributed and raised gobs of cash for GOP officeholders and candidates and who secured a government contract that resulted in $50 million from the BWC being funneled to him for the purchase of rare coins as investment instruments…. If there is any doubt about the public's distrust of government and its disgust with what has been going on in Columbus, consider the embarrassingly and disturbingly low voter turnout for Tuesday's primary. Only 23 percent of the registered Democrats and Republicans in Ohio cast ballots.

Dayton Daily News (12/26/04)
With a sense of urgency and a mask of great piety, Gov. Bob Taft called a special session of the General Assembly, the first in nearly 30 years, to deal with campaign finance reform. The governor called it his "top priority," even though - or perhaps because - the party he leads has been polluting the Statehouse with shameless, scandalous fundraising….. Nothing about the new law does anything to alter these perfectly legal practices that give the appearance of "pay to play." The new law does require much broader disclosure of who's giving what to whom, and how much. That's a positive and long overdue reform. But it's relatively minor, because few politicians ever pay a price for the revelation that they've been taking money from interests. The public seems to assume they all do it…. What's most disappointing is that this bill was sparked by fundraising scandals. Lawmakers announced they finally were going to clean up the system. In the name of reform they made the system worse. They cynically jammed through money-grubbing measures in a hastily called special session, leaving little time for the public to consider, much less reflect, on what really was being done.

Cleveland Plain Dealer (12/19/04)
To its credit, the Ohio General Assembly fixed the most unconscionable faults in the state's campaign finance laws. The bill passed by the House and Senate late last week essentially requires prompt and complete disclosure of all money that pours into the political process…. [W]hile on balance we believe the new law represents an improvement, some of its aspects could prove troubling. Some county political chairs believe the bill unfairly penalizes local party organizations, and there is significant opposition to raising the donation limits from $2,500 to $10,000. Indeed, some portions of the new law may create loopholes that will need to be closed, or provisions that smack of unfairness. If and when that proves to be the case, we and others will demand that the legislature quickly correct those problems.

ETHICS

JUDICIAL ELECTIONS

Canton Repository (7/25/05)
The group that spent—some might say, wasted—$4 million in a failed attempt to defeat incumbent Ohio Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick in the 2000 election doesn’t want you to know where that money came from. OK, let’s be fair. The money came from Citizens for a Strong Ohio, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce’s issue advocacy group. The group’s lawyer prefers the term “social-welfare organization.” But the identity of the specific contributors and the extent of their support remain secret, and the chamber wants to keep it that way. Thus, lawyers for the Alliance for Democracy, which is pushing disclosure, and Citizens for a Strong Ohio argued their respective positions before the Franklin County Appeals Court last week. The latter group is challenging the Nov. 4 ruling of Judge John F. Bender of Franklin County Common Pleas Court, which said either provide the list of campaign donors or face fines of $25,000 a day. While this newspaper has disagreed more than once with Resnick, no one can justify the tone and content of the ads that sought to defeat her. Bender, no stranger to election law, had it right when he told the group to release the list of the contributors or get out the checkbook.

Columbus Dispatch (12/3/00)
With the election dust still swirling around an unresolved presidential race playing out in the courts, legal scholars are expressing alarm about an unprecedented level of dirty tactics and hot rhetoric used in the 2000 campaign to defeat judges and besmirch the integrity of the courts. This increasing politicalization of the judiciary, they warn, carries dangerous implications. Foremost is the cultivation of doubt among citizens that the courts — the one branch of government on which they rely to be an impartial arbiter — cannot be trusted. In addition, the political venom aimed at courts — coupled with a signaling by special- interest groups that they will spend millions to defeat judges they view as unsympathetic to their causes — could make jurists reluctant to render unpopular decisions and reduce the number of qualified candidates willing to run for the bench.

TRANSPARENCY

Columbus Dispatch (4/30/06)
Voters and legislators saw no reason throughout Ohio’s 203-year history to give governors the right of executive privilege. That right allows governors to shield documents that otherwise would be disclosed under the state’s open-records laws. The Ohio Supreme Court on April 13, in wrongly extending that right to Gov. Bob Taft and his successors, overstepped its judicial role by making law instead of interpreting it.

Findlay Courier (3/14/06)
It was due to Ohio's Sunshine Law that the Tom Noe-BWC scandal was made public, along with the list of politicians who received money from Noe. Thanks to open records, we learned this past year that our governor had failed to report all the free golf outings he'd received. The ongoing scandal of congressional use of corporate jets at ridiculously reduced rates was also revealed through public access to records, on the federal level. Without open records, it would have been impossible to adequately analyze the mistakes made in the Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts.... "Eternal vigilance" is still the price of freedom. As soon as we start trusting others to take care of us, we will have neither security nor freedom.

Findlay Courier (3/2/06)
…Sub HB 9 contains significant reforms that ought to be approved by the General Assembly. Most of them were conceived after a 2004 survey by the Newspaper Association and the Associated Press in which it was found that public records requests were being filled without question and in a timely manner (as required by law) only about half the time. The bill would require public records training for public employees who deal with the records; public records policies to be posted in public offices; assistance for people who request public records; and that no ID or stated use be required before records are released. It also adds some teeth, including fines for public offices that delay release of public records without a good reason; establishment of a state "public access counselor" to assist people who have trouble obtaining records; and establishment of a complaint process. And it states that in public records cases won by the plaintiff, attorney fees will be awarded.