Ohio Council of Churches testimony
in support of H.J.R. 13, redistricting
January 26, 2000
Tom Smith, Director for Public Policy
Ohio Council of Churches
House Technology and Elections Committee
Mr. Chairman and members of the House Technology and Elections Committee:
Thank you for the opportunity for the Ohio Council of Churches to express
its long- standing support for a non-partisan Legislative and Congressional
redistricting plan.
We have enthusiastically joined the League of Women Voters' in support of
the plan that they created to change the Ohio Constitution by placing on
the
November ballot an amendment to be voted on by the electorate.
We join the League in applauding the Ohio House and its leadership in
bringing this issue to this committee for your consideration. The Council
of
Churches first adopted a resolution calling for a change over thirty years
ago and again in 1979. We have partnered with the League of Women Voters
and
more recently with former State Representative and now Director of Aging ,
Joan Lawrence in a non-partisan effort to put the pen back in the hands of
the people in the political process. We commend Representatives Amstutz
and
Sykes for their co-sponsorship of HJR 13 to ultimately allow the voters to
put an end to "gerrymandering" in Ohio.
It was the hope of coalition led by the League of Women Voters that this
change could be implemented in 2001 and bi-partisan public participation
could begin their involvement immediately. However, our coalition is not
oblivious to the political reality that today the pen is presently held by
the same party controlling the legislature and all the other members of the
apportionment board. While the Council of Churches strongly supports a
potential amendment to act now and not wait until 2010, we never the less
believe that competitive districts in the future outweigh no legislative
action at all.
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".
The possible delay created in the resolution does seem to bring one major
advantage that we recognize. If the legislature approves this resolution in
a bi-partisan fashion with the support of our coalition, it would very
likely prevent a contentious and partisan political television campaign in
November that might well cloud the good government aspects of this
legislation. In our minds it is far more important that public attention
should be focused on selecting our country's next President and new
legislative body not struggling to understand the dynamics of a complicated
redistricting resolution.
We strongly believe that Ohio needs to end the squiggly line and mis-shaped
districts and allow all interested parties to submit proposals creating a
compact district protecting natural boundary lines that ultimately benefit
Ohio's constituents not individual political candidates. Utilizing
computers
under the control of the Secretary of State the fairest distribution of
citizens based on the current census shall prevail and be implemented for
the next 10 year period. If we can not have redistricting immediately, we
will not take our pens and go home, we will work equally hard to convince
our members to support such a change for the future.
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