Ohio's new congressional district map is now law. Gov. John Kasich signed the legislation Monday after the GOP-drawn boundaries cleared both the state House and Senate last week.
As expected, the Ohio House re-voted to approve the state's new congressional map, a move necessitated by a $2.75 million appropriation added to the bill by the state Senate. Republicans added this provision to prevent the bill from being repealed at the ballot box in a so-called "people's veto" -- appropriations bills cannot be subject to referenda or Citizen's Veto.
Republicans put their plan on the table last week without any input from the minority party. Votes were then called with no time for discussion.
The Republican Party controls the governor's office and has the majority in both chambers of the Statehouse. This year marks just the second time in the last 60 years that one party controlled all three steps in the process.
After the first time, following Census 2000, the Republicans went on in the next five elections to win a higher percentage of the races - 62 percent - than they had in decades while collecting a smaller percentage of the overall head-to-head vote against Democrats - 51 percent - than had been the case in the 10 years leading up to the changes.
Bipartisan efforts to reduce the influence of politics on the mapping process fell apart before last fall's election, when the Republicans scored sweeping victories.
The map groups three pairs of U.S. representatives into districts, including Cleveland's Dennis Kucinich with Marcy Kaptur of Toledo and Betty Sutton of Copley with Jim Renacci of Wadsworth. Republicans say it follows all population and demographic requirements.
