Editor’s note: The Portager publishes letters to the editor from the community. The opinions expressed are published not because they necessarily reflect those of the publication but because we feel they contribute meaningfully to the local discourse on matters of public interest.
Every Portage County voter will have a chance Nov. 5 to say “yes” or “no” to state Issue 1, the proposed constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering. If nothing else, Issue 1 reveals how breathtakingly shameless Republicans have become. In their effort to hold onto power, they’ll say anything.
Issue 1 is the brainchild of Citizens Not Politicians, a coalition led by the League of Women Voters. It aims to end, once and for all, the horrible and horribly abusive trick of “gerrymandering.” That’s when politicians draw district boundaries that let them pick their voters, rather than risk letting voters decide who best to represent them.
In the Aug. 15 newsletter of the Portage County Republican Party, the state GOP chair, Alex Triantafilou, claims Issue 1 would “require gerrymandering of legislative maps” (emphasis mine) by creating a citizens’ commission “to draw maps with a specific outcome in mind.” Specific outcome? Puh-leeze! Triantafilou feigns innocence of the lopsided 67-to-32, veto-proof majority Republicans hold in the state House, or the 26-7 unfair slam they’ve given themselves in the state Senate.
Ohio may have grown reliably red, but its statewide total vote has never been 78 percent red, as the Senate map would fool you into thinking, or 67 percent red as the House is. Voter registrations show Ohioans are more independent than they are affiliated with either of the two major political parties. In Portage County, independents represent 69 percent of the county’s 108,352 currently registered voters. And that’s precisely what Republicans are afraid of — those independent-thinking folks.
Republican leaders, including lame-duck Gov. Mike DeWine, know gerrymandering is a sour word to voters and a losing issue to promote. So they throw the word at those rightly fighting to end the rotten practice and hope it sticks. Desperate much?
The GOP’s willingness to distort history and turn the truth inside-out is exceeded only by its sinful disregard of the harmful consequences.
Bob Springer, Kent
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