Once again, just a handful of Republican mapmakers and top legislators were privy to the mapmaking process as congressional lines were drawn over about a month.
Despite voter-approved changes to the Ohio Constitution to curb partisan gerrymandering and improve transparency, Republicans were able to craft maps outside of the public's – and many other officials' – view, according to depositions and legal filings in lawsuits against the final congressional map.
More:Will Ohio Supreme Court strike down GOP-drawn House and Senate maps? Here are the arguments
This map is the first test of reforms that Ohio voters overwhelmingly passed in 2018 to prevent or limit politicians from drawing districts that favor their political party over the other. Voters also approved changes to how state House and Senate maps are drawn in 2015.
Two lawsuits – one filed by voting rights groups and another affiliated with former Democratic Attorney General Eric Holder – accuse GOP mapmakers of drawing lines for Ohio's 15 congressional districts in a way that unfairly favors Republican candidates.
The map, conservatively, creates 10 safe congressional districts for Republicans, two safe districts for Democrats and three "arguably competitive districts that will favor Republicans," one lawsuit alleges.
Depositions in those lawsuits underscored how the map came together.
Senate Republicans' chief mapmaker Ray DiRossi told attorneys that he started work on the congressional map in mid-October – a month after state legislative maps were approved. His computer with line-drawing software resided on a six-foot folding table in the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation’s William Green Building.
His House GOP counterpart, Blake Springhetti, also worked in that room. But unlike with maps for Ohio House and Senate lines, the two mapmakers worked on separate proposals for the congressional map, which included 15 districts because of Ohio's slow population growth.
On the Senate side, DiRossi collaborated with Sen. Rob McColley, R-Napoleon. On the House side, the lawmaker introducing the map – Rep. Scott Oelslager – had little input. The end product, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine on Nov. 20, was a product on the GOP-controlled Legislature – not the seven-member Ohio Redistricting Commission.
More:Ohio Supreme Court case interviews detail how negotiations on Statehouse maps fell apart
There appeared to be a conscious effort by mapmakers to communicate in person, rather than exchanging information by text or email messages.
Attorneys asked DiRossi whether he worked on maps with John Morgan, a Republican redistricting consultant whom one Virginia lawmaker described as a “gerrymandering mastermind.” DiRossi’s attorneys advised him not to answer questions about Morgan, saying it would violate attorney-client privilege.
“Mr. Morgan was retained by outside counsel for the speaker and the president,” said Gregory McGuire, one of the GOP legislative leaders’ attorneys.
Competitiveness
Senate Republicans had a plan for answering voters' concerns about past maps. That plan was competitiveness.
"There weren't competitive elections in the last decade, and that's what we're trying to rectify," DiRossi said in his deposition.
The Senate GOP decided on a metric for competitive districts: plus or minus 4 percentage points, based on the last decade of federal elections.
By that metric, the GOP map created seven competitive districts. Had mapmakers used statewide election results as well, that number of competitive districts would have dropped by a couple.
“We were focused on federal election results for the federal districts and thought that was the most appropriate and reasonable approach to using and promoting competitive districts,” DiRossi said.
Attorneys for Republican lawmakers also included an analysis from Brigham Young University political science professor Michael Jay Barber. He pointed out the competitiveness of the Senate GOP map and that it combined the fewest number of incumbents.
"Compared to the 2011-2020 district plan, the enacted plan creates more competitive districts, and is equal to or more competitive than the House and Senate Democrats’ plans across five of six comparisons," Barber wrote.
However, analysis from Harvard University professor Kosuke Imai found that the GOP-passed map was unfair to Democratic voters. The efficiency gap, which measures packing and cracking, is 15% for the enacted map – much higher than 5.7% in simulated plans.
"This implies that the enacted plan wastes around 219,000 more Democratic votes on average than the simulated plans, and around 219,000 fewer Republican votes," Imai wrote.
More:Why all eyes will be on Ohio Supreme Court's Maureen O'Connor during redistricting lawsuits
How the sausage got made
McColley unveiled the Senate Republicans’ first map on Nov. 3. House Republicans created their own map, without consulting the Senate GOP, which they presented that same day.
More:Ohio Republicans propose congressional district maps advantaging the GOP. See them here
Then the negotiations began among Republicans. DiRossi participated in a meeting with Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, and House mapmaker Blake Springhetti on Nov. 9. Gov. Mike DeWine joined a meeting with Republican legislative leaders and mapmakers within the next couple of days.
"I know there were changes that were being made to this map as late as November 13th or 14th," DiRossi said. "So the map was changing, you know, almost until the very last minute."
Late Nov. 15, GOP mapmakers shared the second, and ultimately, the final draft of congressional maps with state lawmakers and the media. Over the next few days, the map was approved and signed by DeWine. No Democrats voted for the bill, which means it will last four years rather than 10.
More:Ohio Republicans unveil new congressional map. See it here.
The Ohio Supreme Court is reviewing the congressional map now. Attorneys will present oral arguments at a later date.
Staff writers Anna Staver and Laura Bischoff contributed to this report.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
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