In the past two weeks, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the proposals adopted by the Ohio Legislature that would create new congressional and legislative districts for the state. Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, voted with the three Democratic members of the court in finding that the proposed maps did not meet constitutional standards.
In 2018 Ohio voters adopted a constitutional amendment that required that lines be drawn without favoring one party over another, a concept that has been upheld by various ruling of the United States Supreme Court going back to the 1960s. While Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, in signing the bill, found the proposed GOP plan “a fair; compact and competitive map,” the court strongly disagreed. It found that the Republican plan split Democratic-leaning counties to dilute their votes. Hamilton county, for example, which includes Cincinnati and leans Democratic, was split between three newly created congressional districts “for no apparent reason other than to confer an undue partisan advantage on the Republican Party,” the court said.
While the practice of drawing district lines to favor one party over another is not systemic to either of our political parties, in the last 50 years or so, Republicans have fine-tuned their skills at political cartography. The proof is in the pudding. The 33-member Ohio Senate is made up of 25 Republicans and 8 Democrats. The 99-member House is made up of 64 Republicans and 35 Democrats.
Take Ohio’s Ninth Congressional district, which is currently represented by Democrat Marci Kaptur. Known as the “The Snake on the Lake” district, it skirts the Lake Erie shoreline, going from Toledo to Cleveland’s westside. The western section and the eastern section are only connected via the Thomas Edison Memorial bridge that goes between Erie and Ottawa counties. There is a good argument that the district is not contiguous — a requirement — since when the beach floods the two sections are separated. The district was created in 2011. In the next congressional election, former Cleveland Mayor and seven-term Congressman Dennis Kucinich was pitted against Kaptur who has been in office 1982. Kaptur took the seat and Ohio lost one Democratic seat in the House.
Or look at Ohio’s Fourth Congressional District, known as the “duck district” because of its fowl shape — no pun intended. It is currently represented by Republican and Trump ally “Jacketless Jim” Jordan. Made up of nine counties and parts of five more, it meanders west and south from Cleveland’s suburbs to Mercer County on the Indiana boarder. The strongly Republican and conservative nature of the district has allowed Jordan, who has served since 2006, to be reelected by more than 65% of the vote in the last four elections.
The term gerrymandering has gotten a lot of press in recent years. Its origins date back to 1812 when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a bill that created a partisan district in Boston. The plan, signed by Gerry, scattered the Federalist Party vote in a few districts and thus gave disproportionate representation to Democratic Republicans — an oxymoron in today’s politics. The district created by the plan was oddly shaped, to say the least. A cartoonist by the name of Elkanah Tisdale drew a cartoon that appeared in the Boston Gazette, comparing the shape of the district to a salamander, labeling it the “Gerry-mander” district. The name stuck and came to refer to any district drawn for the benefit of those who drew it.
Gerry (pronounced with a hard “g”, as if spelled Gherry”) would go on to become the fifth vice president of the United States, serving under James Madison. On November 23, 1814, the 70-year-old, otherwise healthy Gerry, fell ill and died. For those trivia buffs and aspiring Jeopardy contestants, Gerry became the second vice president to die in office and is the only signer of the Declaration of Independence buried in the national’s capital. And maybe the only vice president who has lent his name to a system of political chicanery.
Around the time of Gerry’s death, John Adams opined that “There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” That was 208 years ago. Between the gerrymandering of districts, a systematic nationwide pattern of voter suppression by Republican-controlled state legislatures and the failure of Congress to pass a comprehensive voting rights act, thanks to so-called Democrats West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, I am beginning to think that we should call the suicide prevention hotline for Uncle Sam.
Donald Trump and his big lie about stolen elections and his refusal to accept the results of duly conducted elections have put American democracy on life support, with a near fatal plow struck on January 6, 2021. Republicans either wittingly or unwittingly are putting nails in the coffin of American democracy. One wonders what kind of government America will have when our grandchildren reach adulthood. Will we have a Putin or a duly elected President in the White House? Maybe the quote from another Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin is an eerie foreboding for the future: “We have a republic, if we can keep it.”
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.
One Response to “COMMENTARY: Who Put the Gerry in Gerrymandering by C. Ellen Connally”
Mel Maurer
Thanks for this. Sadly, for democracy, both parties have used Gerrymandering for their own purposes. A good software system could take politics out of redistricting.