A veteran of Michigan’s congressional redistricting commission has issued a stark warning for Ohioans: as Michigan is now, Ohio could soon be.
Rebecca Szetela, who chaired Michigan’s Independent Citizens’ Redistricting Commission, warned Ohioans weighing a controversial ballot initiative, Issue 1, that Michigan’s similar redistricting commission took power out of citizens’ hands — just as opponents of Ohio’s ballot initiative claim.
According to Szetela, an Independent lawyer who still serves on the Michigan commission, such initiatives create an elite, unaccountable class making decisions with serious political implications.
Ohioans, before you cast your vote on Issue 1, please research.
— Rusty Nail (@TheHomicidalElf) October 22, 2024
It's not only about gerrymandering. It's about giving power of Ohio to unelected bureaucrats to spend taxpayer money however they want. They can never be removed by Ohioans vote.
We lose our constitutional rights. pic.twitter.com/yfIj0pfRyr
“The marketing materials you’re going to hear on this Issue 1 in Ohio, which is based on the Michigan proposal, it’s going to be citizens drawing maps, and they’ll be more responsive than politicians.” Szetela said at an Ohio Senate press conference. “That is not true.”
“What I have seen is because of the structure of the commission is,... you create an elite class of persons who get to make all the decisions, and the people have no ability to recall them.”
Exactly as critics have feared.
For all of the pitfalls of redistricting as it stands today, Issue 1’s proposed commission members would not be subject to removal by Ohio voters. Whereas elected officials redrawing Congressional districts are subject to accountability at the ballot box, the proposal guts Ohioans’ say in redistricting.
Critics also say enshrining authority over Congressional districts with an unelected group could also put authority in the hands of a lawyer and consultant class for which the group would spend state funds without accountability.
The cleverly named “Citizens Not Politicians” committee is spending big on Issue 1 — backed by nearly $40 million from the ACLU, the foreign billionaire-controlled 1630 Fund, the Tides Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society Policy Center.
A bill banning foreign money in Ohio elections was gutted by a federal judge last month. For this cycle at least, money from the 1630 Fund, for one, will come to bear on Issue 1.
In any case, if Michigan is an example, Ohio could be in for a bumpy road: the Michigan commission has since its establishment in 2018 proved a boondoggle of legal challenges, runaway spending, and citizens losing representation.
In Ohio, Szetela joined Ohio State Senator Michelle Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester) and former State Rep. John Barnes (D-Cleveland), who said the ballot initiative would harm black voters.
Reynolds pointed out Michigan’s redistricting commission led to the loss of black congressional representation in Detroit.
Former President Donald Trump, expected to carry Ohio by a wide margin, has said Issue 1 would inscribe Democrat gerrymandering into Ohio law, jeopardizing elections.
