Voters rejected the issue that would have created a 15-member commission of non-politicians to draw maps for state lawmakers and members of Congress last month. But a Republican lawmaker said the solution to gerrymandering in Ohio isn’t another proposal to change how the maps are drawn – he thinks there should be more state legislators.
"I can see where the Issue 1 reformers are coming from," said Sen. Bill Blessing (R-Colerain Twp.) of the November ballot issue that was rejected by nearly 54% of voters. He said if the goal is to get a legislature that is more representative of how Ohio votes, that proportional representation could be achieved using "a simple tool: mathematics”. His proposal would take the House from 99 members to 153, and the Senate from 33 members to 51- increasing the number of lawmakers in the General Assembly by a little over half.
Blessing said among the advantages to that are smaller numbers of constituents in each district, so candidates are more connected to them. He said that could potentially mean less money that candidates have to raise to win elections.
“Because money is less of an issue, the districts are smaller, I think this presents an opportunity to create a legislature that looks more like the electorate," Blessing said.
Blessing said he’s bringing up the proposal primarily for discussion. Since it was just introduced and there are only a few weeks left before the end of the year, passage is highly unlikely. But Blessing said he hopes his fellow Republicans will look at it early in the next legislative session starting in January to put the idea before voters next year, before the midterms in 2026.
"If history holds, Republicans hold the White House, hold Congress - it's historically a bad year for the party in power. The outcome could be very different if that were on the ballot in, say, 2026," Blessing said. "So would it behoove members to say, ‘look, this is a much more acceptable proposal if we can work across party lines, get some Democrats on board, and maybe even get groups like Common Cause and Legal Women voters on the same page.’ If they did that, then it's the General Assembly having acted and gotten something that is better than they otherwise would have if reformers get another crack at this."
“I do believe Issue 1, despite it going down in November - the battle over redistricting is not going to go away anytime soon. And I hope that people see this and pick up on it and say, you know what, let's give this a shot,” Blessing said.
The amendment would have to be approved by three fifths of lawmakers before it could go to voters.
With 132 members, Ohio‘s General Assembly is much smaller than many other states, including states with fewer people. Ohio is the seventh most populous state, but 31 state legislatures are larger than Ohio’s. California has the most residents in the nation but 120 state lawmakers, making it the 15th smallest legislature. The other six states that have a higher population than Ohio also have larger state legislatures.
The largest legislature by far is New Hampshire’s, with 424 members. Pennsylvania is second with 253.
