In this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, hosts Mike Thompson and Steve Brown discuss the latest news on the standoff between the Ohio Redistricting Commission and the Ohio Supreme Court. Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau Reporter Andy Chow joins the show.
Contempt of court
The saga that is Ohio’s Legislative map-drawing process continues. The Ohio Redistricting Commission at first thumbed its nose at the Ohio Supreme Court order that it produce maps that reflect Ohio’s political balance.
Then the Supreme Court ordered the commission to explain themselves. Then the commission met and said, on second thought, let’s give it another try.
Their explanation to the court was along the lines of "This is hard. We could not come up with a map in ten days. Cut us some slack. We’re still trying."
The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered members of the commission to appear for a contempt hearing on March 1, though they plan to vote on a new map this week.
Meanwhile, Sec. of State Frank LaRose said that the primary will likely have to be postponed or split into two primaries.
Snollygoster of the week
Ohio Democratic Party met last week to discuss whether to endorse candidates for the two really big races on the primary ballot: Governor and U.S. Senate. You would think modern party leaders would get out of the way and leave it to voters or at least be consistent.
The state Democratic party chose to stay neutral in the governor’s race between Nan Whaley and John Cranley. But they gave their endorsement to Tim Ryan in the U.S. Senate race over the objections of his opponent Morgan Harper.
Send questions and comments to snollygoster@wosu.org.