I really hope that the OH GOP doesn’t try to draw a district to defeat Kaptur—before you say anything, let me explain why. Toledo is heavily Dem, as is most of Lorain County further east (with the most heavily Dem lakeside areas in Sutton’s OH-13); in between is politically marginal territory. If GOP redistricters try to draw a winnable CD that includes Toledo, Kaptur would still be favored for reelection, and it would probably result in a Democrat also being elected from a Lorain-centric district (either Sutton or someone else). The most obvious move for Republicans in OH is to split up the two Dem strongholds in Sutton’s OH-13, with Lorain being given to Kaptur and the west side of Akron being given to Democrat Tim Ryan of Youngstown (who already represents eastern Akron), thus getting rid of Sutton. That’s actually easier to do than getting rid of Kucinich by combining his CD with Fudge’s black-majority Cleveland district (Kucinich represents too many Dem-leaning suburbs that wouldn’t fit in Fudge’s CD).
So I think that we should make Kaptur’s CD *more* Democrat, even if it would mean that Joe the Plumber won’t be able to beat her. Sorry, Joe, but the most important thing is to reduce the total number of Democrats elected to Congress from OH, and trying to defeat Kaptur would get in the way of that.
Reporting in from Ohio:
Fudge’s district will remain the same but extend down to inner city Akron. Think barbell shaped Voting Rights Act district.
Kucinich/Sutton/Kaptor three districts(west side of Cleveland to Toledo) become two districts
My understanding is that Ohio will lose two congressional seats and the two that are rumored to be eliminated are Kucinich’s district in Cuyahoga County and one GOP district downstate to be collapsed-—I heard that unfortunately Congressman Jordan’s district is on the chopping block. I was hoping that in case that were to happen, Jordan would consider running against Sherrod Brown the incumbent US Senator who is up for re-election next year.
Ohio GOP has 13 incumbents to protect. Which may be one more than they actually can protect. Drawing Kaptur’s district into a competitive one is near last on their list of priorities.