No gerrymandering here...
Posted on 09/13/2011 12:03:52 PM PDT by Galactic Overlord-In-Chief
(Via The Campaign Spot) And… it’s subtle. Executive summary:
Ohio loses two districts, overall. Republicans Steve Austria and Mike Turner end up competing with each other in the same district. Democrats Marcy Kaptur & Dennis Kuchinich, ditto. Democrat Nancy Sutton loses her district and gets thrown into a district that heavily favors her new Republican opponent Jim Renacci – and she doesn’t get to bring her power base with her. Or she could compete with Democrat Tim Ryan in yet another district. Columbus (Democratic stronghold) metropolitan area gets a shiny-new, presumably Democratic-leading, district. Everybody else more or less stands pat, or gets strengthened.
So, on first glance… not too awful, right? They redrew districts to give both sides legitimate primary battles, and there’s going to be turnover, and, hey, the minority party in Ohio got a favorable district from the majority Republicans, so that was nice of them and everything. So why are the Democrats scowling? Well, it’s probably because the current map for Ohio is 13 Republican, 5 Democratic (it was 8R/10D last year); that the next map looks like it’s going to be … hold on, this is complicated… somewhere around 12R/4D (11R/5D if the Democrats catch a break); and sets up a potential brawl between two prominent Ohio Democrats (Kaptur & Kuchinich). And – because of that free Democratic district – there’s not much in the way of complaining that the opposition party can do about it, or the fact that most of the GOP incumbents have had their gains more securely locked in. Lastly, the risks for the Republicans overall are minimized: one Red-on-Red primary and a Red-on-Blue general election that has had the risks minimized. But other than that, there’s not much for Democrats to complain about.
As I said. Subtle.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Coming soon to a theater near you....”Mr. Kucinich goes to Washington (State of)”
No gerrymandering here...
I was wondering when Ohio would release its map. I figured that the Republican to go would be either freshman Bill Johnson or Bob Gibbs, but talk shifted to an Austria-Turner showdown a month or so ago. Judging from some of the articles I’ve read today, Turner has the edge.
Shifting one of the Dem seats to the city of Columbus will save us a lot of anxiety. As it is, both Stivers and Tiberi’s seats aren’t anywhere near safe, and both could fall in a bad GOP year.
The Campaign Spot adds that Chabot, Latourette, and Renacci all get stronger districts. I wonder if they’ve shorn up Johnson. It was supposed to be a safe seat for then-Rep. Ted Strickland, so it can’t be left as it is.
Heh, it’s similar to the prior gerrymander. Incumbent protection.
Interesting. I am curious to see what Kaptur and Kookcinich do.
Stivers is my rep. Glad to see him get a safe district, but I truly despise the thought of a Mary Jo Kilroy return to the House. Even worse would be Coleman.
“I am curious to see what Kaptur and Kookcinich do.”
I expect Kookcinich will be forced to resign.
He’s already persona non-grata among many on the radical nutjob left, for he DARED to speak ill of the Messiah. And frankly, she’s a more useful idiot to the Soroscrats than he is.
The districts around Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland make perfect sense and are population based.
My own 2nd district makes sense based on a rural area and so does the 3rd, but the 6th is silly, as is the one beside it...what is that ....14?
Ohio Ping
I say Dennis will "go west young man" and try to buy into the idiots of Washington state.
We were preparing for electorial battle here in the 4th to defend Jim Jordan. Rumors were rampant.
Except for poor Steve Austria.
LOLOL!
That’s certainly not an Iowa redistricting map.
I wonder why Ohio Republicans screwed Steve Austria like that?
I guess it’s them being cautious and not overreaching and leaving GOP seats that are too marginal.
-1 -1
I’m not thrilled but our 12 remaining seats should be fairly safe.
Tiberi’s seat is getting safer as we speak.
The more Licking County grows (and it just grew by 2 more GOP voters in me and the wifey), the redder it gets. Same goes for Knox.
Never count Dennis out. He may have a horrific voting record, but he’s great at constituent service. Plus, as a member of the minority party he can grandstand all he wants and not be responsible for anything.
Never count Dennis out. He may have a horrific voting record, but he’s great at constituent service. Plus, as a member of the minority party he can grandstand all he wants and not be responsible for anything.
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