[From the Cleveland Plain Dealer]
“I don’t know any other way of doing that than to get the three mapmakers, put them in a room, tell them to work together and tell them to follow the Constitution and to follow the Supreme Court,” DeWine said during an event at Columbus State Community College. He added that the mapmakers should make themselves and their work available to any commission member at any time.
[Follow the constitution and the supreme court … what a novel idea.]
“There are other options, but the Supreme Court has only given 10 days to do this,” DeWine said. “And the idea that we’re going to be able to go out and hire somebody new and have them do this (map-drawing) work and do this work in 10 days, I think, presents some very significant challenges. So we have to try to follow the Supreme Court decision about the end result that they want.”
The Supreme Court ruling, issued by Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and the court’s three Democrats, held that the redistricting commission should draw a new map in public while holding “frequent” meetings to “promote transparency and increase public trust.” It’s the third time that the court has struck down a legislative redistricting plan passed by Republicans on the redistricting commission without the support of the commission’s two Democrats. The court also said the redistricting commission should consider hiring an outside, independent mapmaker.
The court still has not ruled on a Republican-drawn congressional map, although the rejection of the state legislative plan seems to increase the odds it will also reject the congressional plan.
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