Why the Ohio gop wants gerrymandering, from twitter

Source-@DC_DeWitt
Editor-in-Chief and Opinion Columnist
@OhioCapJournal

Ohio Republican politicians are fond of this argument that gerrymandering means drawing any safe seat, and not that the totality of districts drawn statewide are wildly out of whack with the statewide preferences of voters. It’s a silly and dishonest argument. I’ll explain why 1/

First, yes, safe districts should be minimized and competitive districts should be maximized. But to pretend it is possible to draw only competitive districts and no safe districts is pure dishonesty. That’s not possible. So to call any safe district “gerrymandering” is dumb. 2/


On their part, it’s more than dumb, it’s brazenly hypocritical. Under the gerrymandered maps Ohio voters are currently suffering, Ohio Republicans drew Every Single GOP district Safe, and All the Competitive Races were Dem seats. So by their own definition, they gerrymandered. 3/

They gerrymandered on two levels: Making a 56-43 state into a 67-32 Ohio House, and making every competitive race a Democratic protect, while every single Republican enjoyed safe reelection. They gerrymandered according to both proportionality and their own weird definition. 4/

As I’ve said many, many times: Given that safe seats have to be drawn, the number of safe seats drawn ought to be proportional to statewide voter preferences, and the number of competitive seats should be evenly maximized between the two parties. That ends gerrymandering. 5/5