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Critics of congressional redistricting say it's not moving forward with the process Ohioans voted for.

And younger lawmakers say they're ready to take on tough issues.

That's this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

The congressional map making process has now moved the seven member Ohio redistricting commission.

After a bipartisan committee of state lawmakers failed to approve a 15 district map by September 30th.

This is the second phase of a three part process for drawing district lines for members of Congress that had bipartisan support and was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2018.

But as statehouse correspondent Joe Ingles reports, Democrats and some voters say that process is not being executed as it was intended.

Here's the.

In March 2018, former Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger raised shots of schnapps alongside Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Ohio celebrating a congressional redistricting plan that he said would terminate gerrymandering.

It was built on the change voters made to the legislative map drawing process in 2015.

Matt Huffman, who wasn't in office then after he was term limited out of the house, helped sell the idea to voters, saying it encouraged bipartisanship.

If the minority doesn't agree and two members of the minority party don't agree.

The map will only last for four years.

Now, the majority can still redraw the map after four years.

And so you may say, well, how does that help?

The answer is legislators and the other folks involved don't want the districts to change in that short of a period of time.

They have an incentive to get a ten year map.

And that's true for the majority party and the minority party.

The process appealed to almost 75% of Ohio voters who voted for it.

It was intended to have three parts.

The first is a bipartisan legislative committee that is to come up with an agreement on a map before it goes to the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which had been created in the state legislative redistricting amendment voters approved in 2015.

Now, in this current process, that deadline passed on September 30th without an agreement.

And even though Democrats proposed a map before that deadline, Republicans haven't yet publicly unveiled a map and may not until the third phase of the process on its final day of work.

Senate Minority Leader Nikki Antonio told the legislative committee that this is not what voters intended for a map to be passed.

It was required that it be part bipartisan.

I interpret that as the will of the people for us to sit down and work together.

I don't interpret it as we'll just sit back and run the clock out, which unfortunately seems to be what the plan is here, and that that is disrespectful to the people of the state of Ohio.

Antonio said voters intended fairness to be part of the constitutional process, to which Republican Senator Jane Timken responded.

This one.

The word fairness is not in the Constitution, correct?

It's not in this Constitution.

Quiet in the crowd.

We're going to have to ask that.

If you cannot refrain from outburst, we're going to have to ask you to leave.

So.

Oh, sorry.

Sorry, coach.

Please continue.

I think you, So.

While the word.

We'd have to do a complete combing of the constitution to find out if it's in there anywhere.

I am referring to the.

Oh, just to this.

I can tell you about other things.

It's not in there either.

But since that legislative committee couldn't come up with an agreement on the basic interpretations of the process, it's now up to the Republican dominated Ohio Redistricting Commission.

It has until the end of the month to come up with an agreement on a map that has buy in from both Democrats on the panel.

But it seems doubtful that will happen.

Republicans, who can pass a map with a simple majority of lawmakers in the third phase of redistricting next month have repeatedly said the map isn't due until the end of November.

And now, House Speaker Matt Huffman says they may not show their hand until then.

Well, there isn't a map until I know what needs to go into it in order to get an agreement.

And then we can present that to the public.

But we also want the public having input.

So we'll see what happens in the next, 31 days.

And then, you know, if that if that doesn't work, we'll, we'll start off in November with a new process, a new question to a new group of people.

But a map passed with only one party support, which is what could happen if the process goes to supermajority.

Republicans in the legislature won't last ten years.

Katherine Tercer of Common Cause Ohio, who also work to pass the current redistricting process in 2018, said that shorter time period for maps that are not bipartisan hasn't really worked as intended.

So one of the things that I think is really sad here, is there all sorts of ways where lawmakers, elected officials are encouraged to live up to the obligations in the Ohio Constitution?

Now, clearly, they're not adequate.

In 2021, when the last congressional map passed with no bipartisan support, it lasted four years.

But if lawmakers pass a map along party lines this year, it will last longer.

So the way to think about it is things can change.

You know, when we came together as a state to make changes, we were still a bellwether state, right?

We were still a bellwether state, for years, you know, the difference between who the governor, the auditor and secretary of state could be significant.

And so this is the other reason why there was a sense, hey, it should be four years because you could have different leadership on the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which will encourage people to actually get it done for years.

Also is it encourages people because, you know, if you were an incumbent, wouldn't you rather just know, hey, this is my district.

I want to move.

I don't have to, you know, you just like knowing what your district is.

So the way to think about it is okay.

We tried it, tried to get bipartisan maps, didn't manage it.

Let's take another go at that four year mark.

So that's where we are 2025.

And those district lines will last until the next mapmaking, which will be in 2031.

Tercer and others, including Republican former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, asked voters last year to once again change the redistricting process for both the congressional and legislative redistricting.

Their plan would have taken it out of the hands of politicians and given that power to our panel of appointed citizens instead.

And Schwarzenegger, still advocating for fairness and redistricting, came back in March 2024, six years later, to rally for it.

We have maps now.

This time around, the plan only had the support of Democrats and advocates with Republican officials opposed.

And many voters said they were confused about the language approved by Republicans on the Ohio ballot board.

That included one word gerrymander.

In a year where Ohio helped Donald Trump when a second term as president and no Democrats won statewide, the issue failed.

It would take a lot of money to go back to the ballot to change the process again.

So for now, the map drawing effort at the state House continues under a process that many of its onetime supporters say is not working as intended.

Joe Ingles, Statehouse News bureau.

The average age in the US Congress is 57.5 years, which is lower than it was at the start of the last two year congressional session in 2023.

An analysis of Ohio's state lawmakers by the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, done two years ago, showed the average age was just over 52 years, with only 18 of 132 state legislators under 35 years old.

Voters under 24 are the demographic bloc with the lowest turnout, with voters 25 to 34 only slightly higher.

It's long been suggested that part of the reason is that those younger voters have trouble connecting with older officials and candidates who may not see issues related to technology, education, housing and health care.

The way they do this summer for state lawmakers, Senator Michelle Reynolds and Representative David Thomas, both Republicans and Minority Leader Danny Isaacson and Representative Munira Abdullahi, both Democrats, were on a panel at the Columbus Metropolitan Club on the new leaders shaping Ohio politics.

Also on the panel was Shaquille Alexander, the Democratic treasurer of the Columbus suburb of Whitehall.

The lawmakers were asked by Columbus Dispatch reporter Haley B Miller whether when they got to the office after winning their elections, if it was what they expected.

The short answer is yes.

Which, you know, I, I'm, I, I think you sort of have to be to do this job, but I'm very naturally optimistic person.

Couldn't do it if, I think any of us, if we weren't.

And the state House, in many ways, as frustrating as it is to be in the super minority, and to feel like there's sort of a portion of the state that doesn't get representation as a result.

Even with that, I remember my first, couple weeks, some of the committee chairs.

So members of the majority party sat down with me one on one, walked me through what to expect in the committee.

You know, they asked me what issues I cared about.

And then they ended the meeting by saying, you're not going to like this committee.

You know, you're not going to like what we do.

You're not going to agree with what we push forward, but I'm going to give you the chance to make your argument and ask your questions and and it was one of the controversial committees, so and, and, and then I, I said that to a friend of mine who is new in Congress, and I sort of relayed that I just had this experience.

And he was just because a chairman of one of my committees, not only would he never go get coffee with me, he would never speak to me one on one, certainly not to ask me what I cared about.

And so I do think there's a the like we disagree on the policies dramatically.

You know, and we can get into that or not.

But so there's no doubt about the, you know, the level of disagreement there, but in terms of the day to day of how the state House functions, it is much closer, I think, to what people want their government to function like than certainly in D.C.

now, DC sets a pretty low bar, so there's room for improvement in the state House for sure.

But I have, I have appreciated both that you can find opportunities to be bipartisan.

And, there's a people on the stage who have done that and who I've gotten to do that with, and, and you can find opportunities to fight like hell and make your case and argue and, you know, be as honest as you want and then move on to the next business of whatever's coming, you know, whatever needs to be addressed, afterwards.

And so I think it's been maybe even a little better than I expected.

I was a very reluctant candidate.

Served as county auditor for Ashtabula for six years, was not interested at all.

And coming out of Columbus.

Love local level.

Love being able to actually see the impact that you have in your community when you're at the local level.

But, my predecessor, who I ran against, was just not doing the job.

So from the very gecko, I would say, in a sense was able to see some change just because my people were not being represented.

And to me, that was the most important thing.

So I'm only eight months in, so still learning, still having a lot of those conversations and, and kind of seeing how the statehouse works.

I'd say the biggest kind of happiness or change aspect, it's a relationship game.

I always thought if policy is good, policy will move it.

Policies bad policy won't move.

And that's just kind of how things are determined.

Not quite.

It's all it's all relationships.

Which I actually would completely agree with is for the better.

How many of you have watched, you know, Parks and Rec versus House of cards?

I always joke we are not a house of cards, you know, state, nor reality.

We're definitely much more of a Parks and Rec kind of, you know, fun community in that sense, for, for better or worse, too.

But that's been kind of one of the nice things is just we're starting to forge those types of relationships, and I think we're a much better state for that in our state House.

I always invite folks from back home, spend a day with me, just walk around kind of the things you're allowed to listen in and hear what what's actually happening.

I think you'll actually be pretty impressed and happy with with how the state House is.

I would agree with both of, the comments prior.

But my experience starts at the local level.

I've worked in city government, county government, at the executive, at the governor's office, and now the state House.

And every level seems to be different.

I think the commonality is that bureaucracy is that that sucks.

Just just bureaucracy at its best.

I mean, I just think the government does two things.

Well, they solve problems and create problems.

So bureaucracy is not great.

However, the difference that you get to make, especially at a local level, is phenomenal.

Being able to touch the people, being able to solve problems on your local level and actually know that you've made a difference is astounding.

The state House has been incredible.

I had no idea what I signed up for.

I mean, I ran for office, I knew what I wanted to do, but when I got there, I had no idea until recently of exactly how much power and influence that we have as legislators.

But it is a relationship building, opportunity.

You have to build relationships.

No man or woman is an island.

It's about building bridges and being able to get things done together collectively.

And so to the extent that you are able to, connect with people and understand and not make it about you and make it about our collective and what's good for the greater good, then you can be successful and you can use your influence.

It's more about your influence on what you do through people instead of what you do to people.

And so I've had a, a wonderful, I've had a wonderful experience at the state House.

I absolutely love what I do.

I love opening doors for even others to be able to do, at another level and be leaders, and engage at this level.

But I just think every level of office is just a little bit different.

But bureau Appreciate what the Senate and a representative said about relationships and, growing up in Whitehall coming into office, I had already a lot of those relationships, sports, those made my experience a lot easier.

The auditor I served with, his wife worked in the schools, and I was coming up in Whitehall.

And so he seen me grow up.

Our current mayor, a former city attorney, has been a friend and a mentor.

Michael Bivins has seen me grow up.

So the people I work with and the residents we serve, they know secure Alexander the human, the person.

Not just the elected official.

And so in Whitehall, we're about 20,000 strong, five square miles.

About 20% of that's taken up by the SEC.

So we only really have four square miles to work with.

Very small, tight knit community.

A lot of people, they grew up in Whitehall.

Their kids grew up in Whitehall.

Some people stick around and they're lifers.

We'll see how long I stick around.

That working with, the great staff over here.

We have people from the auditor's office, people from the mayor's office.

They've made my experience, just that much better.

And Whitehall, we can move at the speed of business because we're so small, we can see impact in real time.

I come from the private sector, CPA by trade.

So coming over to government, things were familiar but very different.

So I had a lot to learn, a lot to get up to speed on.

And, we deal with a certain level of bureaucracy, especially with a lot of change going on.

Some people aren't fans of change, and some people fear change.

You fear what you don't know.

But, starting to see a little bit more of that in Whitehall in a way I haven't seen before.

So I think, the road ahead may be a little bit more challenging from the bureaucratic and, just, put some policy through that generally.

But we can move at the speed of business.

And it's made, things very exciting, the way we're able to get things done and really impact and change lives.

Yeah, for me, it was I had pretty low expectations, coming in to the state House and a lot of ways it was a lot worse than I expected.

And in some ways it was a lot better than I expected.

Same way that, my colleague, Leader Isaacson mentioned the relationship building was so shocking to me, the amount of conversations that people were willing to have with you.

I didn't expect that.

I didn't think people would want to talk to me at all.

And, and coming in.

But however, coming in as an activist, it was a lot harder to manage my expectations and to realize I can't yell at people anymore, I can't I've got to be respectful.

I've got a manages relationships because that's how things get done.

And the bureaucracy of it all as well has been very difficult to adjust to because you want things done, you want the things done now you want things done fast.

You're like my constituents need this ASAP.

But that's just not how bureaucracy works.

And that's just not how working in a state house where you're in the super minority works.

And that part, I would say, is probably the part that sucks the most.

Just having that things getting done quickly.

And sometimes you have to expect they're not going to get done at all because of the severe imbalance of power.

So coming from a different perspective, it is it still sucks, but I am optimistic and I'm still there to make change.

And so it's just going to be a lot in a lot slower pace than I expected.

The lawmakers were asked by a forum attendee who they consider their people when they make their decisions.

What I think about, though, in terms of representation, are first and foremost my taxpayers.

That's in my background.

My focus, who I hear from the most are the taxpayer side.

Love, Gary.

Okay.

When I think of, my people or who I represent, I think of first and foremost voters, all the voters in my district.

But then after that, it's literally everyone who's impacted by the policies that we passed in Ohio.

So all Ohioans, especially working class Ohioans as well, I think of the most, because they are most impacted by the policies that we passed in a negative way.

I mean, and so when I think of my people, I think of working class Ohio's working class families who are impacted directly by the policies that we pass and have been impacted negatively in the past, you know, however many years, that's who I think of.

If that's when I think of my people, I think of, again, that five square miles on the east side of Columbus called Whitehall.

That's where I grew up.

That's how I went about our yearly high school, moved up north for a little bit of time after college, I Otterbein University go karts and, I've been back in Whitehall about four and a half years now.

But, even more specifically, the young people that look like me in Whitehall who are coming up and I can show them that you do have options, that you can, do something different.

I think that's very important that I continue to show up and be present and, whether I'm speaking, whether I'm part of whatever's going on or just simply in the room, I think all of that is equally as powerful for them to see me around.

I would say that at first it's my constituents, because that's who the people have voted.

You know that voting bloc, 350,000 people that I represent, that all of their interest, whether they voted for me or not.

However, as a leader, I represent a lot of different communities.

I'm a pastor's wife, so I have the faith based.

I have, new American communities because I'm first generation, I'm Jamaican.

I have, you know, I'm a mom.

I'm a grandmother.

I people that look like me, the Republican party, there's a lot of different people that, I, I answer to and that I'm accountable to.

So when I think of my people, I'm thinking, I mean, I'm also Greek, in terms of a sorority.

So there's a lot of people that I'm a leader and, I'm accountable to.

You had me there for a second, Senator.

I it's a great question.

And I sort of echo a lot of the sentiments.

I think the the one, you know, I'll give my colleague here, I'll, you know, give him an elbow a little bit, you know, kids don't pay taxes and so, you know, I think, you know, as we think about who we represent and who we're fighting for and who our people are, we should include kids.

And and then I think, you know, as a as leader, I have to.

I'm.

And I'm new in the role.

I have to think about it a little differently because I work on behalf of the members in the caucus.

And also, you know, have one of the last few remaining, statewide purview as an elected Democrat.

And so think a lot about that marginal voter, think a lot about in districts we don't represent but could represent who is persuadable, what are the issues they care about?

You know, and then what is sort of the baseline of the districts that we do represent in the 4 million people who are represented by our caucus in the state, you know, how are we fighting for them and centering them in what we're doing?

So it's sort of you have to there's levels to it in terms of, the different hats that all of us have to wear.

Democrats in Texas fled so they didn't have to vote on redistricting.

Republicans in the U.S.

Congress fled, so they didn't have to vote on releasing Epstein information.

How do you feel about that?

Lee?

Gary.

Yeah, I, I love this question.

I'm excited for it.

I just I want to know how much to go in on it.

I guess here are my here are my thoughts.

We should have fair maps because it's basic, elemental to democracy.

And we should release the Epstein report.

Because we want to know what it says.

And so, obviously, I'm quoted as saying, you all may know that the House just reconvened, for example, a few weeks ago to try to override a couple of the governor's vetoes.

There are a few House members that, fled, in a sense, to not be there, to take a vote on my record as saying, that's truly our duty.

We should be working for the people, and we should be there when our duty calls, whether that's in Congress, whether that's, you know, in Texas.

And at some point you have to go back and you have to face the voters and you have to face your colleagues when you fled.

So you should never flee.

So, as far as that, I don't necessarily know what whatever the issue is, we need to show up to do our jobs, whether it's redistricting, whether it's some of the tough issues, if it's death penalty, I don't care what the issue is.

If we are elected to to represent the people and we do that through our vote, we need to show up regardless of the situation.

And then as far as the obscene files, I mean, if this is public information, then the public needs to have it.

I mean, some of these things are common sense.

It's not rocket scientists.

It's not for a rocket scientist or whatever.

It's just common sense we need to be.

We've were elected by the people to show up and do our jobs, and we need to do that no matter what the subject or matter at hand.

It it is period.

by the way, that analysis of Ohio's legislature done by Rutgers in 2023 showed 71% of lawmakers were men, compared to 29% women.

Republicans dominated in the baby boomer and Gen X generations in the legislature, while millennial lawmakers were evenly split between the two major parties.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

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Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter, right, is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Porter.

Right.

Com Porter Wright inspired every day.

You know, Ohio Education Association representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at o h e talk.