Thread by @DavidPepper

THREAD on the extreme lawlessness taking place in Ohio

I'm on a flight, which gives me an opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for a while: review just how lawless the Ohio GOP behavior has become, and the risk it poses to the rule of law in Ohio long-term.

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First, some background: in 2011, the Ohio GOP used the then-gerrymandering process to draw the most extreme gerrymanded/rigged maps in Ohio history, and among the most extreme in the nation. To show how extreme, compare the Blue Ohio of 2008 and the Blue Ohio of 2012.

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Even though Obama won Ohio both times by about the same amount, the gerrymandering of '11 flipped a 10-8 Dem-GOP Congressional delegation after 2008 into a 4-12 R-D delegation & a post-'08 Dem statehouse majority into a GOP supermajority

Same Blue Ohio -- opposite outcomes

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Those rigged maps guaranteed that almost not a single member of the GOP supermajority would face a competitive election for the next decade. 50 seats they drew themselves averaged a 20-point (!) win or more for the entire decade.

An entire generation. No accountability.

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Which explains why this generation of undemocratic Ohio officials can pass extreme issue after extreme issue and never lose an election. It also explains why they all get re-elected despite rampant and repeated corruption at the statehouse. And terrible outcomes by any measure
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That's the bad news.

The good news was that Ohioans woke up to the problem and fought to change things. They tried to change the Ohio Constitution by adding an independent districting commission, but that effort failed at the polls in 2012.

But people kept fighting...

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and in 2015 and 2018, by more than 70% of the vote, Ohioans amended their Constitution to curb partisan gerrymandering in the future (beginning in 2021). (Ie. they did precisely what the US Supreme Court (Roberts) suggested was the path to address gerrymandering).

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But they didn't stop there. Over the next two cycles, OH voters took a 7-0 GOP Supreme Ct & elected Dem-endorsed candidates in 3 of 4 races. This led to a court with 3 Dem-endorsed justices, 3 GOP-endorsed justices & a chief justice who had voted AGAINST that 2011 gerrymander

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And that is where things stood when the districting process began in mid-'21. From the start, GOP friends told me that the GOP legislature was dead-set against following the process. Which made sense, since none have been in a real election & their records are so bad.

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It also made sense since the guy leading the process is Senator Matt Huffman, who (as a House member) was a key player in the horrific and closed-door gerrymander of 2011. And it was clear he'd be using the same staff as 2011 as well.

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Early on, they were openly telling people that their strategy was to "run out the clock." To delay and delay and delay until the pressure of a set primary date would force everyone's hand to accept a map that didn't follow the new Constitution.

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And that's exactly what they've done. They've dragged out the process, violated multiple deadlines set by the constitution and the Ohio Supreme Court, drawn absurd map after absurd map--not even trying to follow the law or the Court's rulings. All to "run out the clock."

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Think about that lawlessness for a second. These are people who take an oath to the Ohio Constitution, only exercise power due to it, but have willingly violated it (four times now) as part of a clear strategy to get around the requirements defining their own hold on power.

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And that's only part of the lawlessness.

Knowing that the current makeup of the court is a threat to them, they changed the rules as to how Ohio judges are elected (adding party ID), in order to help them in future elections. And they also know that the chief justice ...

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who is willing to stand up to them must retire at the end of the year. So the delay strategy is also about kicking all of this into 2023, when they believe they will have a favorable court. It's also why it's essential for them that Justice DeWIne, the son of the Governor...

NOT recuse (despite an egregious conflict of interest), because his vote will be crucial IF this does get to 2023 as they plan.

This is why they have moved for the court to stay all of this until 2023. That will be after their new rules kick in on judicial elections.

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But central to all this is their insistence that the May 3 primary not be moved. Because that is the date they have been "rolling the clock" back to force an unconstitutional map to be accepted

These are people that have moved primaries in the past (in '16, to help Kasich)

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...and primaries are moved all the time, they but won't do it here because it's the key to their entire strategy: "allow our illegal map to hold our primary"

All so lawless, right?

So what to do if you want to uphold the will of the voters, the rule of law & the Constitution?

You DON'T reward their lawlessness and delay. A primary should NEVER happen on an unconstitutional map. It is simply not legitimate.

And if they get away w doing it this time, they will use the "run out the clock" tactic every single time, until they get a favorable court.

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And even more foundationally, if these people can get away w this extreme level of lawfulness, defying 70% of the voters, the clear text of the Constitution (4x), the clear words of a bipartisan Ohio Supreme Court (mutliple times), then we have lost the rule of law in Ohio

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And this is why folks are so frustrated with the LWV and ACLU -- they just caved to this entire GOP strategy w their recent filing and words justifying it (that the primary must be "orderly").

And it's why it's so critical that both the state and federal courts involved...

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...continue to place the will of the people of Ohio, expressed so clearly in Ohio's constitution (as interpreted by the Ohio Sup Court -- y'know, federalism), over all other considerations.

A primary is simply a statute. It can be moved.

The OH Constitution is sacrosanct.

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And the people of Ohio are ultimately sovereign.

Allowing the Ohio Constitution and the people's will to be so flagrantly violated by a group who've lived devoid of democracy would be a devastating blow to the rule of law and democratic governance of this state.

END

One point: not a single map proposed by plaintiffs/Dem legislators has been one that would lead to Dems being in a majority. Simply following the rules.

The GOP is fighting the entire battle over their quest to again have not A SINGLE GOP SEAT in a competitive district.