Thread by @KatyAShanahan

While we wait for the Comm'n to come back, worth noting something:

Hired mappers (D and R) drew maps that were fair and could've gotten bipartisan support.

But the GOP just passed a set of maps that is 99.74% identical to the ones SCOhio just struck down as unconstitutional.

They changed just 5 districts on the maps and those changes still reflect 90-100% matches to the last set of maps that were passed on Feb 24 and that were struck down by the Court just 10 days ago.

Now, if it were me I wouldn't worked harder to change them, but WHAT DO I KNOW?!

Comm'n back in action.

Sykes moving for Comm'n to consider Johnson/McDonald maps (which were finished about 10 mins after GOP voted for their gerrymandered maps)

LaRose: how much time bc I have to direct BOEs (ACTUALLY SCOhio still has jurisdiction over this so you can't yet!)

Russo: Agree to accept Johnson/McDonald map because it's better at seat counts to reflect how Ohio votes and provides parity between D and R toss up seats (as opposed to GOP-passed maps that again stacked only Dems with toss ups).

Worth underscoring again & again that the Rs just lit $49k of taxpayer dollars on fire to pay McDonald and Johnson for tireless work in the last 5 days to pump out new maps in accord with the Court order.

That adds to legal bills for their NC lawyers that we're also paying for!

Heard Cupp is concerned with compactness, so perhaps he could explain why my neighborhood - just a 10min drive from the Statehouse in downtown Columbus - is paired with Circleville in this blue monster that stretches from urban to rural, overwhelmingly R areas of the state.

Heard DeWine is concerned about keeping communities of interest together, so maybe he could explain why he thinks it makes sense to crack apart Black communities in Trotwood from those who live in Dayton to drown them into an overwhelmingly white, rural, and GOP district.

Faber again lecturing us about how our political geography justifies partisan gerrymandering, so again let me say that that is just absolute bullshit.

Even taking our pol geo into account, YOU DON'T HAVE TO GERRYMANDER TO GIVE US #FAIRMAPS.

I'm - in full honesty - running really low on the mental health capacity it takes to withstand the absolute toxic gaslighting we're hearing from Faber who has the audacity to quote public testimony from Ohioans he and his GOP goons have ignored at every step of this process.

This work is fucking gutting. The fight for our democracy takes a toll on every aspect of your life if you're all the way in it like I've been especially for the last nearly 3 years.

And watching us find ourselves with another set of unconstitutional maps is just brutal.

Leader @Russo4Ohio is - again - spot on:

"The process and tactics have not changed since we started this process 7 months ago."

This was the GOP's plan from the jump - delay until the end, rush through gerrymandered maps, force us to vote under them by refusing to move primary.

SCOhio ordered the Commission - not parties - to draw an entirely new plan, Russo rightfully points out.

Instead what the GOP just did was pass a new set of map that is 99.7% identical to the ones that the Court just struck down as being unconstitutional.

Just...appalling.

"That said, in spite of everything that's just happened in the last few hours, I have hope that we can get this right," Leader @Russo4Ohio says looking directly at the audience with at least one teary-eyed person (me, it's me).