Early voting is underway for the May 3 primary for statewide and congressional offices, and no date is set for a primary for state House and Senate races. But a Republican lawmaker is introducing a bill to cut funding for the Ohio Supreme Court by whatever it costs to hold a primary for those state legislative candidates.
Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission haven鈥檛 produced any maps for House and Senate districts that have been ruled constitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court.
Rep. Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville) said the commission worked for months on maps, but said the supreme court hasn鈥檛 moved the maps cases quickly, so the court, not counties boards of elections, should pay the estimated $20 million for the second primary.
鈥淭his is something we only do once every 10 years. So here we are in a once-every-10-years situation, and the supreme court has not prioritized it the way that the redistricting commission has," Ferguson said.
Republican Chief Justice Maureen O鈥機onnor and the court鈥檚 three Democrats have thrown out three sets of GOP-created maps as unconstitutionally gerrymandered.
The first set of legislative maps, drawn by Republican legislative staffers, were a. The first of three lawsuits challenging those maps . The cases were consolidated and . The court .
A second set of GOP-created maps, and .
A third set of maps was supposed to have been approved by February 17, but the commission didn't do that, so Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor asked the members to.
When fellow Republican Justice Sharon Kennedy said O'Connor didn't have the authority to order a contempt hearing without the support of a majority of the court, the hearing was canceled, and a third set of maps . That third set .
The redistricting commission tried a new approach for the fourth set of maps,and setting them up .
But in the end, they said the mapmakers weren't able to produce a recommended set of maps by the March 28 deadline, so Republicans on the commission tweaked the third set of maps and approved them. The court is now reviewing that fourth set.
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