Time to rethink line-drawing politicians and Ohio’s dual legislative houses: Thomas

Ohio’s “redistricting” reforms — for drawing General Assembly and congressional districts — don’t work, and given Statehouse insiders’ control of mapping machinery, can’t work. That’s why voters need to start over by forbidding elected officials to serve on a new mapping panel, because, as the futile Ohio Redistricting Commission has demonstrated, the General Assembly’s leaders — regardless of party — can’t control their partisan instincts any more than a cat can ignore a mouse.

Meanwhile, as previously suggested, voters should ask if Ohio really needs both a state Senate and House of Representatives. Nebraska has gotten along just dandy with one legislative chamber since the 1930s, when there was also a serious debate about Ohio possibly going “unicameral.”