Ohio Supreme Court again orders redistricting officials to explain why they should avoid

Rotunda Rumblings

Contemplating contempt: The seven members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission have until Monday morning to tell the Ohio Supreme Court why they shouldn’t be held in contempt for the way Republicans on the commission passed a fourth legislative redistricting plan earlier this week. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, the court’s order comes at the request of the plaintiffs in three lawsuits challenging the plan. In February, Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor scheduled a contempt hearing for the five Republicans on the commission, but she put it on hold after they passed a third redistricting plan (later struck down by the court).

Crime and punishment: A child sexual abuse survivor asked the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday to remove caps on the judgement in her civil lawsuit against her abuser. Part of Amanda Brandt’s award was $20 million, which a Cuyahoga County judge reduced to $250,000 due to the 2005 tort reform law that caps jury awards, Laura Hancock reports.

Deadline pressure: A panel of three federal judges, weighing whether to take over Ohio’s dysfunctional process of redrawing its state legislative lines, has given state officials until April 20 to figure it out on their own. As Andrew Tobias writes, Judges Amul Thapar, Algenon Marbley and Benjamin Beaton also gave state officials, Democrats and voting-rights groups until then to tell them what they think the court should do if the Ohio process fails – options could include imposing a map rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court, drawing a new map or picking some other plan. They picked April 20 because that’s the last date state elections officials said they could plug in a new map and still hold a separate primary election just for state legislative candidates on Aug. 2. And Aug. 2 is the final date elections officials say they could hold a primary in time to turn around for the general election in November.

Heading into overtime: Ohio lawmakers on Wednesday gave final approval to legislation allowing employers not to pay overtime to workers for doing things like checking emails or traveling to or from work. As Pelzer reports, Republican supporters say Senate Bill 47 – a priority for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce – would clarify the law and stop frivolous lawsuits. Democratic opponents called the measure “wage theft.”

The Ohio Senate also passed:

• House Bill 597, which would reappropriate $2 billion in unfinished capital appropriations from previous legislative sessions that would otherwise expire at the end of June. The bill now heads to Gov. Mike DeWine.
• House Bill 272, which would require online marketplaces such as Amazon to collect information from large-volume third-party sellers, including a working email and phone number. The legislation now goes to the governor.
• House Bill 175, which would remove state environmental protections for “ephemeral” streams that flow only temporarily because of rain or snowmelt (as long as they’re not subject to federal regulation). The measure now heads back to the House for a concurrence vote.

Sub bill: Legislation to allow people without bachelor’s degrees to substitute teach for another two years easily cleared the Ohio House on Wednesday. As Laura Hancock reports, House Bill 583, which now heads to the Senate, is an attempt to address a shortage of substitutes in many Ohio school districts.

Other bills passed by the Ohio House include:

• House Bill 135, which would ban health insurers from insisting that drugmaker coupons or other financial aid cannot count toward customers’ annual maximum for copays/deductibles or out-of-pocket spending.
• House Bill 276, which targets pimps and traffickers by prohibiting anyone from knowingly receiving anything of value from a prostitute that the prostitute received in exchange for sex.
• House Bill 286, under which appeals of state agency orders would no longer have to be heard solely by the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, but rather by the common pleas court in the home county of the person appealing the order.
• House Bill 390, which would require rape kits to be tested in cases where there’s evidence that human trafficking has occurred.

Nan vs. Cran: Former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and ex-Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley laid out some new policy proposals during a debate Tuesday night at Central State University, from temporarily lowering the state’s gas tax to allowing more sex abuse claims to be filed. Pelzer has four takeaways from the debate, during which the candidates (with one major exception) trained their fire on Gov. Mike DeWine instead of each other.

Writer’s cramp: The National Republican Congressional Committee has purchased $75,000 worth of Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan’s new book and is giving away signed copies as “donor mementos,” Politico reports. An NRCC spokesman told the publication it raised nearly $2 million when it gave donors a book by Texas Republican Dan Crenshaw, and expects to raise $300,000 while promoting Jordan’s book.

Meeting and greeting: Ohio’s Rob Portman and other members of the Senate Ukraine Caucus met Wednesday with several members of Ukraine’s parliament to discuss how the United States could help the embattled nation stave off Russian invaders. Afterwards, Portman released a statement that called for stronger sanctions “especially those targeting Russia’s banking and their energy sector, which continues to fund Putin’s war machine – and more lethal aid including fighter jets, anti-tank, anti-ship and anti-air weaponry as we work to help Ukraine win this war brought on by unwarranted and illegal Russian aggression.”

Borderline personality: Portman also joined several of his Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate to decry the Biden administration’s border policies, which he said incentivize illegal border crossings. “They can just walk in under our asylum policy,” said Portman who urged passage of a bill that would provide adjudication centers at the border that could turn back immigrants who aren’t eligible to enter the country.

The Chemical Brothers: Thailand-based petrochemical company PTT Global Chemical repaid JobsOhio $20 million after failing on an agreement to invest in a plant in Appalachia, the Associated Press’ Mark Gillispie reports. Both JobsOhio and PTT Global Chemical America said the plans for the plant in Belmont County were still a go, but Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was skeptical.

Full Disclosure

Here are five things we learned from the March 24, 2022, financial disclosure form filed by state Rep. Shawn Stevens, a Columbus-area Republican appointed to the House earlier this month:

1. Last year, before his appointment to the House, Stevens earned more than $100,000 as the owner of Bridge Title and Escrow. He also reported receiving somewhere between $10,000 and $24,999 as a member of the Delaware County Board of Elections, as well as somewhere between $1,000 and $9,999 as a member of the Board of Voting Machine Examiners.

2. His only listed investment was a brokerage account with Wells Fargo.

3. Besides his home, Stevens listed owning an agricultural property outside of Mount Vernon.

4. At some point in 2021, Stevens owed at least $1,000 to the Ken Dennis Trust and Key Bank.

5. No one owed Stevens $1,000 or more at any point last year.

On The Move

The Ohio Senate confirmed Gov. Mike DeWine’s nomination of Brandon Kern to the Ohio State Board of Education on Wednesday by a 25-8, party-line vote. Democratic state Sen. Teresa Fedor of Toledo questioned Kern’s qualifications and said his appointment was politically motivated, as he replaces a board member who resigned over an anti-racism resolution. Several Republicans praised Kern, the Ohio State Farm Bureau’s state and national policy senior director, including state Sen. Andrew Brenner of Delaware County, who said Kern has a “stellar resume” and that his nomination “has nothing to do with racism.”

Birthdays

Maj. Gen. John C. Harris, Ohio adjutant general

James M. Cox, Ohio’s 46th and 48th governor, 1920 Democratic presidential nominee (1870-1957)

Straight From The Source

“Buried in your answer was a treasure trove of information. But it still didn’t answer my question.”

-U.S. District Court Judge Algernon Marbley to State Elections Director Amanda Grandjean during a federal court hearing Wednesday. Marbley and two other federal judges spent more than an hour trying to get Grandjean to answer if and/or when a primary election could be held under the third legislative map passed by the Ohio Redistricting Commission (but overturned by the Ohio Supreme Court), as well as when another map, such as the fourth map the commission passed earlier this week, could be used.

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