"GERRYMANDERING" COST STARK CO A "COUNTRY OVER PARTY" CONGRESSMAN

AND

STARK COUNTY'S

JANE TIMKEN

THINKS POLITICAL UNCOMPETIVENESS & UNFAIRNESS"

 ARE A GOOD THING FOR EVERYDAY CITIZENS

 

BUT FOR "gerrymandering," it is highly unlikely that Bob Gibbs would ever, ever, ever had been a United States Congressman.

Gerrymandering - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is a practice intended to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander...; however, that word is also a verb for the process. The term gerrymandering has negative connotations.

‎Gerrymandering in the United · ‎Gerrymandering (film) · ‎Elbridge Gerry

This blogger's hope is that Stark Countian "everyday citizens" will comb through this blog and take action (accessing links to civic organization efforts) as a citizen to stop the perversion of gerrymander no matter from whence it comes.  Be it at the hand of "organized Republicans or "organized Democrats."

Regular readers of the SCPR can help by forwarding a copy of this blog to you "not that politically involved" family, friends and neighbors.

Indeed when one checks on Gibbs"' 

• "I'm an  absolute partisan" time in Congress voting track record, 
• neutral or Democratic voter attempts to access him with a constituent matter, or 
• have to take in his "bottom of the barrel" communications skills,

one has to "shutter to think" that Bob Gibbs is Stark County's congressman likely through 2022.

Democrat Ken Harbaugh put on about as a quality campaign as one can do, but still came up with getting waxed by a "has no business in Congress" former farmer who needs the cover of a gerrymandered district to get elected.

Now that he is in the minority, Stark Countians in the 7th are effectively shut out of having a impact on our national government at the House of Representatives level.

As a majority party member, he was not a leader but rather a follower who pretty mouth Republican Congressional Caucus "talking points."

Harbaugh had the promise to be an authentic "Country Over Party."  But readers can be sure, had he been elected, this blogger would have been watching his every move to determine whether or not he was taking measure to put "Country Over Party."

Yes, Harbaugh dramatically improved on the "opposition" numbers, but a nearly 18 percentage point lost shows how egregiously distorted from a standard of competitiveness and therefore fairness that Ohio's supermajority Republicans in the Ohio General Assembly (OGA, including Stark County legislators Scott Oelslager [29th Senate], Kirk Schuring [48th] and Christina Hagan).

As Ohio GOP chairperson, Timken's ("Elections have consequences" Cleveland City Club, Spring-2018) job by its very definition is to look after the Republican political perspective gaining a place in Ohio and Ohio political subdivision governance.

But "stacking the deck" by the hand of "paid by the taxpayers" legislators is an abuse of political power thereby adulterating America's/Ohio's political/governance structure so as to violate the Constitutional standard of "one-person, one-vote."

Notwithstanding the nation-wide Republican Party effort to make the party defeat proof since the latest round of gerrymandering was implemented by the party in states

• (post the 2010 US Census "every ten years" U.S. Constitution mandated reallocation of congressional seats by population growth/loss) in which the party had a legislative (both houses, Nebraska is unicameral) majority; 

perhaps, as many as 40 seats were gained by Democrats thereby enabling the Dems to control the U.S. House of Representative.

Some political analysts and Republican Party officials are maintaining that the Democratic congressional elections nationwide were not a "Blue Wave" of American citizen defying gerrymandering;  but who believes that?

The Stark County Political Report believes that BUT FOR the Republicans dealing in the gerrymandering grotesque process, to wit:

• how can a Republican lose in a district "stacked deck" with majority Republican "playing cards" (i.e. registered Republican voters), and, by the way
• let's pack urban districts with overwhelming Democratic registered voters because Republicans do not by and large in political philosophy connect with urban areas of the country,
• e.g. largely Canton and Massillon 49th Ohio House District held by, of course, Democrat Thomas West,

the numbers for Democrats would have been at "all-time-record-highs" in the history of the United States of America.

NOTE:  It just so happens that the gerrymandering in mostly a Republican phenomenon currently.  But even today there are pockets of Democratic Party instituted gerrymandering And the SCPR fully understands that if changes in state laws under general public pressure mandating competitive and therefore fair elections are not made, then given the opportunity Democratic political operatives will do the very same thing that Republicans are into.

This blogger thinks is given the chance former Stark County Dems' chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr would be full throttle into gerrymandering pro-Democrats.  When he was a state Representative creating unfair congressional/Ohio General Assembly seats was a prime goal of his.

By 2022, there is a chance due to two ballot measure passed overwhelmingly by Ohioans (2015/2017) that in 2022 Bob Gibbs, if he or a gerrymandered into office successor is still around, will have "meaningful" competition and have to consider "I might actually lose this race" if I don't connect with:

• independent minded,
• Democratic, and
• Republican 

voters.

But work needs to be done.

What follows is a press release issued after the November election by Common Cause/Ohio:

The midterm elections have come and gone. Thank you to all who were engaged in Election Protection or supported the workings of our democracy in other ways.

We are concerned about the lame duck session getting underway at the Ohio Statehouse. We want to call your attention to a couple of items that have the potential to impact the democratic process, one in a positive way, the other negatively.

Easier Voter Registration

House Bill 14, “Ease Voter Registration,” introduced by State Representative Kathleen Clyde, seeks to make it easier for Ohioans to register to vote and easily update their registration. Easier registration will mean more eligible Ohioans are able to vote. It’s an obvious and easy win for a stronger democracy.

HB14 was introduced on February 8, 2017 and has not yet received a single hearing. The bill is currently assigned to the House Government and Accountability Oversight Committee. Here’s how we can help push the bill forward:

Call the committee chair, Rep. Louis W. Blessing III, and demand "hearings and a vote" on the bill. Reach him by phone at (614) 466-9091, by fax at (614) 719-3583. You can also send an email.

Go to the committee chair's office in person and ask for hearings.

Post on social media about the need to pass the bill. Tweet at the press so they will write about our push to pass the bill.

Write a letter to the editor in support of HB14.

Raising the Bar for Ballot Initiatives

On the other side of the ledger is an item that is not yet a bill but that we are nonetheless watching with caution. Legislative leaders have discussed raising the threshold necessary to successfully get citizens’ initiatives onto the ballot. As the hurdles are already high, it seems that raising the requirements higher would simply have the effect of making it easier for our elected officials to ignore the concerns of the citizens. (Remember, the citizen initiative is going to be more challenging going forward simply because more people voted this year: as the signature requirement is for 10% of the gubernatorial voters, more signatures will now be required.)

Here’s how we can help stop any potential bill in its tracks:

Contact the President of the Ohio Senate, Larry Obhof to share your views on why raising the requirements is a bad idea. Phone: (614) 466-7505. Fax: 614-466-7662. Email: obhof@ohiosenate.gov.

Go to Senator Obhof’s office in person and share your views.

Post on social media about the need to pass the bill. Include members of the press in your posts and tweets.

Write a letter to the editor.

Thank you for everything you do!

Mia Lewis

Common Cause Ohio

PS: It’s exciting to see that pro-democracy measures [NPR link] are at the top of the agenda for the new US House. Removing obstacles to voting, closing loopholes in government ethics law, and reducing the influence of money in politics are three critical issues that undoubtedly need to be addressed on a national level.

Act today to stop the hijacking of our political system by either political party!