The art of the deal
House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio accepted a Republican deal for a new Congressional map that will be a hard pill for Democratic voters to swallow.
I originally planned to write a lengthy explainer about my voting ballot. You can still read a trimmed version at the end of this article, if that’s something you’re interested in doing.
However, the problem with my line of work is that breaking news can happen at any second of the day.
And so it did last night when The Rooster broke the news that Ohio Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Cleveland) had struck a deal with the Republican junta on a new Congressional map.
While the official map has yet to be rolled out, The Rooster can independently confirm that Ohio Politics Guru has created an accurate replica, shaded with the 2024 presidential election results per district:
Here are some observations:
The map takes Democratic juice from Cincinnati Congressman Greg Landsman’s district in exchange for juicing Akron Congressswoman Emilia Sykes’ seat. Landsman’s camp will be pissed, but his seat remains highly winnable, especially in a midterm year without Trump on the ballot.
Sykes will be over the moon with the result. To say that her new “lean D” district surprised me would be an understatement.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur’s Toledo-based seat includes Harrison County, clearing the way for Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) to enter the race. The seat is roughly gauged as a +9 Republican district, which Kaptur’s team will feel they can still win, given the national conditions.
Congresswomen Joyce Beatty (D-Columbus) and Shontel Brown (D-Cleveland) kept their current seats. There had been plenty of rumblings that the Cleveland seat would be moving ever so slightly to the west, which would have had significant racial ramifications and potentially cleared a path for Leader Antonio to leave for Congress.
Last night, Leader Isaacsohn informed his House Democratic colleagues that he had taken the deal and there would be no caucus vote on the matter. We’ll see how that plays out in Cincinnati, where the early talk is that Isaacsohn, who has mayoral ambitions, threw Landsman under the bus to help Sykes as a favor to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Why would he do that? Well, Isaacsohn has faced criticism from Black Cincinnati leaders for moving into the district shortly before the legal deadline to do so and for self-funding his way into a Black-majority House seat. The CBC could help assuage some of their concerns.
Hardline Republicans will feel this map shortchanges them. Punchbowl News reported that the Republicans revealed a 15R-2D map that the State Legislature was ready to move on Nov. 1 if a bipartisan deal had not been reached by the end of the week.
This map appears to be the definition of compromise in that both sides will walk away feeling they left something on the table. The move averts the Democratic nuclear option of forcing a statewide referendum on that potential 15R-2D map.
And while I understand anyone’s anger with Democratic leaders agreeing to a gerrymandered map, especially with national Democrats having money to fund a statewide referendum, there were a lot of moving parts on a tight timeline. Like, for example, what would prevent Secretary of State Frank LaRose from delaying certification of the signatures past the deadline? And even if that referendum came to pass, the result would be no guarantee—especially after we lost big last year in a similar fight about gerrymandering.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend I did cartwheels around Hilltop Husband’s living room when I saw the map. But it’s easy to see why Leaders Isaacsohn and Antonio made the decisions they did.
And I say that as somebody who went on red alert when I learned they agreed to the map. I had my suspicions—as I reported last week—and most of them were misplaced.
Will everybody agree with my assessment? No. I talked to multiple Cincinnatians last night who felt Isaacsohn put their Democratic Congressional representation at risk to further his political career.
The Congressional Redistricting Committee will meet at 4 p.m. today at the Statehouse. I’ll be there before a much-needed haircut at 5:30 on the city’s southside.
The Rooster’s 2025 Sample Ballot…
Like I said. I wanted to make this explainer an entire column. However, as of this writing, it’s 12:35 a.m., which is well past my bedtime.
Still, I promised folks yesterday that I would produce a sample ballot, and I don’t want anyone who might have made plans to vote today to be disappointed.
So, here’s a quick rundown of how I voted:
Judge for Muncipal Court (1/1): No selection.
Judge for Municipal Court (1/2): No selection.
Judge for Municipal Court (1/3): Ajmeri Hoque. I am anti-judge as a concept. Traditionally, we don’t get along. But Ms. Hoque is the real deal, and her seat on the bench will be well deserved. I can’t say enough nice things about her.
City Auditor: No selection.
City Attorney: No selection.
City Council District 1: Chris Wyche. This vote might surprise folks. Wyche has endorsed the machine’s first-time candidate Tiara Ross and given her roughly $25,000 worth of in-kind donations. But you know what? I like the guy, even if the feeling probably isn’t mutual, and he’s running unopposed. He’s got juice, and I respect his work on lead pipes, noxious weeds and submetering.
Columbus City Council District 3: No selection.
Columbus City Council District 4: No selection.
Columbus City Council District 7: Jesse Vogel. If you only cast a single vote this election cycle, PLEASE VOTE FOR VOGEL. I can’t say enough about the type of person that he is, let alone the campaign that he has run against the institutional forces arrayed against his candidacy. Please, God, let it happen!!!!
#1 TAX LEVY — ADAMH (RENEWAL & INCREASE): YES. We love our mental health, don’t we, folks?
#2 TAX LEVY — ZOO (RENWAL): NO. This is actually the first levy that I’ve ever voted against. I am anti-zoo as a concept. That lion should not be high on xanax in Powell, Ohio, of all places. I would have put that aside under normal circumstances because I understand that Central Ohio families love the zoo. But unfortunately, the zoo recently got caught red-handed in a major corruption scandal… and then it continued to see itself as above public records requests despite taking public money? No thanks. These guys need a reality check, though I doubt they’ll get one.
#5 BOND ISSUE — SAFETY COLUMBUS: YES. We love our firefighters, don’t we, folks?
#6 BOND ISSUE — PARKS COLUMBUS: YES. Easily the bond issue that I’m most passionate about. Columbus has its flaws… but parks are definitely not one of them.
#7 BOND ISSUE — PUBLIC SERVICE: YES. Who could possibly be against the Department of Public Service? Not me.
#8 BOND ISSUE: — NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT: NO. I actually voted YES at the ballot box for this issue, and that was a mistake. And look, this city needs affordable housing. But this issue doesn’t clarify how the bond money will be awarded, which means that it's a little more than a way for the mayor to reward his political cronies before a hotly contested 2027 mayoral election. I still voted for the measure despite those concerns because we need affordable housing, right? Well, thanks to reporting from WOSU’s George Shillcock: I now know that Les Wexner and Jimmy Haslam are salivating at the mouth over this bond issue, and have sunk over $100,000 into the campaign. It would be less suspicious if the Mayor Suburbs resurrected Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot and got them to throw some money in the till. Wexner and Haslam are perhaps the most odious figures in Ohio politics. And I would have sent this bond issue to hell if I had known then what I know now.
#9 BOND ISSUE — PUBLIC UTILITIES: YES. Will our energy bills keep going up? Absolutely. But this issue will help mitigate some of the risk.
Remember, folks… vote early and vote often!!!!
I'm tired of the commission democrats agreeing to gerrymandered maps and I understand why they would do that. But really, how much worse can it get? Trading one gerrymandered map for another shows weakness and lack of faith in Ohio citizens. I have worked gathering signatures for the last two initiatives and I'm ready to get out there and do it again. I want fair maps and fair districts. Timing couldn't be better.
I totally agree on a NO vote on the zoo levy. The lack of oversight that led to the scandal is inexcusable. The current lack of transparency tells me they didn’t learn anything. Add to that trying to stiff Liberty Township EMS services, who are not sufficiently paid for services provided to the zoo. I voted no.