It's all in the game, right?
Jane Timken leaves the yard, Shayla Favor draws criticism for $40K office renovation, and a Statehouse lobbyist throws a frag grenade into the Republican Treasurer primary.
When describing the Statehouse to civilians, I say they should imagine high school, only if the most nefarious actors had stuck around for an extra 10 years and deluded themselves into thinking they were worthy of respect because god-forsaken lobbyists insisted on calling them “Represenative” or “Senator.”
I was reminded of that Tuesday during the Ohio Joint Congressional Redistricting Committee meeting. I stomached about an hour before having to leave in digust.
That’s no disrespect meant to House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati), State Senator Willis Blackshear (D-Dayton), or Senate Minority Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood), who spent that hour testifying among a largely hostile, Republican-controlled committee that had no problem with abscribing words to her that she never said.
They’re better people than me. Because I’m not sure I could muster the strength to participate in a sham process that everyone involved knows will end with the Republicans trying to grease two extra Congressional seats without Democratic approval.
The most absurd moment came when State Senator Jane Timken (R-Canton), who is only in the State Senate as a consolation prize after her husband’s largesse failed to secure her appointment to the United States Senate last year, observed that the word “fairness” isn’t in the Constitution.
That line probably went over better inside her head when she rehearesed the delivery in front of the bathroom mirror before driving to Columbus on Tuesday morning.
Sure, it’s true the Constitution doesn’t have “fairness” in it. But that doesn’t mean it expliclity endorses partisan hacks using the levers of government to insulate themselves from consequences at the ballot box.
The Republicans have made a mockery of the process, and in retrospect, it’s hilarious Ohioans even wasted the time required to vote for supposed “anti-gerrymandering reform” in 2018.
Nothing other than a federal ban on gerrymandering or a reversal of Ohio’s ongoing demographics crisis will stop their behavior.
Sources: Shayla Favor blasts staff for ‘betrayal of trust’
It’s been 10 months since Shayla Favor assumed the Franklin County Prosecutor’s office.
Favor ran as a reformer of an “unjust, inequitable system” who wanted to lead with “transparency and prioritize accountability.”
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