Rooster in Review: Duck & Cover
The Ohio Redistricting Commission enshrined new "bipartisan" Congressional maps until 2031.
It’s official. Ohio has a new gerrymandered and “bipartisan” Congressional map until 2023.
That is to say, seven white politicians dictated Congressional representation to 11 million people during secret negotiations.
Ohio’s tepid anti-gerrymandering laws worked as designed, in that they produced a compromise on the map in which both sides walked away from the table feeling unsatisfied.
On the Democratic side, House Leader Dani Isaacsohn got the brokered deal he sought from the beginning of negotiations behind closed doors. The deal threw his local Congressman, Greg Landsman, under the bus and sparked a vendetta that will reverberate through Cincinnati politics for years to come.
Misha Barnes, whom I incorrectly identified as the Executive Director of LEAD Ohio this morning, is in reality the head of the powerful Democratic “donor table,” which oversaw the disastrous 2024 anti-gerrymandering amendment.
As The Rooster correctly reported this morning, Barnes and Ohio Democratic Party chairwoman Kathleen Clyde refused to fundraise their share of the funds needed for a potential statewide referendum if Republicans jammed their 13R-2D map through the State Legislature.
Which makes it curious, then, that, almost immediately after the Ohio Redistricting Commission unanimously passed the map, Barnes sent a “cover your ass” email to colleagues in which she lampooned leaders Isaacsohn and Nickie Antonio for cowardice:
Barnes wasn’t the only bad-faith actor.
Congresswoman Emilia Sykes, who withdrew her support for a potential referendum when she struck a side deal with Leader Isaacsohn for a favorable new District, sent a fundraising blast where she painted Republicans as the sole actors of the villainy:
This stuff highlights the “authenticity” problem with Democratic leadership. Party leaders, in my opinion, do not yet understand the level of anger that national conditions are incubating in the party’s base.
Well, they’re about to find out.
People are sick of leaders saying one thing in public, doing another in private, and then painting themselves as the smol-bean victims of Republican hostility in fundraising pitches.
On the Republican side…
There has been plenty of national anger from Republicans on social media, who, frankly, don’t understand Ohio’s redistricting process.
However, I also understand the other side’s anger.
The Republicans could have jammed a 13R-2D through the legislature. And even if a referendum had passed, they would have had the partisan goofs at the Ohio Supreme Court that would have ultimately adjudicated the matter.
President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and even notorious conman Vivek Ramaswamy were conspicuously absent from the process.
Multiple Capitol Hill sources said today that dark arts wizard Bob Paduch had assuaged Republican concerns about the White House okaying the deal. And given the silence from Trump to Ramaswamy, I believe him.
Paduch, it must be noted, is a current consultant for Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon), who got his home turf of Henry County added to the new Ohio 9th District, seemingly clearing the way for him to enter the primary as the Trump-endorsed candidate.
The calls from Republicans to “primary the RINOs who agreed to these maps” will fall on deaf ears until Trump gets involved. Which, given his volatile temperament, could happen after the primary if the Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives in large part because the Ohio GOP didn’t trigger the nuclear option.
Oh well! Not my problem.
This week in The Rooster…
I’m not going to say we’re perfect at Rooster Worldwide LLC. But I will say that nobody is doing things like us, as evidenced by the scope and breadth of the news and analysis brought to the readership this week:
Folks, let’s get ready to rumble. Mayor Suburbs and Council President Shannon Hardin haven’t spoken in weeks, with the mayor “furious” that Hardin isn’t backing down from plans to run for mayor in 2027.
Columbus Councilman Emmanuel Remy subject of workplace complaint from female subordinate. Emergency dispatch, breaking the news that Columbus City Councilman Emmanuel Remy is the subject of a workplace complaint from a former female aide that will result in a taxpayer-funded financial settlement after the election.
The Remy Problem. City Hall successfully kept the Remy settlement out of the traditional press until after the election. Still, the inevitable problems wouldn’t have happened if the Franklin County Democratic Party hadn’t endorsed a cantankerous, often-drunk white realtor over a qualified Black military veteran in 2023.
The art of the deal. The Rooster broke the national news that Ohio Democratic leadership had struck a “bipartisan” deal for new Congressional maps, with House Leader Dani Isaacsohn throwing Cincinnati Congressman Greg Landsman under the bus.
The system worked as intended. A liberal activist at the Redistricting Commission today said about the Friday dispatch: “That was more depressing than usual.”
If you are one of the free-loading hogs in the parking lot who enjoy the on-the-ground videography, the social media presence, or even the free ocassional free dispatch, we’d be honored if you took this moment to help sustain the largest reader-supported publication in Ohio politics:
We’ll do it at the same time and place next week.
Until then… stay frosty, my friends!
THOSE WMDs. Return of the black widow… How China embraced climate science to become a clean-energy powerhouse… Rupert Murdoch reprogrammed my parents… They seemed like Democratic activists, but they were conservative spies… It’s never been easier to be a conspiracy theorist.
My letter to Kathleen Clyde after the vote on the maps.
Ms. Clyde,
I just heard that the new redistricting maps were accepted unanimously.
I was against these maps because by making this area more Republican, it would stifle our ability to grow economically as a region. Some of the challenges that face us in Toledo and Lucas Co. include:
• Lucas Co having between 1.5% to 2% unemployment higher than the national average. (Source: St. Louis Fed Reserve)
• Job growth for Toledo from Feb 2020 to Mar 2024 was -0.7% while Columbus saw a 3.7% growth and Cincinnati 2.3%. (Source: Cleveland Fed Reserve)
• Lucas County saw a decrease in population of 5,000 people within the last two years. (Source: ODOT)
• Columbus ranked #12 in housing starts for big metro districts in 2024 (14.4) while Toledo rank in the lowest for Mid-size Metro Districts (3.3)
Stifling our economic progress not only hurts us in Lucas County, but those counties that dovetail us such as Fulton, Ottawa, Wood, and Henry because economic growth has a ripple effect. We do not live in a silo; we live in a pond.
I sent a letter to the Chairs in this region asking them to stand up and let the Democratic leadership know that we, in NW Ohio, do not accept these maps. I watched as letters from both Lucas, Henry, and Wood County discussing this vote were posted to their Facebook pages.
Then to add insult to injury, I read this today in The Rooster under the Byline "The system worked as intended." I will just give you the spots that raised my eyebrow.
• "Support for the statewide referendum imploded at the goal line. The DCCC was ready to throw in half the money. However, Ohio Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathleen Clyde and LEAD Ohio Executive Director Misha Barnes didn’t want to fundraise their share of the money—probably because their primary objective is re-electing Sherrod Brown to the United States Senate."
• "When the referendum was no longer an option, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and aides for U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries essentially told Toledo Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and Cincinnati Congressman Greg Landsman to eat their gruel for the good of the team."
• "Kaptur’s team, for example, thought they were accepting a +9 Republican district, when, in reality, it’s closer to +10.7R. That might not seem like much, and it’s not, but it could make all the difference in the next race, given that she won her last one by roughly 2,000 votes."
It would seem to me that the ODP's primary objective is to get all Democrats elected. I sympathize with the choices that had to be made but I would say that the focus of getting Democrats currently holding seats should be the higher priority.
Sherrod has already had multiple stops from speaking at the ODP's fundraiser to showing up at the Ohio Rural Caucus last night. He has already received endorsements from a bunch of labor groups. His long serving status as Senator has the added ability to open doors for him to seek financial support that would be if a newer Democratic candidate was to win in the primary.
For a leader whose view is more at 10,000 ft rather than the nuances of county politics, Rep. Jefferies' attitude to "take one for the team" shows just how out of touch our Democratic counterparts in Washington are from rural America.
And while I was not privy to what you may have said to Rep. Jefferies, I would hope that explaining to him the economic climate of this area, along with Rep. Kaptur's position on the House Appropriations Committee, pulling support away from Marcy, while not having any guarantees that Sherrod would win, actually weakens our foothold in a state that has been red for a long time.
The smarter play would be to fight for both of them because we can chew gum and walk at the same time.
I have no "ask" here.
I only wanted to register my deep disappointment that, by all appearances, our ODP leadership has thrown our area and Marcy under the bus.
Thank you for your time.
Same old shit different day.....