Jumpy Republicans get busy shoring up their right flank
Shoring up the Ohio GOP’s right flank was
Goal One last week for the state’s jumpy Republican Establishment.
Item One: The General Assembly’s GOP leaders signaled they’re prepared to approve a plan for new General Assembly districts for just four years — not the idealized 10 envisioned by the Ohio Constitution.
So much for bipartisan fellowshipping at the Redistricting Commission. On the Republican right, “compromise” is a 10-letter word for “surrender.”
Item Two: GOP Gov. Mike DeWine let it be known he opposes the teaching of Critical Race Theory to Ohio pupils.
Leaving aside the fact that there are as many definitions of CRT as there are critics, there is this consensus on the right: Whatever CRT actually is, it’s bad.
An inconvenient historical fact eludes some Ohio
Republicans: Their party was founded by people who hated slavery. Today, instead, the Republican right might as well belt out a lyric borrowed from the great Sam Cooke: “Don’t know much about history.”
Item Three: Republican Supreme Court Justice Patrick DeWine’s decided to seek re-election rather than run for Supreme Court chief justice. That showed, among other things, that the GOP is well aware Democrats are within one seat of controlling the high court, now 4-3 Republican. Justice DeWine, the governor’s son, had been gearing up to run for chief justice, likely competing in a GOP primary with fellow Republican Justice Sharon Kennedy for the GOP nomination for chief.
A DeWine-Kennedy primary might be especially hard fought; Kennedy is no shrinking violet. And if DeWine lost to Kennedy, he’d be off the court in December 2022. That would let newcomers vie for DeWine’s justiceship next year which might give a Democrat nominee a leg up.
Item Four: The behindthe-scenes war over House Bill 248 continues among House Republicans. The bill, among other features, would ban mandatory vaccinations. Business lobbies are against the bill, but it’s a must-pass to Ohio House Republicans’ hard-right faction.
Item Five: Don’t expect to see Republican Attorney General David Yost at any 2022 Pride parades. Yost joined in a lawsuit with other Republican state attorneys general to overthrow Biden administration moves that aim to protect the rights of LGBTQ people.
Tennessee spearheads the gay-bashing lawsuit. That’s the progressive, forward-thinking state that once put a teacher on trial for teaching evolution.
Figures.
New Congressional districts: The General Assembly hasn’t yet drawn them, but one probability looms — that for the first time for at least 100 years, the Youngstown-Warren area likely won’t have a U.S. House member from in or near those cities.
The area’s now in the 13th District of U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a suburban Warren Democrat running for the Senate. The district (once represented by convicted felon James A. Traficant, a Democrat) will likely be cut up and parceled out, another nasty blow to a region that’s had way too many.