Free Republic

Separate ballot measures in California and Ohio to remove lawmakers from the drawing of legislative districts have been dogged by accusations that they are essentially partisan power grabs. Now Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, hopes to counter those claims by throwing his weight behind the Ohio measure, even though no prominent Republican elected official in that state has done so and many Republican lawmakers there are raising money to defeat it. ... A top supporter of the measures in both states said Mr. Schwarzenegger would participate in a series of public events this week to signal his stance. (snip) In...

Ohio State political science professor, Herb Asher is in the news again, as his group, Reform Ohio Now seeks to change up Ohio's districts to move Ohio Democrats from the outside to in. Trying to tap into Ohio citizen disdain for the scandals plaguing state government, Reform Ohio Now is trying to harness this frustration and use it for their political gain. The coaltion, which is comprised of labor unions a Democratic-leaning activists is marketing itself as a bipartisan effort to change Ohio politics. According to reports, one of the first to start circulating petitions for Reform Ohio Now was...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Backers of three ballot issues to dramatically change Ohio elections said Tuesday that they are confident that voters are so sick of politics-as-usual that they will support the changes on Nov. 8. Reform Ohio Now, a coalition of labor unions and Democrat-leaning activists, on Tuesday filed petitions with 521,000 signatures for each of three issues with Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's chief elections official. The group cleared its first hurdle on Tuesday when the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously dismissed a lawsuit seeking to keep the issues off the ballot. One of the ballot issues would...