extreme gerrymandering
After two rejections, is Ohio attorney general slow-walking anti-gerrymandering amendment?
One might think that a movement associated with a former state Supreme Court chief justice could draft a petition summary that passes legal muster. But twice already, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has rejected summaries of a petition to put an anti-gerrymandering amendment on Ohio’s November 2024 ballot. So far, nobody’s explicitly accusing Yost of […]
Ohio Sec. of State LaRose’s office move amid U.S. Senate candidacy raises ethical questions
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has decided it’s a good idea to both oversee Ohio’s U.S. Senate election as the state’s chief elections officer and house part of his campaign for the seat in the same building. But the arrangement, which LaRose has done little to explain, raises serious questions about potential conflicts of […]
Former U.S. attorney general warns of Ohio legislative attempts to cut court power
Some state legislatures are working to diminish the power of courts, imperiling the American system of checks and balances, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote Tuesday. He used Ohio as exhibit A. Holder, attorney general under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2015, warned of an “alarming pattern” in an op-ed published by the […]
State Supreme Court dismisses congressional redistricting cases
The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed two cases over congressional districts in Ohio. The decision isn’t a complete surprise because the groups filing the complaints asked for the dismissals earlier this week. But struggles over partisan gerrymandering in Ohio and elsewhere are far from over. The complainants continue to maintain that Ohio’s congressional districts […]
Frank LaRose’s very bad day. Sec. of State dodged press, issued angry statement as Issue 1 failed
It’s unclear whether, going into Tuesday, Frank LaRose anticipated that the measure he was championing was going to fail — even though related issues have gotten trounced in state after state after state. But by Election Day, early voting had been torrid for weeks — especially in big cities where people were likely to vote […]
LaRose says he doesn’t remember conversations with players in Ohio racketeering scandal
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose says a constitutional amendment he’s pushing would prevent aspects of the largest bribery and money laundering scandal in state history. But on Tuesday, he said he didn’t recall conversations with some of the conspiracy’s central figures when it reached a fever pitch in 2019. He also hasn’t produced any […]
LaRose said Issue 1 would help prevent corruption. But it could make it even worse
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has claimed that a proposal to make it much harder to pass citizen-initiated amendments to the Ohio Constitution would have prevented an aspect of the biggest bribery scandal in state history. But LaRose, who announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate on Monday, has refused to discuss his own role […]