DEAR EDITOR:
We already knew that a coalition of big labor and liberal special interest groups were behind a proposed constitutional redistricting amendment in Ohio. Now we know how much they are willing to spend to create a new system that favors their hand-picked candidates for legislative offices.
The campaign finance report recently filed by "Voters First Ohio" shows that, of the $2 million raised so far by the coalition, practically all of it - 98 percent - came from Ohio's big labor unions.
If anyone thought the new system proposed by this coalition was going to be fair and in the best interests of all Ohioans, think again. These kinds of statistics don't lie.
This coalition of unions and liberal special interest groups is pushing a constitutional amendment for November's ballot that would overhaul the way we draw state and federal legislative district boundary lines. The coalition wants you to believe the process for selecting its proposed 12-member redistricting commission would be wide open to Ohio citizens and would keep politics out of the process.
They point to language that says "Any Ohio citizen shall be eligible to serve as a member of the commission, unless disqualified by subparagraph two." When you read further, you discover that, in fact, millions of Ohioans would have no chance to serve on the commission, thanks to little ol' "subparagraph two."
And as far as the "politics" angle, state and federal elected officials and their employees are barred from serving on the commission, yet locally-elected politicians and their employees are not excluded from service. They can be just as politically motivated as state- or federal-level folks.
As it turns out, the people who want to "fix" Ohio's redistricting system really aren't telling us the whole truth about their proposal. The potential for political abuse would definitely be worse than what we have now.
Cathy Lukasko
Brookfield