COLUMBUS, Ohio — Just over a week to go until Election Day, and the way our political maps are drawn in Ohio hangs into the balance.
Voting ‘yes’ on Issue 1 would hand the power off to the people, creating an independent commission of 15 Ohio citizens. Voting ‘no’ would keep the current redistricting commission, made up of 7 elected officials.
What You Need To Know
- Voting 'yes' on Issue 1 would hand the power off to the people, creating an independent commission of 15 Ohio citizens
- Voting 'no' would keep the current redistricting commission, made up of 7 elected officials
- A political expert weighs in on the latest campaign contribution numbers that were reported last Thursday
Rob Alexander, political science professor at Bowling Green State University, commented on the latest campaign contribution numbers that were reported last Thursday.
“In a ballot campaign,” Alexander explained. “It’s really important the amount of money that you have because there is no political party that goes along with identification of the balance measure. There’s no candidate. So, getting the message out is really important. The message that you get is through the expense of money.”
Based on the data, “Citizens Not Politicians,” which is the main campaign working to pass issue 1 has spent $11 million on ads. The other side, “Ohio Works,” has spent about $4 million.
Alexander says the money spent on the ‘no’" campaign usually matters more.
“There’s not a lot of evidence to show that spending a lot of money will help get a measure passed,” he said. “But there is a good amount of evidence that having enough money to at least get the message out to sow some doubt is a surefire means to help voters reach a conclusion of a ‘no’ on a ballot measure.”
Browns and Crew owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam are among the big contributors to the “no” campaign, donating a combined $100,000, so is the campaign for Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, which donated $250,000. Meanwhile, the group “Ohioans for a Healthy Economy”, which has ties to the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, contributed $1 million.
On the other side, the “Yes” campaign received $7 million from “Article IV”–an advocacy group based in Virginia. It also got one million each from the “Open Society Policy Center,” “Our American Future Action” and “Voters for the American Center.” Movie director and Cincinnati native Steven Spielberg donated $50,000 in February.
“This appears to be one of the more expensive ballot measures that we’ve seen,” Alexander said. “Obviously, people care a lot about this particular measure. There’s a lot of consequence depending on what the outcome of it is as well. So, the fact of having an independent redistricting commission would fundamentally change how we draw our congressional lines.”