Agreement Means One Primary for Ohio

The long, messy process of drawing a new congressional map that won’t face a ballot challenge, and picking a lone primary date that doesn’t confuse voters and cost Ohio $15 million extra, ended yesterday when House Democrats reluctantly agreed to a deal.

Lawmakers set the 2012 primary for March 6, instead of the split primary that moved the presidential and congressional races to June. The bill includes a new Republican-drawn congressional map that — aside from 800 people shifted in Franklin County to place state Rep. Ted Celeste’s Grandview Heights home into the new 3rd District — is identical to the map that Democrats rejected in early November, when they said it did little to improve competitiveness.

Rep. Matt Szollosi, D-Oregon, the assistant minority leader, said the map is not ideal but is an improvement over the map Republicans passed in September, and it saves taxpayers millions that would have been spent on a second primary.

However, Democrats say the map still gives Republicans a solid chance to win 12 of the 16 districts — the key reason why they were trying to collect enough signatures to challenge the original map on the November 2012 ballot.

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