Citizens Not Politicians seminar offered as part of Cincinnati Festival of Faiths August 26
A forum to outline the citizen-led, nonpartisan constitutional amendment campaign to end Ohio’s extreme partisan gerrymandering which enables our legislators to ignore the commitment of the majority of Ohioans to voter rights, racial justice, gun safety, and environmental safety, will be offered as part of the Cincinnati Festival of Faiths on Monday, Aug. 26. The Zoom gathering will be held from 12 to 1:15 p.m.
Learn how you can help pass the amendment, which is endorsed by the Ohio Council of Churches, League of Women Voters, and many other statewide civic groups. The speakers are Ariel Miller, Advocacy Co-Chair for Faith Communities Go Green, and Rae Vuic of the League of Women Voters Cincinnati Area. Rae is a member of the Fair Districts Ohio Speakers’ Bureau and Ariel reports weekly on public policy for the Diocese of Southern Ohio. Register here.
The Festival of Faiths is an annual weeklong celebration organized by the Cincinnati-area interfaith coalition, EquaSion. The festival begins with an in-person celebration on Sunday, Aug. 25 at Xavier University’s Cintas Center from 12 to 5 p.m., followed by several days of Zoom programming and concludes with a Peace Walk on Aug 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Ault Park. Read about the Festival here. Lifelong Episcopalian Chip Harrod, a revered leader of interfaith work in Cincinnati, serves as Executive Director of EquaSion. The Rev. Melanie Slane, Ecumenical Officer for the Diocese of Southern Ohio, is part of the Advisory Board for A Mighty Stream, EquaSion’s social justice coalition dedicated to racial justice.
Governor DeWine opposes citizen-sponsored amendment to stop gerrymandering
Retired Chief Justice points out that his plan keeps conflict of interest in force
Two Ohio Republicans sparred last week over the citizen-sponsored constitutional amendment proposal – Citizens Not Politicians – which has qualified for the fall ballot after a petition drive which thousands of volunteers helped carry out, including Ohio Episcopalians. The campaign submitted 731,000 signatures. More than 535,000 were validated by county Boards of Election.
In a press conference July 31, Gov. DeWine said he opposes the amendment. He proposed a system like Iowa’s where the state legislature’s research agency draws maps which are then approved by elected officials. This conflicts with his comments to the editorial board of the Toledo Blade in early 2023 that the current process is broken and politicians should be banned from redistricting.
Under the Ohio Constitution as it stands, every seat of the Redistricting Commission is filled by a current elected official: the Governor, Secretary of State, State Auditor, Senate President, House Speaker, and two members of the minority party, one from each house of the Legislature.
Former Justice Maureen O’Connor is a Republican who served as Governor Bob Taft’s lieutenant governor. She was Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court until the end of 2022, leading the Court as a narrow majority found all seven proposed Congressional and state district plans unconstitutional for excessive partisan gerrymandering. Justice O’Connor is the longest-serving woman elected to statewide office in Ohio history.
After retiring, O’Connor helped draft the Citizens Not Politicians amendment to bar current elected officials and lobbyists from mapmaking because of their built-in conflict of interest, regardless of which party has the majority. Citizens Not Politicians has been endorsed by the Ohio Council of Churches, the League of Women Voters Ohio, our Diocesan Council, and many other statewide nonprofits.
The Governor served on the Redistricting Commission and voted for all seven plans ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. One of his sons, Pat DeWine, is an Ohio Supreme Court Justice but did not recuse himself from the case though his father was one of the Commissioners.
Here are quotes from Justice O’Connor’s statement responding to the Governor’s press conference: “The disinformation from the Governor today is insulting to everyone in Ohio, and especially insulting to the half a million Ohioans — Republicans, Democrats and Independents — who put the Citizens Not Politicians Amendment on the November ballot.
“Gov. DeWine voted with his fellow politicians seven times for unconstitutional maps, and now says what Ohio really needs is what he calls ‘The Iowa Plan,’ a system where the Governor and other politicians get the final say on maps…We’re done listening to self-serving politicians tell us how they want to keep rigging the game. On to November. Since the Governor demonstrated in his rambling and disjointed press conference today that he does not understand our amendment, I am offering to sit down and meet with him to explain it.”
Justice O’Conner wrote or concurred with all seven rulings by the Supreme Court which found every map prepared by the Ohio Redistricting Commission unconstitutional for violating the limits set by voters to prevent excessive partisan gerrymandering. The Commission refused to correct the unconstitutional elements of their plans. Starting in 2022, Ohio has been using an unconstitutional map for both state and Congressional districts by order of a federal panel, so that elections could take place despite the impasse between the Commission and the Ohio Supreme Court.
Senate fails to pass Expanded Child Tax Credit
The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations issued an urgent action alert July 31, calling on Episcopalians to ask their senators to vote for the Tax Relief for American Workers and Families Act, which includes an expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC). The Senate failed to pass it in a vote August 1, with Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) criticizing it as too generous and not adequately funded. Thanks to all of you who wrote to our senators on very short notice when we learned that a vote was imminent.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that the proposed expansion of the Child Tax Credit would benefit 1 in 5 American children under 17 and lift 500,000 children out of poverty by the end of 2025. Their analysis projects the impact by family income and ethnicity.
“The legislation would expand the CTC so that more lower income children and families receive the full credit. The proposal prioritizes children whose families currently receive only a partial credit or no credit at all because their incomes are too low – approximately 16 million children will benefit from the expansion,” writes the nonpartisan Christian advocacy group Bread for the World.
The measure was part of a bipartisan tax bill that passed with an overwhelming majority in the House in January. It combined the expanded Child Tax Credit with the restoration of some business tax credits which had expired and were part of the 2017 Trump tax cuts.
The pandemic expansion of the child tax credit is credited with cutting child poverty by 45% during the pandemic. But after it expired in 2022, the proportion of American children in poverty went from 5% to over 12%.
If the measure doesn’t pass during the Lame Duck session, it will die and would need to be reintroduced in the next Congress. You can use this Episcopal Church link to write Senators Sherrod Brown and JD Vance with what you are seeing among the families your congregation serves.
Advocacy updates are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com.
