There will be two more public meetings each day this week of the panel of lawmakers that will create the maps for Ohio鈥檚 House and Senate districts. Democrats have raised concerns that Republicans who dominate the process aren鈥檛 playing fair, and are pointing to a tweet from a party leader as proof.
The tweet from Hamilton County Republican Party chair Alex Triantafilou has been deleted, but screenshots still exist.
It said: "This won't be my most popular tweet. But Republicans should look out for Republicans when drawing the lines for apportionment. We won. Obama taught us. Elections have consequences. This is a red state. Treat it as such. Voters value a spine.鈥�
Desiree Tims is the president and CEO of Innovation Ohio, and ran for Congress last year as a Democrat. She's also part of a coalition of 30 groups promoting maps that would reflect Ohio鈥檚 2020 vote: 54% Republican and 46% Democrat.
She calls the tweet shameful.
鈥淲e are not going to champion any side, Democrat or Republican, to cheat and gerrymander maps for one party鈥檚 political benefit," Tims said.
Among the Democrats publicly denouncing the tweet was former Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper, who testified at Tuesday's Ohio Redistricting Commission meeting in Cincinnati.
that Triantafilou's "pro-election rigging tweet violates the spirit and language of the Ohio Constitution, and the mandate of 70% of voters who voted to end partisan gerrymandering. Twice. If the committee follows this absurd and illegal advice, the maps will be struck down."
There鈥檚 been no response to emails to the Hamilton County GOP chair, but he tweeted out some of the negative reaction he got, saying, 鈥淭he classy Democrats live on Twitter.鈥�
Sent out a tweet unpopular with the left. In an hour, I got called a 鈥渄ouche鈥� and a 鈥渇ascist鈥� and a 鈥渞acist鈥� (the tweet wasn鈥檛 AT ALL connected to race), a 鈥渄ick鈥� and told 鈥渟crew you.鈥� The classy Democrats live on Twitter. And they got mad at Trump鈥檚 tone?
— Alex Triantafilou (@ChairmanAlex)
