COLUMBUS, Oh. — Governor Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) is taking a stand against a Democrat-led proposal on the ballot in his state this November that would amend the state’s constitution, supposedly aimed at “ending gerrymandering” in the Buckeye State.

The only problem, DeWine said in a Wednesday press conference, is that it won’t.

The amendment in question would move the ability to draw state voting districts from the current Ohio Redistricting Commission to a new body called the “Citizens Redistricting Commission.”

If passed, the amendment would create the CRC, comprised of a fifteen-person panel chosen through direct citizen votes. The panel would hold five Democrats, five Republicans and five “independents” at all times. The current ORC is seven members including DeWine himself.

“We must stop writing and rewriting our state constitution. We must defeat this ballot measure,” DeWine said Wednesday at a press conference devoted to condemning the measure, which received enough citizen signatures earlier this month to appear on Ohio’s ballot this November.

“They needed signatures so they went out and paid people to go get signatures,” DeWine said. “But there’s no vetting. No vetting for this at all.”

The gov argues it doesn’t matter who draws the maps, but how.

So he’s looking to a Midwestern neighbor as a model of how to draw districts, and throwing his weight behind what he’s calling “The Iowa Plan.”

In Iowa’s unique district drawing system, a nonpartisan agency manages the process without accessing additional info like past voting records or party affiliations when making new maps.

DeWine wants to put this same strategy in place in Ohio to avoid having the new commission prioritize proportionality of voter affiliation above all else in the redistricting process.

At the press conference, DeWine showed slides of a sample map drawn by a third party consultant charged with creating the most proportional map possible.

“[Proportionality] sounds good,” DeWine said, pointing to the sample slides. “But then you have places here where ten different cities and townships are being divided up to make a single district just for the sake of proportionality.”

Republicans hold a supermajority in Ohio’s state legislature, giving DeWine no veto power over the Ohio General Assembly.

This means, as even he admitted during his remarks, DeWine can only provide the general assembly with requests not demands. But, he added that he’s still determined to make his opinion abundantly clear.

“I want to do this the right way,” he said. “There should be hearings and vetting for this plan…I will do all I can to work with the legislature to get this on the ballot; and if they can’t pass it, I’ll do all I can to get it on by initiative. That’s the backup plan.”

Ohio’s Republican Speaker of The House Jason Stephens had kind words for the governor but did not acknowledge his challenge to pass the Iowa Plan onto the ballot by November.

“I look forward to working with the Governor, the Senate, and the entire GOP Caucus to defeat Issue 1 in November. Once Issue 1 is defeated, we will continue to work to ensure all Ohioans voices are heard and represented,” he said.

The Ohio legislature is currently on recess and is not expected back until after the November 5 election. This means DeWine will almost certainly have to call a special session before then if he truly wants to put the Iowa Plan on the ballot, as he says, “the right way.”

DeWine just gave the Republicans in power homework with no due date.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Minority Leader Allison Russo said the gov is “scared” of the Democrat-led ballot measure.

“Ohioans deserve leaders who reflect our values and live up to the promise that they’ll always respect the will of the voters. Today was the governor’s manufactured attempt to confuse and misdirect voters from the truth,” she said. “Republicans are desperate because they know their gerrymandered grip on power is coming to an end.”

A strategist for former Governor John Kasich, was asked if they thought the assembly would either get the Iowa Plan on the ballot or if DeWine could manage it without them via a citizen initiative.

They kept their responses brief.

“No. And no,” they told The Post.

From here, DeWine and Republicans will either be able to put their Iowa Plan on the ballot to compete with Issue 1, or they will attempt to “defeat” Issue 1 by swaying public opinion before it reaches the voting booth.

Thirty Iowans are among the more than 43,000 current, past and would-be farmers, ranchers and forest owners nationwide that the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday will get a total of $2 billion in financial assistance to compensate for past discrimination in the agency’s farm lending programs.

The Inflation Reduction Act allocated $2.2 billion for the discrimination payments. For decades, Black farmers and other under-represented groups in farming have alleged bias in the agency’s farm loan programs.

“For too long, many farmers and ranchers experienced discrimination in farm loan programs and have not had the same access to federal resources and support,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

The recipients of the payments include more than 23,000 people who have or previously had a farming operation, and another 20,000 who reported they were unable to have a farming operation because of discrimination in USDA’s loan process.

In Iowa, the breakdown is 21 current producers and nine who planned to be.

Farm loans from the USDA often are considered a last resort for farmers who have difficulty accessing credit from traditional banks.

Examples of types of discrimination farmers have faced could include elevated interest rates, having a loan approved too late in the farming season or a lack of assistance from loan officers, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters on a conference call.

“USDA was operating on a deficit of trust with many of our customers and potential customers,” said the former Iowa governor. “They didn’t feel our programs were designed for them, and in many cases, they were right.”

Southern states get largest payments

The USDA began accepting applications for the money last July. Farmers needed to detail their experiences of discrimination by USDA personnel and the consequences they experienced as a result.

The USDA did not provide names or demographic information for farmers who received payments. The Iowa claimants will get a total of $3.7 million, though it wasn’t clear how the money would be divided among them.

Mississippi and Alabama recipients received the largest number of payments, according to the agency. In the Midwest, Illinois, Michigan and South Dakota were the leading states.

Des Moines Register staff writer Donnelle Eller and Reuters contributed to this article.

The Libertarian Party of Iowa will be fielding a candidate in three of the four Congressional districts in Iowa.

Nicholas Gluba in the 1st Congressional District, Marco Battaglia in the 3rd Congressional District and Charles Aldrich in the 4th Congressional District filed their official candidacy papers Monday at the Iowa State Capitol.

Here’s what inspired each of them to run and what their main policy objective would be. Two of the candidates do not currently have a campaign website, but information on the Libertarian Party platform can be found at lpia.org.

Nicholas Gluba, 1st Congressional District

Gluba is running in Iowa’s 1st District, which covers most of southeastern Iowa, including Iowa City and Davenport. It is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

Gluba decided to run after hearing other residents in his district express dissatisfaction with Miller-Meeks’ attention to their issues. He said he and other constituents felts ignored.

“As a politician, your employer is the people of your constituency,” he said. “If you ignore your boss, you should go.”

Gluba serves on the city council of Lone Tree, something he believes proves the viability of third-party candidates.

He also served in Operation Iraqi Freedom after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The experience made him staunchly anti-war, something he plans to push for if elected.

“I’m big a on nonaggression,” he said. “We need to stop sending Americans to places we don’t need to be.”

Gluba said by ending foreign interventions, America could save trillions of dollars to reinvest in its economy.

He also would seek to end eminent domain and reduce the power of the executive branch, specifically by banning executive orders and repealing or altering the International Emergency Economic Powers Act that allows the president to regulate or ban international trade to countries deemed a threat.

Gluba’s campaign has a Facebook page titled Nicholas Gluba for Congress.

Marco Battaglia, 3rd Congressional District

Battaglia is running in Iowa’s 3rd District which covers much of southern and central Iowa, including most of the Des Moines metropolitan area. It is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn.

Battaglia was inspired to run because of Nunn’s decisions, particularly his failure to speak out on 4th Amendment issues related to governmental data gathering.

“He could have at least said, ‘hey, you need a warrant,’” Battaglia said. “But he has a history of inappropriate data gathering.”

While Battaglia broadly agrees with the Libertarian Party platform, he said he’s “not a party person.” Instead, he feels that the Libertarian Party is simply the closest to his political beliefs.

Battaglia had a short list of priorities, including abolishing the Federal Reserve and opposing eminent domain. Another major plank is ending the drug war and expunging the records of those convicted. He also said he wants to be a voice for peace in Congress.

“If we don’t declare war, we shouldn’t be sanctioning or sending weapons,” he said.

More information on Battaglia’s campaign can be found at marco4congress.com.

Charles Alrdich, 4th Congressional District

Aldrich is running in Iowa’s 4th District, which covers much of western Iowa, including Sioux Falls and Council Bluffs. It is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra. Aldrich previously ran for the office in 2018, getting around 6,000 votes.

He said a specific policy Feenstra proposed prompted him to run again for office.

“He posted that we should take all the money from people crossing the border from Mexico,” Aldrich said. “I didn’t see a difference between highway bandits and what he wanted the highway patrol to be.”

On July 31, 2023, Feenstra proposed the Build the Wall and Fight Fentanyl Act that would confiscate assets from drug traffickers to build a border wall and fund the fight again fentanyl.

Aldrich broadly agrees with the Libertarian Party platform, except on immigration. Aldrich said it shouldn’t take more than 24 hours to either get a Visa to enter the United States or have the application denied.

However, his main agenda if elected would focus on economic policies.

“My first priority is to repeal the 16th Amendment,” Aldrich said. “States should fund the federal government, not the people.”

The 16th Amendment granted Congress the right to levy income taxes. Aldrich also wants to remove the Federal Reserve from the process of minting new currency.

Ryan Magalhães is a reporter for the Register. Reach them at rmagalhaes@dmreg.com.