The midterms will decide more than just Ohio’s races for U.S. Senate, governor and state lawmakers. The State Board of Education in Ohio has five seats open, and with education policy emerging as a topic of discussion the past year, educators are urging more people to learn why these races are important. NOTE: Erie County is located in the 2nd District for State Board of Education. Democratic Candidate is Teresa Fedor.

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DJ Swearingen should be held publicly accountable for his votes and his cowardice. He doesn’t have the political courage to tell area residents how he has voted for no permit, no training, no background checks for sensible and safe gun ownership; voted to reduce training to 12 hours for armed school employees including teachers; co-sponsored law to allow children – in particular girls – who play sports to have forced internal and external genital inspections without their parents consent; co-sponsored law to allow for more vaccine mandate exemptions for students/employees to name a few. Unfortunately, DJ won’t provide his own case to Erie Countians as he seeks re-election to the State House – 89th District. Jim Obergefell, Democratic candidate, fundamentally opposes all of this legislation.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — The battle over redistricting continues as the Ohio Supreme Court rejected a second Republican-drawn map of U.S. House (congressional) districts as gerrymandered on Tuesday, sending it back for a third attempt to meet constitutional parameters approved by Ohio voters. The deadline for the General Assembly to draw a constitutional congressional map has passed – August 18. Now the Redistricting Commission has until September 17 to draw a new congressional map.

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Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider Moore v. Harper during their next term in the fall. Even though the majority of the Ohio Supreme Court decided not to hold the Ohio Redistricting Commission republican members’ feet to the fire on two requests for contempt charges, the Ohio Supreme Court has rejected all the maps submitted by the republican majority on the commission as invalid, illegal and unconstitutional. This case would allow the state legislature to draw maps that would be illegal and not subject to state court review.

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The Ohio Supreme Court decided not to hold the republican majority members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission in contempt without any comment. Lawsuits are still pending with the Ohio Supreme Court over congressional maps, but will not be impacting the 2022 election cycle. Even though this news is disappointing to say the least, the Ohio Supreme Court did provide some good news: Eight Democratic candidates running for state legislature seats were placed on the August 2 ballot despite Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose claiming they had filed their petitions too late.

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A federal court has now set the second primary for Ohio on August 2nd, 2022. This election will include state legislative candidates (State House and State Senate) as well as State Central Committee members. There may also be local issues on your ballot. Between what the state has already provided for funds to county Boards of Elections and what will likely be needed for the second primary, the total price tag to Ohio taxpayers will be in the neighborhood of $30 Million. This is a complete waste of taxpayers dollars thanks to the republican party who calls itself the party of fiscal responsibility.

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There has been a change in who the GOP players are now sitting on the Ohio Redistricting Commission. Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp and Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman have resigned from the commission. They have been replaced by state Representative Jeff LaRe (R-Violet Twp) as commission co-chair and state Senator Rob McColley (R-Napoleon). Little else has changed.

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A showdown is in the offing as the fight over Ohio’s state Senate and House district maps continues. To date, the Ohio Redistricting Commission’s maps have been rejected four times by the Ohio Supreme Court – all by 4 to 3 decisions with Chief Justice Maureen O’Conner siding with the three Democratic justices – due to being unconstitutional. The court has now set the next deadline for new maps to be submitted by Friday, May 6, 2022.

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Once again – and for the fourth time, the Ohio Supreme Court has rejected the state House and Senate maps drawn by the Ohio Republicans. The fourth version were simply tweaks by the GOP mapmakers of maps previously rejected by the court. Thus, mapmakers are being sent back to the drawing board. The court has set a new deadline for new maps to be finished by 9:00am on Friday, May 6, 2022. And once again, the court’s decision was 4-3 with Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor siding with the three Democratic justices.

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