GOP to voting reforms: We're outta here

IF you need any further  evidence of how our Republican friends are gaming redistricting reform, check out  how the idea was sent to die in the hands of  a committee of the monstrously named Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.  A meeting to set the gears in the motion by November was cancelled.

Just to be on the fail-safe side against a pinch of progress, Fred Mills,  a Republican lobbyist and legislative  veteran  who heads the the reform committee, offered this explanation to the Columbus Dispatch as to why he cancelled the meeting:.

"We're in the middle of an election season. A lot of people who are making the decisions are involved in the elections,  and it's hard to get them to focus on this right now."

You had to figure that it would take something this momentous to get into the way a plan to make the districts  more equitable.

In this instance the committee was to take up the matter of how many minority votes would be needed on a vote to approve a map.

Democratic Rep. Vernon Sykes, of Akron, a committee member,   told me he hasn't  been informed of a new date to meet, although he sounded pessimistic about the prospects.

He said such reforms are the "single most important factor"  to determine which party controls the process "and it sure should be a fair process."

Problem for Sykes and other Democrats is that both legislative houses as well as the governor are in Republican hands and see no critical need to change rules that guarantee the party a continued long and happy life..