Letter to the editor – Response to issue number one Citizens, not politicians is a matter of democracy

Citizens, not politicians, it is a question of democracy

The state’s number one issue, otherwise known as the “Citizens, Not Politicians” amendment, is a matter of democracy. A recent Scioto Post letter to the editor misframed the number one issue as a financial issue. Hmmm… It’s strange that our Republican legislators had no trouble finding $20 million for Rep. Brian Stewart’s failed August 2023 special election, which Stewart’s own internal documents revealed was intended to make sure the November 2023 pro-choice amendment, as well as the Citizens, Not Politicians amendment, never made it to the ballot box. It’s also strange that our Republican legislators accepted truckloads of bribe money to pass HB6, which forces us citizens to spend more truckloads of cash to bail out two aging coal-fired power plants that are poisoning our atmosphere.

Our current Republican legislators are illegitimately elected in districts creatively designed by those same legislators to perpetuate continued Republican dominance over the Ohio legislature. The fox is poised to design the henhouse. The proof is in the numbers. Ohio is roughly 50/50 or 52/48 Republican/Democrat counting registered voters. Yet 67 of our 99 House seats are solidly Republican, same goes for the Senate. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled multiple, multiple times that those districts drawn by Republican legislators were unconstitutional.

Ultimately, it is clear that we cannot rely on legislators to choose their voters, rather than voters choosing their legislators. Democracy is worth the cost of protecting it. If we pay a nonpartisan, nonpolitical, non-chicken coop-drawing board to draw our districts fairly, then our money will be well spent, compared to continuing to pay Republican legislators to cheat.

Two final critical points: The language Republican Frank LaRose uses to describe the Citizens Not Politicians amendment is disgusting, astonishingly dishonest, and completely misleading. We must also elect Ohio Supreme Court Justices Donnelly, Stewart, and Forbes or we risk having an Ohio Supreme Court that, like our U.S. Supreme Court, automatically condones anti-democratic authoritarianism.

Brad Cotton

Pickaway County Democratic Party Executive Committee Member