Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I really want to thank him, first of all, for his FAIR MAPS Act. Ohio is the poster child for unfair maps. If you look at a State that voted twice for President-elect Trump and twice for President Obama, you would think that, for example, if the State has 15 Members, that it would be 8 and 7, you would sort of try to divide it equally because of 15 Members of Congress from Ohio and what is fair is fair. What has happened in Ohio, because of a veto-proof legislature, due to gerrymandering in Ohio, in both chambers, what happens is that out of 15 seats, our side of the aisle, in Columbus, what they did down there, we have only 5 Democrats out of 15, only 33 percent, not 50 percent out of the 15. To be fair, if you have 15 seats, maybe it should be 8 and 7, you know, but to give us equal voice based on the public's right to full representation. Ohio is really the poster child for radical gerrymandering. Recently, the polls showed that three-quarters of the people of Ohio wanted reform, and they wanted to set up a special independent commission to draw the districts in Ohio. The vast majority of people wanted change. What happened? In Ohio, that issue was put on the ballot, but the secretary of state, who has been part of this veto-proof, one-party rule in Ohio that has become corrupt actually--Ohio is an extremely corrupt State right now, I am sad to say.…”