(Crossposted from Plunderbund.com with permission.)
According to the Ohio Redistricting Transparency Report released this afternoon, Republican lawmakers at the state house implemented a strategy of deliberate secrecy to withhold information from the public about redistricting efforts. The documents paint a picture of lawmakers who purposely operated in a legal gray area to prevent their actions from ever being made public.
For months, Republican lawmakers and staff meet in secret to work on redistricting efforts in possible violation of Ohio’s open meetings law. The documents show a Republican party that are so obsessed with privacy that they used taxpayer dollars to rent a secret hotel room in Columbus that was used as a location to meet on redistricting issues.
While almost 200 pages of documents were released to the public today, many public record requests have still not been filled and lawmakers and staff are now claiming “attorney-client privileges” from having to release the requested documents.
As early as the spring of 2010 House Republicans were starting to shape the structure that would later be used to direct all redistricting efforts in 2011. Documents included in the Transparency report show that Mike Lenzo, Ohio House Majority Caucus Counsel, attended a redistricting training conducted by the Republican National Committee in May of 2010. The theme of the training was – “Keep it secret, Keep it safe”. Documents from the training were later copied and given to Heather Mann and Ray DiRossi, the secretaries of the Apportionment Committee and those in charge of Ohio’s redistricting efforts.
Copies of the documents from the training show that secrecy would be a primary part of the process. The document encouraged such efforts as:
“Control access to the location (a door with a key)”“Machine security, plan security, personnel security”
“Away from distractions”