Expand the Ohio House from 99 to 225 members to reduce district size, improve representation, and dilute the influence of special interests. The Ohio Senate should be expanded from 33 to 75 members.
By creating more House districts we have a fundamentally more representative and democratic state. With representatives being able to provide better constituent services to a smaller district and representatives being able to more accurately reflect the interests of a community.
House Districts will go from roughly 120,000 people to 52,000 people. This makes it easier to campaign and more possible for independents and candidates without party backing and large donors to get elected simply by being able to talk to people directly.
Maybe it was just a nostalgia for the design of Parliament, but Founders such as Thomas Jefferson valued the bicameral legislature. Absent a hereditary aristocracy to populate the Upper Chamber, they wrestled with the idea of how to meaningfully distinguish the upper and lower chambers. Jefferson sought ways for the Virginia Senate to be wiser, less prone to whims, and holding different interests than the House to decentralize power.
Ohio’s current bicameral legislature does almost nothing to resolve the concerns of the Founders. Today it helps perpetuate a revolving door of machine politics and corrupt special interests.
We propose a few simple changes that serve to make a wiser, more representative Senate with a constituency distinct from that of the House.
First, the term length for senators will be extended from 4 years to 6 years. This provides for the longer horizon that encourages senators to consider long-term and best interests of the state without constantly being in campaign mode.
Second, the number of senator seats up for election every two years will change from ½ to ⅓. Eleven seats will be open every two years. This better staggers the terms so some seats are not permanently up during Presidential Elections while others are up during Gubernatorial Elections. Instead, they will rotate, further diversifying the electorate of the Senate from the House and reducing power concentration. This also creates more stability with ⅔ of the Senate being retained every election.
Third and most significantly, the Senate will be elected in at-large, proportional representation elections. Twenty-five seats will be up at a time and will be elected statewide rather than representing specific districts. The senate is then beholden to the people of the whole state and cannot be gerrymandered. This gives them a distinct constituency as statewide legislators, more tempered than House candidates, and fulfills the aspirations of the Founders such as Jefferson for the Upper Chamber.
Proportional representation also allows for potentially more voices to be heard in our legislature. Parties putting up candidates or independents for the Senate would need roughly 5% of the statewide vote to qualify for a seat in the Senate. This remains a high bar, but achievable by a sufficiently organized party or slate of independents. Reducing the tendency toward only two parties.
While I believe parties should be permitted to assemble their slate of candidates in any way they see fit, the most likely method for selecting the candidate slate and the order of the slate would be in a party primary in which the highest vote recipient would top the list.
Term limits are often advanced as sensible reform to reduce the power of incumbency and the entrenchment of politicians. Anyone who has paid attention in Ohio over the last decade will see how absolutely destructive term limits have been to the state. It demolished institutional knowledge and rather than entrenching politicians it has entrenched the political machines. Legislative term limits are an undemocratic check on the power of voters that empowers Party over people.
The most effective measure we can take is personal responsibility. Defeating incumbents is on the voters and potential candidates. The voters decide.
However, barriers to entry must also be lowered. It should be easier for independents to get on the ballot and new parties to form to place new candidates on the ballot.
Tim Grady For Ohio 