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Zach Klein| Guest columnist

Voters in 2015 and 2018 overwhelmingly approved measures reforming the way Ohio draws its state legislative and congressional district maps, writing into our constitution processes that were supposed to promote bipartisanship and bring fair maps to Ohio.

If redistricting commission members failed to live up to that duty, voters made sure that the Ohio Supreme Court could intervene and hold lawmakers accountable for trying to rig the district lines.

Up until this point, the Republican members of the redistricting commission have flouted their constitutional duty to draw fair maps that reflect the will of the voters.

More: GOP OKs Ohio legislature maps tweaked from rejected ones; Democrats say process 'hijacked'

Just this week, we saw Republicans on the commission reject maps drawn in the public view by a pair of bipartisan mapmakersonly to turn around and approve another likely flawed, secretly GOP-drawn map.

Now former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder'sNational Redistricting Action Fund andthe American Civil Liberties Union of Ohiohave asked the Ohio Supreme Court to holdcommission members contempt of court.

The groups are suing overlegislative maps put forward by the GOP-dominated commission.

At a time when democracy feels in crisis and the institutions that exist to safeguard it are showing their wear and tear, the Ohio Supreme Court's rulings inspire faith in the process voters laid out to eliminate partisan gerrymandering.

Despite Republican attempts to rig the system, the Ohio Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Maureen OConnor, should be commended for rightfully enforcing the law even in the face of harsh partisan criticism.

This is a case study in how the rule of law and an independent judiciary is designed to work in a democracy.

More: Ohio Republicans discussing impeachment of Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor after map ruling

The court is not to blame for the redistricting commissions inability or unwillingness to abide by the rules and draw the fair maps Ohioans deserveand demanded. The justices are simply doing their job to uphold the law by evaluating the merits of each individual map presented to them. When the maps presented are clearly unconstitutional and purely partisan, the court has no choice but to continue to reject those maps.

Likewise, the court is not to blame for the crisis in which we find ourselves, a month away from our states primary election with no district lines in place. Its a manufactured problem created entirely by Republican commission members.

Had they acted in good faith from the start, we would have had fair maps months ago and election officials across the state would be busy preparing for our primary. But Republicans didnt act in good faith and now elections officials are faced with an unprecedented crisis.

More: Disingenuous Ohio Republicans disregard will of people to maintain dominance

The city attorneys office has won our share of cases, but weve lost some too. But no matter the outcome, we respect the legal process. We dont threaten to unseat judges or call into question their impartiality. We dont disparage their commitment to the law. We respect their decision and get back to work on behalf of the people of Columbus. Thats our job.

Republicans on the redistricting commission created this mess and now its their job to fix itnot the Democrats on the commission and certainly not the court.

Gerrymandering is a scourge whether its a blue or red state. And in Ohio, voters laid out a process thats simple: draw fair maps. Its what a number of citizen-led groups have done when they submitted maps for review to the commission, and its what Republican commission members must do in order to salvage what chance we have at holding our scheduled primary.

More: Opinion: Lawmaker's 'rigged' map would steal Ohioans' right to representation

The Ohio Supreme Court is upholding its duty to the law, the Ohio Constitution and the people of Ohio. It is living up to the redistricting reforms Ohioans passed not once, but twice.

In stark contrast, Republican commission members continue to lack the courage to do right by the voters, refusing to uphold their end of the deal and instead passing one partisan map after another. But something has to change.

Two of the Republican commission members must do as our chief justice has done, and thats simply to do their job to uphold the constitution and pass fair maps that meet the constitutional standard voters expect and deserve. Democracy depends on it.

Zach Klein has served as Columbus city attorney since 2018, .

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Cowardly Republicans trying to 'rig the system' in Ohio, Columbus city attorney says - The Columbus Dispatch

Photo courtesy of the Senate Republican Conference Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt, at podium, joins New York City Council Members Joe Borelli and Bob Holden at the entrance to Rikers Island in September 2021 to criticize the states bail system and the new Less is More law, which releases prisoners for technical violations of parole.

Speaker Carl Heastie, who leads the New York State Assembly, seems to have a definite view concerning bail reform that appears to differ from that of the governor, Kathy Hochul.

A little background: the Democrats got their behinds kicked in the last election over the issue. You will recall that the liberal contingent in the Democratic-led New York State Legislature quite correctly passed legislation in an effort to equalize the way in which the bail system in the state treated suspects after arrest. Those who had resources could fork out the big bucks needed to get released from custody, while those without deep pockets had to languish in the pokey because they didnt have the money necessary to get out. This became an issue in the last election when the Democrats who sponsored the so-called bail reform bill found out that they had lost some middle-class voters who thought that people released on bail were likely to go on and commit more crimes.

That led to some problems for the liberal Democrats and alienated some of the middle-class voters. In other words, the concept of bail reform was certainly correct in that it was philosophically right, but it led to political problems for the Democrats.

It shouldnt surprise anyone that the message was received by the battered Democrats who are now showing some signs of division. On one side are the liberals in the state legislature. They are correct in their assertions that the poor are more likely to have to stay in jail due to their inability to post bail. Meanwhile, the rich and middle-class voters want to be protected and have reacted strongly against idea of bail reform. Never mind the statistical analysis that suggests that those released are not committing crimes at the level the critics of bail reform are suggesting. But hey, political reality is what people believe, correctly, or not.

This is where it gets interesting. Governor Hochul, who is no fool, gets the message and starts to suggest that the baby should get split. If I am reading her words correctly, she thinks that dangerous folks should be kept in jail while the powerful Speaker, Carl Heastie, takes the politically and factually correct position that it isnt right for poor people stay in custody just because they cant afford bail.

Obviously, Heastie has to listen to what the liberal Democrats in his conference are telling him while, like it or not, Governor Hochul knows which way the more conservative wind is blowing. It is clear that she sees the political danger here. If the Democrats continue to lose seats, their huge majority in both houses may be threatened and her own election prospects will be diminished by her endorsing this bail reform.

Since there is honor among politicians, I am sure that both Heastie and Hochul understand and honor each others positions. Let there be no mistake: the Heastie position is correct, so-called bail reform is a worthy idea. It is just one more piece of proof that the political game is loaded in favor of those with money. As a person of color, Heastie knows that and understands what injustice is all about.

So what will happen? Obviously, the governor has no cards to play since she cant make the Legislature do what they dont want to do. The Republicans and conservatives have found a powerful card to play here. They are winning elections based on this split and are unlikely to change positions now. They think that have discovered political gold and will play the bail reform card to the hilt. There may be an agreement between the Speaker and the Governor to allow for the difference of opinion. The Speaker is right, and the governor knows what to do to win an upcoming election.

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Publisher's Corner: Republicans will play the bail reform card to the hilt - Legislative Gazette

Americans are more worried about inflation than at any point since 1985, and that concern is quickly escalating, according to a new poll, a potential problem for Democrats and the White House ahead of the midterm elections in November.

A Gallup poll released Tuesday showed that rising prices were the No. 1 economic concern for Americans, with 17 percent calling inflation the nations most important problem.

Inflation stress divided slightly among income groups 63 percent of adults earning $40,000 or less were very concerned, compared with 58 percent of those earning $100,000 or more and starkly along political lines. About 79 percent of Republicans were seriously worried about inflation, versus 35 percent of Democrats.

That reflects the ongoing phenomenon were seeing in polarization, said Lydia Saad, director of U.S. social research at Gallup. She noted that people increasingly answered economic questions differently when their party controlled the White House, and often in a way that reflected the administrations messaging. Democrats are just going to downplay problems, just like Republicans did when Trump was in office, she said.

President Bidens administration initially expected rapid inflation to fade. As it has lingered, the White House has switched to arguing that it is part of a global phenomenon and has been exacerbated by Russias invasion of Ukraine. That is accurate but probably not the full story, since inflation in the United States is higher than in many other developed economies.

Prices in the United States rose 7.9 percent in the 12 months through February, according to the latest reading of the Consumer Price Index released this month. That was the highest level of inflation since early 1982.

Ms. Saad said it might be a silver lining that the worry index was lower now than at the start of the 1980s, when about half of American adults ranked rising prices as the nations top problem. Inflation had been elevated for years back then, peaking at about 14.6 percent in 1980.

Even so, rising prices have been undermining confidence in the overall economy, according to the Gallup numbers and other consumer sentiment readings. Survey data from the University of Michigan shows that Republicans have been more pessimistic about the economy than at any point since 1980. Democrats, while more optimistic, were less confident in March than they had been at any point since Mr. Bidens 2020 election victory.

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Americans, especially Republicans, are getting more worried about inflation. - The New York Times

Voldymyr Zelensky is being hailed as latter-day Winston Churchill by both Democrats and Republicans.The Democrats newfound embrace of the former British statesman is interesting, given that it was only a year ago when Joe Biden banished a bust of Mr. Churchill from the confines of the Oval Office.

Biden was following the lead of his former boss, Barack ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaJuan Williams: GOP plays the race card on Ketanji Brown Jackson Lawmakers skeptical of Biden effort to resurrect Iran nuclear deal Relearning our lesson on dealing with extortionists MORE, who didnt think Churchill deserved being honored in such a way.

Winston Churchill once said of one of his political rivals, hes a humble man with much to be humble about.

Churchills quote rings true to me in the sense of what Republicans should be preparing to do once they take the majority this coming November.

My old boss, Denny Hastert, used to have a mantra when he was Speaker of the House about the utility of underpromising and overdelivering.

Republicans often tend to overpromise and underdeliver.

For example, during the tea party years, they frequently promised to balance the budget, reform entitlements and repeal ObamaCare.

Similarly, when George W. Bush won reelection in 2005, he promised to fundamentally reform the Social Security program.

The Contract with America made many bold promises for the 1994 elections, which they published as a supplement to the once popular TV Guide magazine.But you had to read the fine print to really understand what Newt GingrichNewton (Newt) Leroy GingrichMORE and Dick Armey were promising to voters.They werent promising that their radically common-sense agenda would be signed into law. They were promising that it would get a vote on the House floor within the first 100 days of Republican rule in 1995.

Much of what the Newt and his gang promised had nothing to do with a policy agenda.It had everything to do with cleaning up the House itself, which had been used and abused for four decades by a rapacious Democratic majority. And so the Republicans promised crazy stuff like requiring all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress, selecting an independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of the House, cutting the size and the power of the committees by a third, limiting the terms of committee chairmen, banning the casting of proxy votes in committee, and requiring that committee hearings be open to the public.

In the context of today, none of these things seem all that revolutionary. But back in 1995, cleaning out the House of Representatives and bringing power back to the people was seen as truly game changing.

Twenty-seven six later, it is time for the Republicans to channel the revolutionary spirit of the class of 1994, focusing first on fixing the process and then getting to the policy items that differentiate the GOP from the Democrats.

Fixing the process is essential because House Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiSarah Palin says she'd serve in Don Young's seat 'in a heartbeat' Clyburn files to run for 16th House term House staff turnover highest in 20 years: study MORE (D-Calif.) and House Democrats have completely trashed it ever since they took over in 2018.

First, they have to get rid of proxy voting on the House floor.The purpose of having a Congress in the first place is bringing people together.You cant bring people together if they can work for home.

Second, they have to fix the budget and appropriations process. The president still hasnt submitted his budget for the year and it is almost the end of March.

Third, power needs to flow back to the members and away from the leadership.There needs to be a return to regular order, where the committees are given the opportunity to find solutions to problems and not have their jurisdiction subverted by a power-hungry Speaker.

Fourth, members need to be able to offer amendments to the legislative process.The rights of the minority should be protected.

Finally, no member should be banished from serving on all legislative committees. What Pelosi and the Democrats have done to kick members that they dislike of all committees is despicable. It disenfranchises the hundreds of thousands of constituents who live in the districts of these members.

When Republicans take the House majority, they should be modest in their policy goals but aggressive in fixing a broken process. It wont be easy to get major things done with a closely split Senate and a president of the other party. Cleaning up the House should be far easier and today is far more important.

Feehery is a partner at EFB Advocacy and blogs atwww.thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former House SpeakerDennis HastertJohn (Dennis) Dennis HastertFeehery: Traitor to his class Feehery: Biden's weakness on Ukraine invited Russian invasion Feehery: The end of innocence MORE(R-Ill.), as communications director to former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).

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Feehery: Time for Republicans to channel the revolutionary spirit of the class of 1994 | TheHill - The Hill

Republican lawmakers have spent the last half decade following Donald Trump's lead, even as he moved the party away from long-held party philosophy. But when it comes to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, GOP officials are no longer taking their cues from the former president.

Condemnation of Vladimir Putin is a rare unifying force on Capitol Hill. Few Republicans are echoing Trump's description of the Russian president as savvy or smart. Former Vice President Mike Pence said there was no room in the party for "apologists for Putin." Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina even went as far to say that Putin should be assassinated.

And after the years standing by as their party leader questioned the value of NATO and traditional global security alliances, threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine in exchange for a political favor, and publicly took Putin's word over that of his intelligence agencies, Republicans are now arguing for every possible resource short of U.S. ground troops to help stop the war in Europe.

The "vast majority of the Republican Party writ large, both in Congress and across the country, are totally behind the Ukrainians and urging the president to take these steps quicker, to be bolder,"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell saidSunday on "Face the Nation."

"There's been a pretty dramatic division between the traditional post-WWII Republican view of our leadership in the world, which is the one I hold, and those who wanted to follow a policy that was more focused on retreating to thinking that somebody else would fill our role in the world if we didn't," Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri told CBS News. "And I think what's happening at the current moment, most Republicans--and, frankly, most members of the Senate--have shifted to what I would see as a more internationalist view of our responsibilities. And I'm glad to see it."

There can often be a disconnect between party leaders and party voters. But in this case, polling shows support for taking a tougher stance on Russia among the party's rank and file.

CBS News polling finds 76% of Republicans approve of sanctioning Russia's oil and gas (and 62% say so even if it means higher gas prices), 75% say the U.S. should send weapons and supplies to Ukraine, and 61% say the U.S. should send troops to protect NATO allies near Ukraine.

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Trump ally in the Senate, said his constituents are appalled at the Russian invasion and are telling him "we need to do everything we can" to help the Ukrainians.

"They are fighting for their existence. And Russia has aided every enemy of ours for the last 60 years. So I don't feel too bad I know Putin wines that this is escalatory. He's invaded a sovereign nation. So we should arm the Ukrainians and give them every defensive weapon that they want," Hawley told CBS News. "We need to do everything we can do asymmetrically there in Ukraine to help the Ukrainians. And we should do that for the long haul, as long as it takes."

Hawley joined all Senate Republicans, with the exception of Mitt Romney, in exonerating Trump at his impeachment trial in 2019 that centered on his asking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden in exchange for military aid. In an interview with 60 Minutes at the time, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that Trump did nothing in that conversation with Zelenskyy that was impeachable.

Now, McCarthy is trying to keep some members of his conference who are speaking ill of Zelenskyy or echoing Trump's praise of Putin at bay. Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina has come under fire for calling Zelenskyy a "thug" at a town hall.

When asked about the comments last week, McCarthy told reporters that "Madison is wrong. If there's any thug in this world it's Putin." McCarthy then referenced the Russian bombing of a maternity ward and a theater housing children. "This is atrocious, this is wrong, this is the aggressor, this is the one that needs to end this war," he said of Putin. "This is the one that everybody should unite against." (When asked whether he would support Cawthorn's re-election, McCarthy said "yes.")

Republicans are still largely opposed to direct U.S. military involvement in Ukraine, and there is very little appetite on Capitol Hill for the establishment of a no-fly zone, a reflection of the party's shift in the Trump era away from engaging in military conflict overseas. Colin Dueck, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who wrote a book on post-WWII Republican foreign policy, told CBS News that even though Trump tapped into voters' frustrations with traditionally hawkish GOP views, party voters still maintained their support of NATO and opposition to Putin. The invasion reminded them of those views, he says, and there has been a rallying around a hardline against Russia.

"It has often been the case that Trump acts and others react....what's interesting right now is that nobody seems to be deferring to him on this issue," said Dueck. "There is a momentum that is independent of him. And he has had to catch up with it."

In some cases, appearing to share Trump's rhetoric on Putin is becoming a liability for Republican candidates on the campaign trail.

In the North Carolina GOP primary for an open U.S. Senate seat, former Gov. Pat McCrory released an ad accusing his Trump-backed rival Rep. Ted Budd of taking Russia-friendly votes and praising Putin. The ad uses an interview clip in which Budd calls Putin a "very intelligent actor." Club for Growth then released anad supporting Budd and arguing McCrory took the congressman's words out of context, and played clips of the full quote in which he called Putin "evil" and an "international thug."

According to Politifact, McCrory's ad cut out Budd's full quote: "I would say Putin is evil. But that doesn't mean he's not smart. He's a very intelligent actor, although I'd say he's been quite erratic in his approach to the Ukraine."

While Republicans are rallying around a hard line against Russia, they aren't eager to criticize Trump for his past behavior towards Putin. Instead, when asked about Trump's approach to Putin, they insist the policies outweigh the rhetoric.

"I have disagreed with President Trump's rhetoric on Putin, previously. I don't think it was helpful. But on substance, on the actual policies implemented, the Trump administration's policies on Russia were much, much tougher than the Biden administration's policies," Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told CBS News, pointing to the sanctions he authored against Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that Trump signed into law.

"There's probably a lot of mistakes that we could look atI know Trump is criticized for his rhetoric. But I will say, in my view, when the time came to really get tough, to sanction Nord Stream 2 for instance, he was there at the end to do the right thing to be tough on them," Hawley told CBS News when asked if he thought the previous president miscalculated Putin. "But listen, that's in the rear view mirror. Now we have to think about, what are we going to do moving forward?"

Caitlin Huey-Burns is a political reporter for CBS News.

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Republicans are backing an aggressive policy toward Ukraine, breaking with Trump - CBS News