Even if the Ohio Supreme Court determines the latest congressional map approved by the Ohio Redistricting Commission is unconstitutional, it’s highly unlikely that the final outcome would put Mahoning and Trumbull counties in the same district.

Paul Sracic, a Youngstown State University political science professor, told me before the map came out that “keeping the Valley together is not that much of a priority. They have so many other problems and priorities that this isn’t one of them.”

The map introduced by state Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, a commission member, on Tuesday and approved along party lines a day later put all of Mahoning and Trumbull counties in separate districts.

When commission Democrats countered with a proposal — rejected by Republicans — to get a map more favorable for their political party, they never suggested any changes to the Mahoning Valley.

There isn’t a desire to keep all or most of Mahoning and Trumbull counties, which were Democratic strongholds for decades until recently, together in a congressional district by either party.

It was somewhat of a surprise when the Republican-controlled state Legislature on Nov. 16 approved congressional maps grouping Mahoning and Trumbull in a GOP district together with eight counties to the south, including Columbiana. Much of the talk beforehand was that the map would split Mahoning and Trumbull.

Starting in the 1982 congressional election, all of Mahoning was in a district with much of Trumbull and Columbiana counties. With the area’s shrinking population and Ohio’s loss of a congressional district, the 1992 map included all of Mahoning and Columbiana and all but a tiny section of Trumbull combined in one district. That’s as close as we’ve come to a Valley congressional district.

With the state losing another congressional district starting in 2002 and James A. Traficant Jr., the area’s congressman, facing a federal indictment — which led to his conviction and expulsion from the U.S. House of Representatives — the Valley was an easy target, and it was carved up.

That was 20 years ago, and while having three House members represent the area has been helpful at times, they have had to deal with the other counties and priorities in their districts.

Shortly after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on Jan. 14 that the congressional map was unconstitutional, it became apparent that Mahoning and Trumbull would be divided.

Because of population and location, there weren’t other options.

Among the issues cited by the Ohio Supreme Court in its decision that the original map was unconstitutional was dividing Cuyahoga County into three congressional districts.

Part of Cuyahoga was initially in the 14th Congressional District.

The redistricting commission’s new map splits Cuyahoga in two — it had to because of its large population — so the population lost in the part that was removed had to be made up somewhere else.

Looking at a map of northeast Ohio, Lake Erie is to the north and Pennsylvania is to the east. The commission couldn’t go west into Cuyahoga so it’s only choice was to go south into Trumbull County.

That’s exactly what occurred.

On a positive note, it kept Trumbull whole, making it now the second most-populous county in this new 14th District — assuming the court upholds the map.

The part of Trumbull in the existing 14th District is the least-populous county in the current district.

As for Mahoning, it will all be in the new 6th District with the eight other counties to its south from the unconstitutional map: Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson, Harrison, Belmont, Noble, Monroe and Washington.

To make up for the loss of Trumbull, Republican commission members included portions of Stark and Tuscarawas counties.

But Mahoning will be the most-populous county in the district.

The way the districts are drawn, neither the 6th nor the 14th will be competitive. They will be solid Republican areas.

It will be up to the Ohio Supreme Court to determine if the new map is constitutional. But a third map still won’t put Mahoning and Trumbull counties in the same district.