To paraphrase The Who: “Meet the new maps, same as the old maps.”

Ohio Redistricting Commission Republicans chose to have a GOP staffer put together state legislative maps virtually the same as those rejected March 16 by the Ohio Supreme Court instead of waiting for outside consultants hired by the body to finish their work.

“There seems to be no end to the arrogance of the supermajority,” state Sen. Vernon Sykes of Akron, a Democrat on the commission, said.

State Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said there wasn’t time to wait for the end product from the consultants and a backup plan was needed to comply with a Monday deadline from the Ohio Supreme Court for a fourth set of maps.

He and some other Republican commission members — Auditor Keith Faber in particular — also expressed concerns with the constitutionality of the maps drawn by the consultants, paid $450 an hour for their work.

Huffman said he had Ray DiRossi, who played a role in drawing the three previous legislative maps ruled unconstitutional by the court, waiting in an Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation office ready to put together another set of maps. Also, Huffman acknowledged DiRossi was ill and in poor condition to be working.

But the court-imposed deadline was approaching quickly, and one of the two outside consultants had to leave Ohio for work so something had to be done, said Huffman, who described using DiRossi as a “parachute” if the consultants’ maps didn’t work out.

Huffman said he got the idea for a backup plan two days before the deadline.

Four other Republicans on the seven-member commission agreed, and DiRossi put together maps with the smallest of changes from the third set of maps the court ruled unconstitutional. The court had ordered the commission to create new maps and not rely on previously rejected maps.

Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who said March 17 he was “taking the lead right now,” again essentially watched from the sidelines and voted with the GOP majority.

The commission then voted 4-3 in favor of the DiRossi maps with a number of commission members saying they saw them only minutes before making their decision.

The only Republican to oppose the maps was Faber. His objection — as it was to the third set — was the maps divided too many communities in order to create districts that barely lean Democratic.

In its explanation to the court, the commission’s Republican majority explained time was running out and the new maps meet the required 54 Republican-leaning districts and 45 Democratic-leaning districts, based on partisan voting trends during the past decade, and “improved upon the number of asymmetric districts.”

One issue in the court’s decision to reject the third set of maps was the disproportionate number of districts that leaned Democratic by no more than 3 percent.

In the last set of maps, 26 districts were drawn to favor Democrats by no more than 3 percent. All Republican districts favored that party by at least 5 percent.

With the minor changes, that dropped to 23 slightly-leaning Democratic districts and still not a single Republican one.

In a filing with the Ohio Supreme Court, Sykes and state House Minority Leader Allison Russo of Upper Arlington, the other Democrat on the commission, wrote: “The majority commissioners refuse to bend to current reality and court rulings. Rather they pull the same tricks.”

The maps, the Democrats wrote, were “drawn in secret” and are “ultimately unconstitutional.”

The Supreme Court again is set to determine the constitutionality of the maps.

Those who have sued successfully over three other sets of maps asked the court to consider finding the commission’s members in contempt of court.

Commission members were ordered by the court in February to appear in person for a contempt hearing after missing a deadline to approve maps. Shortly after the hearing was scheduled, the commission reconvened and voted 4-3 to approve the third set of maps, and members avoided being called in front of the court.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor has given the commission members until Monday to respond to the latest contempt request.

Skolnick covers politics for The Vindicator and the Tribune Chronicle.

dskolnick@vindy.com