{"id":16517,"date":"2025-07-03T16:58:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T16:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=16517"},"modified":"2025-07-03T16:58:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T16:58:52","slug":"the-sleight-of-hand-in-oh-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/03\/the-sleight-of-hand-in-oh-9\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sleight of Hand in OH-9"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Rev. D.L. Perryman, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas. <\/em>\u2013 Shirley Chisholm<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to get caught up in the daily \u201cThree Shells and a Pea\u201d drama swirling around Ohio\u2019s 9th Congressional District.<\/p>\n

One day, the GOP shuffles the shells: former State Representative Derek Merrin and current State Representative Josh Williams launch dueling campaigns within hours of each other\u2014each convinced they\u2019re the one who can flip the district red. The next day, Alea Nadeem, a decorated U.S. Air Force veteran, enters the race with her own compelling story of service and survival.<\/p>\n

While the Dems\u2019 eyes dart back and forth, trying to keep track which candidate presents the greatest threat to Marcy Kaptur\u2019s 23rd<\/sup> term in the U.S. House of Representatives, or which shell to bet on, so to speak, something more important is happening out of view.<\/p>\n

Because in every shell game, the real question is not what cup you pick. It\u2019s whether the pea was ever under any of them to begin with.<\/p>\n

While the voting public is led to believe that the campaign for Ohio\u2019s 9th<\/sup> Congressional district is a contest of credentials, personalities and loyalty to Donald Trump, the media, playing the role of the shill, dutifully elevates the performative outrage, rewards shallow sound bites over substance, and \u201ctreats the campaign like a horse race to be wagered on rather than a serious choice about people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

But you know, like I know \u2014the Republican field isn\u2019t genuinely competing on credentials at all. That\u2019s the hustle; it\u2019s just for show.<\/p>\n

Their contest revolves only around who can out-Trump Trump himself. For the GOP, it is an opportunity to leverage grievance and spectacle\u00a0to make\u00a0this seat a referendum not on issues but on identity. It\u2019s less a primary and more a demolition derby\u2014a contest to see who can burn the house down first.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Democrats and pundits spend endless hours dissecting who moved where, who filed paperwork first, or whose record of chaotic leadership, hollow soundbites, or scorched-earth culture-war proposals will resonate beyond social media.<\/p>\n

But while everyone else\u2019s attention is glued to the clown show\u2014watching which candidate can shout the loudest or squeeze into the clown car, Republicans are quietly slipping the pea into their pocket and focusing on something far more consequential: redrawing the map itself. That\u2019s the real chessboard, if I may switch the metaphor for a moment. And Democrats are still playing checkers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the Map, stupid!<\/strong><\/p>\n

This election will be won or lost on cartography and not on policy issues or personality.<\/p>\n

A seasoned political observer put it bluntly: \u201cThere\u2019s\u00a0actually\u00a0a huge amount of uncertainty related to this congressional campaign because Ohio will be redrawing the district lines before the next election. The fear is that they will legislate Marcy out by dividing Toledo into two congressional districts. This\u00a0is similar to how they got former Ohio 3rd<\/sup> Congressional District (Dayton) Tony Hall out of the House.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is the game Republicans are playing. While Democrats are busy scrutinizing the Republican demolition derby, Republicans are preparing to fracture the map and engineer a permanent advantage in our district. And it is the real threat facing Marcy Kaptur and any Democrat who wants to represent northwest Ohio.<\/p>\n

This is not hyperbole but a blueprint<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The GOP currently controls the Ohio legislature and holds a 5-2 majority on the redistricting commission. The Ohio Supreme Court\u2014once the last line of defense against partisan gerrymandering\u2014now has a 6-1 Republican majority following the retirement of Chief Justice Maureen O\u2019Connor. The same court that previously struck down earlier maps for being unconstitutionally rigged is unlikely to intervene again.<\/p>\n

That simple truth should guide everything from fundraising to fieldwork because no amount of nostalgia or charisma will matter if the district itself\u00a0is\u00a0reengineered\u00a0out\u00a0from under the Democrats.<\/p>\n

Yet, anticipate the new gerrymandered lines to come\u2014 but don\u2019t be paralyzed by them.<\/p>\n

As Mary J. Blige once sang,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not gon\u2019 cry, I\u2019m not gon\u2019 cry, I\u2019m not gon\u2019 shed no tears.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Those lyrics should be the Democratic Party\u2019s mantra now. There is no time for tears or hand-wringing\u2014because no one is coming to save Northwest Ohio if voters and organizers don\u2019t save themselves.<\/p>\n

While Democrats argue over checkers, Republicans are flipping over the entire board.<\/p>\n

The question is whether, this time, Democrats will finally \u201cstand on business!\u201d Not merely pick up the pieces, but learn the real rules of the game, and play to win.<\/p>\n

Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at <\/em>drdlperryman@enterofhopebaptist.org<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D. The Truth Contributor You don\u2019t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas. \u2013 Shirley Chisholm It\u2019s easy to get caught up in the daily \u201cThree Shells and a Pea\u201d drama swirling around Ohio\u2019s 9th Congressional District. One day, the GOP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,252],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[300],"class_list":["post-16517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-opinion","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16518,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16517\/revisions\/16518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16517"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=16517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}