Cleveland.com:

Asked to explain why the Ohio Supreme Court shouldn’t punish them for failing to pass state legislative maps late last week, majority Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission pointed fingers at each other Wednesday, saying in court filings that none of them could pass a map on their own.

Gov. Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Auditor Keith Faber said they lacked mapmaking software and expertise since the Republican legislative leaders on the commission — House Speaker Bob Cupp and Senate President Matt Huffman — control their budgets and employ Republicans’ mapmaking experts.

And Cupp and Huffman said the court had asked them to do the impossible by ordering them to draw a new legislative map from scratch in 10 days, leaving the only viable plan a Democratic one that they voted down. They said they couldn’t help it that no other plan emerged.

At a minimum, the five Republican officials, making their arguments in three different sets of filings, asked the Ohio Supreme Court to hold off on finding them in contempt, saying a map plan is in the works and should be introduced in the coming days. The redistricting commission is scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon and sometime Thursday to consider passing new state legislative and congressional maps.

And the commission’s minority Democratic members, House Minority Leader Allison Russo and Sen. Vernon Sykes apologized to the court for the commission’s failures. They argued the court should consider analyzing their plan.