By Malia Rulon
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Gov. Bob Taft and top Republican legislative leaders indicated Thursday that plans to change the map of congressional districts are unlikely to get much attention at the Ohio Statehouse.

"We were very proud of the fact that our map didn't come under legal challenge. We got it right. Why go back?" said Maggie Mitchell, spokeswoman for Senate President Doug White of Manchester in southwestern Ohio.

Republicans from northeast Ohio had been shopping around plans to redraw the lines that would target the districts of U.S. Reps. Sherrod Brown of Lorain and Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland, both Democrats.

State Rep. Jim Trakas, a Cleveland-area Republican, said his plan would have combined Cleveland and Akron into one district designed for a Democrat. Suburbs would be combined to create a second Republican seat.

Democrats called the idea a White House ploy to increase the Republican majority in the U.S. House, which includes 229 Republicans, 205 Democrats and one independent. The Ohio delegation of 18 is made up of 12 Republicans and six Democrats.

"To throw out carefully agreed lines after just eight months? This would be a dangerous new escalation of political partisanship," said state Rep. Chris Redfern of Catawba Island in northern Ohio, the Democratic leader in the House.

GOP House Speaker Larry Householder of Glenford in central Ohio also nixed the plan, which means a bill to redraw the lines will have little chance of passage at the statehouse.