Reps. Jim Renacci and Bob Gibbs are two of many Congress members with huge spending advantages over their challenges in the November race.

WASHINGTON If the map-drawers wanted to eliminate competition for congressional seats, they did a fantastic job: The 16 U.S. House races in Ohio are likely to be the safest of safe bets in November, according to those watching the political climate.

“There’s nothing doing in Ohio,” said David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report.

Don’t chalk it up to satisfaction with Congress. Instead, the districts are basically safer than a bomb shelter: All were drawn solidly Republican or Democrat in 2012’s redistricting process, which was led by the Republican-majority Ohio legislature. All House incumbents in 2014 won with at least 58 percent of the vote.

Richard Gunther, a professor emeritus at The Ohio State University, said the state is special: His research indicates it is the “third worst gerrymandered place on the planet.”

“Only Pennsylvania and Virginia have worse maps than we do,” he said.

He scores states and countries on a variety of bases. On “electoral disproportionality” — the difference between the percentage of the seats won by a party and the percentage of the votes cast for that party’s candidates — Ohio’s 2012 congressional map receives a score of 23.

Russia has a seven — a far, far better score.

While Republican congressmen received 52 percent of the vote in 2012, he said, they received 75 percent of the seats in the state.

Stark County, for example, is split among three different congressional districts — and isn't alone in Ohio. Even tiny Mercer County on the Indiana border, with just more than 40,000 residents, is split among three districts. In all, seven counties are split up by the 2012 congressional maps, and many districts are arbitrary, not united by a particular community. The 4th Congressional District, for example, stretches from Champaign County north to Lorain County — two regions with very little in common.

It’s driven the moderates out. With lawmakers’ jobs basically secure for the general election, their only fights are during the primaries, when they are challenged from the right or left, depending on their political party.

“They care more about — and rightly so — what happens in the primary,” said Catherine Turcer, a policy analyst for Common Cause Ohio, a nonpartisan good government group.

Ohio isn't alone in protecting incumbents. Wasserman suggests there are just 37 races nationwide — of 435 congressional districts — that are competitive, and the number of true tossup races is even smaller.

The Cook Political Report lists 16 tossups — 13 of them currently held by Republicans. Of the remaining 21, eight lean Democratic and 13 lean Republican.

The Democrats need a gain of 30 seats to swing control of the House.

That no Ohio incumbent is on the threatened list comes as no surprise to those who follow politics in the state. In almost every instance, those in office have vast sums of money to run with, a friendly district to run in, and a bundle of name recognition to run on.

And this year, they look poised to do it again: As of Sept. 30, incumbents had $17.5 million on hand combined. Their challengers raised $200,000.

Rep. Bill Johnson, whose 6th District win was the closest in Ohio in 2012 with 58 percent of the vote, faces Democrat Michael Lorentz.

Johnson, as of Sept. 30 had $878,614 in the bank. Lorentz had not yet filed a fundraising report for the third quarter, but had $4,263 in the bank as of June 30. The three incumbents representing parts of Stark County appear to have smooth sailing. In the 7th District, Rep. Bob Gibbs of Lakeville, faces Democrat and retired police officer Roy Rich of Eaton Township. Gibbs had $1.13 million on hand as of Sept. 30; Rich had $2,990. In the 16th District, Rep. Jim Renacci of Wadsworth faces Keith Mundy of Parma. As of Sept. 30, Renacci had $1 million in the bank; Mundy had $6,711. And in the 13th District, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Warren, had $424,681 on hand while his opponent, Richard Morckel of Akron, did not file a report. Similar numbers are playing out for members of Congress across the state: • Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Troy, the newest member of the state’s congressional delegation, faces Democrat Steve Fought, a former aide to Rep. Marcy Kaptur. Davidson had $130,109 on hand as of Sept. 30; Fought, a late entry to the race, had $136 as of Aug. 24. • In the state’s 10th District, which includes all or parts of Montgomery, Greene and Fayette counties, incumbent Rep. Mike Turner faces Democrat Robert Klepinger. Turner, R-Dayton, has $377,592 on hand as of Sept. 30 while Klepinger has nothing in the bank. • Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, faces Democrat Janet Garrett in November in the state’s 4th District, a large swath of western Ohio stretching from Champaign County up to the northern edge of the state. Jordan had $1.26 million in the bank. Garrett had $30,173. • Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, faces Democrat Michele Young in the state’s first congressional district. Chabot has $1.1 million in the bank to Young’s $68,902. • In the Columbus area, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Jefferson Township, has vastly outraised her Republican competitor, John Adams, who has yet to raise or spend the $5,000 required to file a report with the Federal Election Commission. Beatty had $811,646 on hand as of Sept. 30. She is seeking a third term in Congress. Adams has served on the Portsmouth City Council during the 1970s and on the Portsmouth City School Board during the 1990s, according to his campaign website. • Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, meanwhile, had a little more than $2 million on hand as of Sept. 30. His Democratic opponent, Richard Scott Wharton, Stivers’ 2014 opponent and a Delta Airlines pilot from Amanda, neither raised nor spent the required minimum to file a report. • And Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, an eight-term incumbent has more than $5 million in the bank as of Sept. 30. His opponent, Democrat Ed Albertson a Granville Army veteran and small businessman, had $9,173 in the bank.

Efforts to end gerrymandering have had some high-profile backers: Ohio Gov. John Kasich called for gerrymandering to be “relegated to the dustbin of history.” President Barack Obama called for its end. And Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted wants an independent panel to draw the boundary lines.

So what’s the holdup?

Turcer and Gunther said it’s the Ohio General Assembly, which is loath to give up the power to draw the districts. Bills exist in the House and Senate. But pressure to keep the status quo, said Gunther, is intense.

“If you had a congressional seat and no term limits, if you’re in a safe seat, you have a job for life,” he said. “You can understand why elected members resist reform that would actually subject them to real compromise.”

“Those safe seats are just pretty sweet,” said Turcer.