The Ohio State Bar Association, the state's largest professional organization of lawyers, usually stays above the fray of election politics.

The group, which represents more than 26,000 lawyers and judges, generally keeps to such political activities as reviewing the qualifications of the latest batch of judicial candidates or urging decency when nasty political advertising maligns the legal profession.

But this year was different. For the first time in 25 years, the association waded into a politically heated ballot battle, this time over legislative and congressional redistricting. It had paid $236,000 to a political consultant and $5,000 to a research and communications firm as of late October, state filings showed.

The association's decision to urge opposition to Issue 2 outraged many members, sparking about 200 complaint emails and what amounted to protest votes by some local bar associations.

Critics tie the unusual move in part to the fact OSBA's new president, Hamilton County Appellate Judge Patrick F. Fischer, is also an active politician.

Fischer, a Harvard Law School graduate from Cincinnati, successfully ran for re-election this fall, on the same ballot with the redistricting measure. He also applied Friday for the Ohio Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton.

That vacancy will be filled by Republican Gov. John Kasich, whose party currently controls the map-making process that Issue 2 sought to overhaul.