The hot air is not just outside the state Capitol in Tallahassee.
Advertisement
The session follows a July 9 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that the state’s existing congressional map violates one of the two anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” amendments approved by voters in 2010. Now they don’t like it that the court has provided clear direction on how to draw legal districts, that they can’t seek private help from consultants to manipulate the lines and that they have to do their work in the open.
Legislative staff created a base map last week that legislators will use to begin the process. The proposal revealed ahead of the August 10 start of the second of three overtime lawmaking sessions redraws 22 districts. “We have a constitutional responsibility to comply with the court’s order, whether we personally agree with it or not”.
The big question for us is splitting Leon County.
The shift would also impact Rep. Daniel Webster, whose district would become more diverse. Members of Congress will be dislodged, no matter what happens. Under the base map, Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch and Democratic Congresswoman Lois Frankel would be drawn into the same seat.
Echoing the theme of a lawsuit filed last week in federal court by two Pensacola Republican Party officials, several lawmakers used their opening day speeches to accuse the court of violating the legislature’s First Amendment rights by requiring it to justify its map-drawing decisions in an open and transparent way.
Webster’s current district is rectangular, stretching from Lake County down into Winter Haven with a hook into Orlando. Under the Supreme Court’s decision and the base map, the seat would instead represent an area that runs from Jacksonville in the east to Gadsden County in the west. “Period”, she said during a press conference in Orlando. “In this history of Florida, Duval County has never been with North Florida”. The proposed new map will be sent to the full Legislature on Thursday.
Lawmakers will eventually have to defend the new boundaries in court. Brown said that would deny African Americans a political voice.
“You have drawn a district that not only an African-American can’t win, but a white Democrat can’t win”, Brown said.
Legislators will probably be briefed on the map at a joint assembly between the Home and Senate redistricting committees Tuesday.
“Everybody looks fresh – nice, late summer skin tone from being in the sun”, House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said in welcoming his colleagues back.
Advertisement
Ultimately, the new map will return to the Supreme Court for justices to decide whether it meets the requirements of Fair Districts.
