It is a drama being watched in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., as shifting lines just a few miles in one direction or another could decide the futures of several members of the state’s U.S. House delegation.
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This summer the Florida Supreme Court threw out the current congressional map, saying it had been tainted by partisan influence.
On the scheduled longest day of the special redistricting session, no one was happy.
Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said he would join with Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner of Tampa to try to find a way to preserve a minority-access district in Hillsborough County.
Despite aiming for compactness, a proposed new map for the state’s congressional districts chops Hillsborough County into four parts. “I was the first African-American to be elected to Congress in 129 years,”, Brown said on the steps of the Federal Courthouse in Jacksonville. Republicans now hold a 17-10 edge even though Florida has more registered Democrats than Republicans. “In fact no decision has been made”. Under the base map, Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch and Democratic Congresswoman Lois Frankel would be drawn into the same seat.
An opposite directive came out of from Palm Beach County. A session starting in October will lead to an overhaul of state Senate districts under a settlement between the Legislature and voting-rights organizations, like the League of Women Voters, that have criticized the redistricting process.
“It is probably, in my opinion, the least polarized county in the state of Florida”, said Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho. Her current district now consists of 48 percent black registered voters. 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.
Rep. Corrine Brown will not let her famously-winding congressional district change without a fight.
“Why is the attack always on the one district that put “communities of interest” together and gives the African-Americans – who suffered – an opportunity to have a representative?” “Period”, she said during a press conference in Orlando. “We don’t have anything in common with (rural) North Florida”, Brown said.
Those who sued to get the map overturned have also complained about the proposed districts being drawn by staff members in near seclusion. If the court erred, it was in giving the Legislature another chance to draw legal congressional districts when it already has failed twice.
The court found evidence that the GOP consultants had orchestrated a “shadow” system to infiltrate the redistricting process resulting in the redraw of 2012. Presently they don’t care for it that the court has given clear heading on the most proficient method to draw legitimate regions, that they can’t look for private assistance from advisors to control the lines and that they need to do their work in the open.
Among the requirements: Lawmakers must reveal everyone who was involved in the drafting of any maps that they submit, and meetings between senators and staff members will be recorded to preserve them for any future litigation.
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But he did acknowledge that some of the proposed changes were done in order to follow instructions from the court.
