[Tallahassee, FL] Lawmakers’ second attempt at a Senate redistricting map that would meet constitutional muster passed the Florida House on a relatively narrow 61-47 margin Tuesday, with House Democrats and Miami-Dade Republicans complaining that the new plan represented little real improvement over the first.
Every Republican member of the Miami-Dade caucus and Rep. Denise Grimsley (R-77/Sebring) joined Democrats in opposing the plan.
In debate that lasted little more than an hour, supporters argued that the changes in the maps systematically answered each of the objections that the Florida Supreme Court lodged to the original Senate plan.
Justices threw out the first draft of the Senate map for violating the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts amendments approved by voters in a November 2010 referendum.
House Redistricting Committee Chairman Will Weatherford (R-61/Wesley Chapel) also pointed out that the failure to pass a map would result in the Supreme Court drawing its own plan – something that would happen anyway if the court strikes down the second draft.
“If this map doesn’t pass, what this body is doing is abdicating its responsibility to the Supreme Court,” Weatherford said.
Photo: FL House
Rep. Jeanette Nunez criticized the new map’s “blatant disregard for the Hispanic population”
But Democrats said the second draft was plagued by the same problems as the first: carving up the state to favor Republicans who dominate the Legislature despite having fewer registered voters and preserving incumbents. They hammered the plan for drawing only two incumbents into the same district.
“It kind of reminds me of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight,” said Rep. Franklin Sands (D-98/Weston).
Republicans brushed off the suggestions that only having one district where two senators would be forced to run against each other – and where Sen. David Simmons (R-22/Maitland) has already said he will move to avoid that showdown – violated the constitutional ban on intentionally favoring incumbents.
A Democratic alternative by Rep. Evan Jenne (D-100/Dania Beach) – who said it would force a fifth of Senate incumbents to face off with each other – was shot down on a party line, 72-36 vote.
But even Democratic members of the House noted that the map was mostly put forward to offer an alternative for the Supreme Court to look at when it reviews the new map.
The Florida Democratic Party‘s response was more succinct: “We’ll see you in court,” spokeswoman Brannon Jordan said in a statement issued moments after the vote.
Meanwhile, Republicans from Southeast Florida raised objections of their own, saying the map violated the Voting Rights Act by not including a fourth district in Miami-Dade that would clearly allow the Hispanic community an opportunity to elect a candidate of its choice.
Photo: FL House
Redistricting rages: Rep. Sands called the Senate “the gang that couldn’t shoot straight”
Amendments carving out that district were repeatedly rejected in the upper chamber.
“And here we are again, having to justify the blatant disregard for the Hispanic population of Miami-Dade County,” said Rep. Jeanette Nunez (R-112/Miami).
House Majority Leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera (R-113/Miami) said he believed a fourth district would be created at some point, with a challenge under the Voting Rights Act likely if the Supreme Court allows the new map to stand.
“I just wish the Florida Senate had done it and not left it to the judiciary to do so,” he said.
By: Brandon Larrabee/The News Service of Florida
Image: Rep. Evan Jenne (photo: FL House)
redistricting
Asia for Asians, Africa for Africans, White countries for everyone????????
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will
be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY
into White countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are more crowded than Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote
assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY White countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-Whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the White race, Liberals and respectable conservatives will just say that I’m a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-White.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-White.