Phil Ammann
As they say, we have three guarantees in life: birth, death and taxes.
Floridians can add one more – both their state House and Senate will do its damnedest to muck up congressional redistricting. And if redrawing political maps for Congress is difficult enough now for the Legislature, Bill Day says just wait; they still have to hammer out new Senate districts.
House and Senate leaders face a stalemate as the deadline approaches to finish the latest special legislative session on time – by Friday’s deadline.
Signs are not encouraging that legislators will tame the redistricting monster anytime soon, either.
Thursday, the House rejected a Senate proposal for redrawing Florida’s 27 congressional seats. Soon after, House members approved HB 1B by a vote of 60-38, a proposal closer to the “base map” drawn by legislative staff after the Florida Supreme Court struck down existing districts which they ruled violate the state’s voter-approved “Fair Districts” Constitutional Amendment.
Among the minor changes made by the House: Sunrise, a Broward County city with about 90,000 residents, is put in a single congressional district. Currently, the city is split in three separate districts. Same for Riviera Beach in Palm Beach County, which the House makes whole, instead divided into two.
As the Senate meets on redistricting “judgement day” – 9 a.m. Friday – they will have choice: either make nice with the House by noon (and go home on time), or drag the whole process out even further.
Few will be surprised if the Legislature’s role in congressional redistricting issue does not end on Friday; even fewer expect the process of redrawing Senate maps will go any smoother, or shorter.
