Melissa Ross
North Florida Democrats are pushing back after a report that Rep. Janet Adkins told a group of North Florida GOP activists in a closed-door meeting that the key to defeating U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown is boosting the number of black prisoners in her district.
“It’s clear to me that kind of gamesmanship from Rep. Adkins is what led to the Circuit Court and the Supreme Court of Florida holding that the redistricting maps originally drawn were not valid,” said Neil Henrichsen, chairman of the Duval County Democratic Party.
“What the comment reveals is that we have a continuation of that gamesmanship to deprive voters of real choice,” Henrichsen told FloridaPolitics.com.
POLITICO Florida obtained audio of Adkins, a Nassau County Republican, saying, “You draw [Brown’s seat] in such a fashion so perhaps, a majority, or maybe not a majority, but a number of them will live in the prisons, thereby not being able to vote.”
Brown has been vocally displeased with the new east-west configuration of her district mandated by the Florida Supreme Court when the map was re-drawn in a Special Session in August. The court still has to choose among various options to finalize the map, but all of the proposed new lines have Brown’s district stretching from Jacksonville to Tallahassee. It now snakes from Jacksonville down to Orlando.
One of Brown’s issues with the new district is that it counts too many prisoners among the African-American voting age population, inmates who are ineligible to vote.
“What’s clear to me is Janet Adkins’ comment is exactly what we don’t need in politics today,” Henrichsen said. “It reflects an effort to deprive citizens of real choice and demonstrates a calculating ‘my team only’ approach to government which is not in the interests of the community.”
