Bill Rufty
Florida Senate Appropriations Chair Tom Lee missed his speaking engagement with the Polk County Tiger Bay Club on Thursday.
The Brandon Republican had received a summons to Tallahassee, which Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis wouldn’t allow him to postpone. He was a witness for the judge’s hearings to decide from perhaps as many as seven maps of redistricting for Florida’s congressional districts.
Tiger Bay members had their own questions on redistricting they had hoped to pose to Lee, particularly about his plan that would shrink Republican U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross’ 15th Congressional District even more from out of Polk.
Polk County accounts for only 41 percent of the District while 59 percent of the district is in Hillsborough County.
Lee had said that he wanted to consolidate Hillsborough County voters into fewer districts, calling it a “donor county.” Ironically, Polk County is split among four different congressional districts.
Ross is the only congressman living in Polk County and Lee redrew the district earlier this year cutting his district off at the street running in front of Ross’ home. That would place him in Rep. Tom Rooney’s district, although Ross has said he will run for re-election regardless.
But the slight has brought up another rumor which has been quietly discussed among some Polk Republicans in private gatherings: Is Dennis Ross’ own party sending him a message?
Why would a member of the Florida Legislature who served with and praised Ross when he was in the Florida House, now move to cut him out of his district?
After the 2010 census, and congressional districts were drawn one emerged that lowered Ross’ home county to the current 41 percent of his home county. He was first elected to Congress in 2010 in what was then numbered as the 12th Congressional District, and became a member of the Tea Party Caucus, which had its differences with Republican U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.
Ross had recently said he is no longer a member of the caucus, but supports many of their views. He is also now an assistant majority whip.
A former Ross aide said that tension did develop between the Speaker’s Office and Ross’ back then, but that it’s no longer the case.
The talk in Tallahassee at the time, a GOP consultant said, was that then-state Sen. J.D. Alexander was angry with Lakeland for dragging its feet on supporting his creation of Florida Polytechnic.
“It may very well have been a combination of both Alexander and a call from Washington,” he said.
As the redistricting proceeded in 2012 and the district was renamed the 15th Congressional District, Polk lost its majority population there, but Ross, as a popular incumbent, kept the seat.
The redistricting back then was coincidence, some said. It is pretty much what some associated with Lee have maintained this time.
Still, some Polk Tiger Bay members said they wanted to hear it from Lee.
Lee says he wasn’t interested in running for the seat that he is creating, but one consultant who has seen preliminary tests of a campaign in his version of the district said it would be winnable for Lee. And Ross has intimated on several occasions that he doesn’t plan to stay there for an over-extended career.
If Lewis were to accept Lee’s version of redistricting, the 15th won’t be winnable for a Polk County resident when Ross, who does have overwhelming support from the current section of east Hillsborough in his district, decides to leave.
