Associated Press
Amid a deepening rift that has split top Republicans, the Florida Senate may require voters in 2016 to pick senators for all forty of the state’s current Senate districts.
The move may end a growing and contentious debate that has threatened to derail the 19-day special session that started this week. The GOP-controlled Florida Legislature returned to the Capitol this week to draw new Senate districts, but the dispute over elections was getting louder day by day.
Some Senate Republican leaders initially asserted that that even with new districts that some senators wouldn’t need to be on the 2016 ballot. That runs counter to a previous state Supreme Court ruling. Democrats as well as some GOP senators also disagreed sharply, with one senator saying Wednesday that he had “lost confidence” in the entire redistricting effort.
Sen. Bill Galvano, the Bradenton Republican in charge of the Senate redistricting efforts, announced late Wednesday that the Senate will vote on whether some senators would have their current four-year terms cut short. Galvano will have his committee vote Friday on whether to assign random numbers to all 40 state Senate districts. That change would likely all force senators to go before voters next year.
Galvano said he was swayed by the arguments of some senators who said the Legislature should take this step to avoid losing a potential lawsuit.
“There are things we can do in an abundance of caution,” Galvano said. “I’m not saying they are necessary legally.”
Voters in 2010 approved the “Fair District” measures that prohibit the Legislature from drawing congressional or legislative districts that benefit incumbents or a political party. A coalition of groups, including the League of Women Voters, has waged a three-year battle with the Legislature over whether lawmakers followed the law.
In July, the state Supreme Court ruled against the Legislature on congressional maps. A trial over the state Senate districts was planned for this fall but the Senate settled the case ahead of time and acknowledged in court filings that GOP senators had violated the state constitution.
Senators are normally elected to four year terms while House members are on the ballot every two years. When the session opened Galvano told senators that lawyers for the Senate had concluded that several senators could keep their current seats, even if the boundaries were changed during the special session. That was significant change from the past – including in 2012 – when all 40 state Senate seats were on the ballot after the districts were changed. The Florida Supreme Court in 1982 ruled that state senators must run for new terms if their districts are altered.
The Senate’s main lawyer on redistricting argued Wednesday that the prior high court ruling did not apply because it dealt with the normal redistricting process that occurs every 10 years.
Several senators were skeptical about that viewpoint. Sen. Oscar Braynon, a Miami Democrat, questioned whether or not legislators could be accused of trying to protect incumbents. But the most caustic remarks came from Sen. Tom Lee. Lee, a Brandon Republican and former Senate president, who was highly critical of the Senate legal strategy.
“Every time we get an answer we’re living in an alternative universe,” Lee said.
The drama over the districts has largely been limited to the Senate because the House is waiting for that chamber to act first on the Senate maps.
Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
