Peter Schorsch
This post comes from the decks of the Disney Fantasy, where I am doing my best to vacation. The ship is just over 1,000 miles from Tallahassee, however even at that distance its clear to see what Bill Galvano, the state Senator in charge of his chamber’s redistricting redux efforts, is doing.
The future Senate President is putting his thumb on the redistricting scale for Joe Negron, the colleague he’d like to see proceed him as leader of the Florida Senate.
Wednesday evening Galvano published his “base map” proposal of how the state’s forty Senate districts should be drawn. Among other things, it — like the current map — contains a district that crosses Tampa Bay – the 19th, that’s held by Democrat Arthenia Joyner. As redrawn, it hugs the area of Hillsborough County along the water, then jumps over to take in the Democrat-rich southeast corner of Pinellas.
By doing this, Galvano avoids drawing districts in Tampa Bay that would force Republican Senators Jack Latvala and Jeff Brandes to square off against each other — a sin of omission that in all likelihood benefits Negron.
Negron’s path to the presidency depends on Brandes (my friend and client) being in the Senate after the 2016 elections. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE now that there is a possibility that two of Negron’s pledges — Rob Bradley and Travis Hutson — could be drawn into the same district, thereby taking away one of his votes.
Were all the other variables about 2016 to hold true (and that’s a lot of variables, so take what I write with a grain of salt) and Negron loses a pledge from northeast Florida and Latvala were to hold off Brandes, the path to victory for the Stuart Republican — even if in December he is declared the Senate President Designate — becomes tenuous.
Galvano’s machinations are not sitting well with his GOP colleagues.
POLITICO Florida’s Marc Caputo reports this morning that a “Republican revolt is brewing against leadership over the way new Senate maps are being drawn.” Caputo’s colleague, Matt Dixon, reports that key senators are openly questioning their chamber’s legal strategy.
Other than to help Negron defeat Latvala, it’s not clear why Galvano is taking this path. He has to know that the judicial branch, represented by either Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis or the Florida Supreme Court, will see the bad intentions at work here and quickly dismiss a Senate map that has the same issues as the one ruled unconstitutional.
Galvano would do well to keep in mind that Supreme Court justices are trial judges at heart. They began their black robed careers listening to DUI cases and felonies and plea bargains and sentencing hearings. One of the lessons I learned from my, um, interactions with the justice system is that judges tend to get punitive when someone standing before them does not accept a reasonable offer. A first-time offender who doesn’t take the six months probation offer often ends up with a year in jail. It’s just the way the system works.
Here we have Bill Galvano and the Florida Senate basically in front of the Court, telling it to take the six months probation deal and stuff it. That’s their prerogative. Just don’t complain when Barbara Pariente and Co. goes all punitive on you.
