Jim Rosica
In what could be a losing move, Republican U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster is asking the state Supreme Court to allow him to be a new party in the ongoing congressional redistricting challenge.
Webster, who represents Central Florida’s 10th Congressional District, filed his motion to intervene Thursday.
Webster’s filing says he “recognizes that generally intervention is not authorized at the appellate level … However, this is an extraordinary case.”
A new congressional district map being considered by the court could end the political career of the 66-year-old Webster, a conservative icon in Florida now in the running to be the next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The map eviscerates his Republican base because it makes his current district a Hispanic and registered Democrat-heavy seat.
Webster previously had pleaded with lawmakers in the last Special Session, acknowledging he could not be re-elected in such a district. In July, the court ruled Webster’s current district boundaries to be unconstitutional.
“The currently Proposed District 10 has not been reviewed with any degree of judicial scrutiny,” the motion states. “Equity would require that all interests be heard on this issue, especially that of a sitting United States Congressman about to be radically impacted.”
Webster’s motion also quotes a 1995 federal court decision on Florida congressional redistricting that “elected officials have personal interests in their office sufficient to give them standing when the district they represent is subject to a constitutional challenge.”
The new map under consideration is “specifically intended to disfavor Congressman Webster as the incumbent in District 10,” the motion concludes. “Without intervention, the Congressman’s interest would not be adequately represented.”
Webster led the Republican Party’s rise to statewide power in Florida in the 1990s.
He eventually held office longer than any other state lawmaker before Florida instituted term limits. Webster was Florida House Speaker (1996-98) and Senate Republican Leader before his election to Congress in 2010.
