Jim Rosica
Without comment, the Florida Supreme Court has denied a request from Republican U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster to become a new party in the ongoing court challenge to congressional redistricting.
The court issued its one-sentence order on Tuesday.
In his motion, Webster had admitted recognizing that “generally intervention is not authorized at the appellate level.”
And plantiffs including the League of Women Voters of Florida responded to the request by saying, “Congressman Webster may well believe that it is impossible for him to prevail in a (redrawn) district, (but he) does not have a right to disrupt this case after staying silent for over three years.”
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 takes away his Republican base because it makes his current district a Hispanic and registered Democrat-heavy seat.
Webster previously had pleaded with lawmakers in the most-recent 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.
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.
