Jim Rosica
The “coalition plaintiffs” in the state Senate redistricting challenge announced Tuesday night they were submitting their own redrawn district map – weeks after the chairman of the chamber’s redistricting panel invited them to participate in the map-making process.
The Senate set up its own map on Tuesday for a Wednesday vote, one that combines a version of South Florida districts drawn by GOP state Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla with a base map of the rest of the state favored by Senate Reapportionment Committee Chairman Bill Galvano.
On the floor Tuesday, Galvano said he had asked the plaintiffs – including the League of Women Voters of Florida – to help senators draw a map.
“We afforded an opportunity, frankly, to the plaintiffs to join us at the committee level to come and share their thoughts and ideas,” he said. “We were told they were not going to join us.”
But in a letter to Galvano and House redistricting Chairman Jose Oliva that was released Tuesday night, attorney David King wrote that his clients now would be offering a “more (constitutionally) compliant alternative” that splits fewer cities and better follows geographic boundaries.
By 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, that plan still had not been filed, according to the Senate’s redistricting website.
The Senate’s map “creates a more favorable map for Republicans,” King wrote.
He also noted criticism earlier this week from “some senators” that, among other things, the Senate’s map now under consideration favors incumbents in violation of the state constitution’s Fair Districts amendments. That was a cloaked reference to state Sens. Tom Lee and Jack Latvala.
For instance, Diaz de la Portilla’s changes, adopted Tuesday, were ostensibly meant to ensure Hispanic representation but also happen to make sure he wouldn’t have to run against fellow Republican Miami-Dade incumbent Anitere Flores.
Such a move “cannot be ignored,” King wrote, adding that the plaintiffs’ map will prove that “the Legislature can do far better.”
Earlier in the day, Diaz de la Portilla told reporters the plan being voted on “is a map that is compliant” with constitutional safeguards against gerrymandering, and is “what the people of Miami-Dade County need.”
But that map also keeps other districts that Democrats and others had contested, including one that crosses Tampa Bay, a move frowned upon by the Florida Supreme Court in a similar case over congressional redistricting.
The Legislature is in Special Session for the third time this year, this time to fix the state Senate districts. The map was first redone after the 2010 census.
But voting-rights groups sued, claiming the districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to benefit Republicans and incumbents. The Senate settled the suit by admitting fault and agreeing to redraw the lines.
Galvano, a Bradenton Republican, contends the map, even as now amended, is constitutionally sound.
