Jim Rosica
Days after the state Supreme Court ordered a redrawing of Florida’s congressional districts, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum now is exploring a primary challenge to Democratic U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, whose seat was redirected toward the Panhandle and Big Bend.
A longtime Democratic Party official, though, says Gillum has a tough slog if he thinks he can knock off Brown, a two-decade veteran of Congress.
Democratic National Committeeman Jon Ausman of Tallahassee said about 56 percent of the vote in Brown’s new 5th District is in Duval County, Brown’s home turf, and only about 23 percent is in Leon County, where Gillum lives.
“It’s going to be tough,” Ausman said. “I mean, you’re going to have to really beat up Corrine in her own county to prevail.”
Nonetheless, supporters already are privately reaching out to Gillum “because Washington desperately needs the type of energy and focus he brings every day as mayor, creating new jobs and opportunities to get ahead,” spokesman Kevin Cate said.
“He’s listening and will make his decision on how he can best continue creating new jobs and opportunities, while also being a great husband and father,” added Cate, a former adviser to Democrat Charlie Crist during his 2014 gubernatorial run.
Gillum’s interest in running for Congress was first reported early Friday morning by POLITICO Florida.
Brown represents the 5th Congressional District, often referred to as the most gerrymandered district in the nation, which meanders from Jacksonville south to Sanford.
After a years-long court challenge, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered her seat redrawn in an east-west configuration, stretching from Jacksonville through Leon and Gadsden County.
Meantime, Brown has promised to continue the fight in federal court, saying the new map violates U.S. voting-rights law by decreasing black voting-age population while packing the new district with North Florida prisons whose inmates can’t vote.
Gillum, 36, has been considered a rising star in Florida Democratic politics, an area where rising stars have been few and far between in recent years.
The Gainesville native attended Florida A&M University, where he became president of the school’s student government association in the early 2000s.
Gillum was the youngest person elected to the Tallahassee City Commission at age 23 in 2003. He held that office continuously until taking over as city mayor from John Marks last year, raising more than $250,000 for his election.
Most recently, Gillum backed a “Ban the Box” campaign that would prevent the city from asking job applicants about their criminal histories on initial applications. If an applicant is selected for an interview, for example, they would then have to disclose such information. The measure was approved by the City Commission.
“He’s young, ambitious, a good fundraiser, and he wants to move up,” Ausman said. “And this is a Democratic district so the race will be decided in the primary.”
Meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham – whose Democratic voting base in Leon and Gadsden counties was gutted when Brown’s 5th District was shifted into her 2nd District territory – earlier this week said she was uncertain about her political future.
Graham, a Tallahassee resident first elected in 2014, now represents what has become a safe Republican district under the new map.
Mindful of lingering court challenges from Brown and others, Graham said she “will make a decision about how to best serve the people of North Florida once the map has been completely settled.”
The League of Women Voters of Florida, Common Cause and others had sued over the current congressional lines, redrawn after the 2010 census, saying the existing map violates a state constitutional prohibition against gerrymandering, the manipulation of political boundaries to favor a particular incumbent or party.
Voters in 2010 passed the “Fair Districts” constitutional amendments to prohibit such gerrymandering.
The case worked its way to the Florida Supreme Court, which ruled that the current map was “tainted by unconstitutional intent to favor the Republican Party and incumbents.”
The Legislature tried but failed to agree on a redrawn congressional map in a Special Session this summer, and the matter bounced back to Circuit Judge Terry Lewis. He had been charged with taking evidence and figuring out a new map. He recommended the plaintiffs’ plan, which the Supreme Court finally endorsed this week.
