Tom O’Hara: Attorneys tell an inspiring tale about a dull topic

Redistricting. Reapportionment. New voting maps.

Dull. Boring. Eyes glaze over.

It’s tough to follow – and care about – the legal battles that have been going on for years over Florida’s voting districts.

But on Tuesday night I heard two attorneys who have been at the heart of the redistricting fight tell a riveting tale that has a happy ending.

Dan Gelber, a prominent Florida Democrat, and Ellen Freidin, the woman who is primarily responsible for the state constitutional amendments that guarantee fair districts, told a story about how determined citizens can overcome brute political power.

They were on a panel in Miami hosted by the New Leaders Council, an outfit that tries to entice young people to engage in civic affairs.

Freidin explained that states redraw their voting-district maps every 10 years based on the results of the U.S. Census. In most states, legislatures draw the new maps and, not surprisingly, they design the districts to benefit themselves.

Freidin said she and others realized how corrupt the system had become and decided to change it. They created an organization called “Fair Districts Florida” and got two fair-district amendments on the November 2010 ballot. Voters approved both, one for congressional districts, the other for legislative ones.

Many politicians were not happy about it.

Elected officials “love their power. They can’t imagine not having it,” said Gelber, a former state senator. The best way to keep that power is to rig elections, he said.

Before voters approved the amendments, Republicans used a very liberal law – the federal Voting Rights Act – to build safe conservative districts for themselves.

To comply with the law designed to help minorities win elections, the Republicans “packed” a few oddly shaped districts with huge numbers of minorities, thereby diluting Democratic power in most other districts.

After voters passed the amendments, “we thought the problem was solved,” Friedin said. Both she and Gelber then laughed. The hard work was just beginning.

In 2011 legislative leaders began the process of drawing new maps. They held hearings across the state and boasted about how transparent the process was.

But when Freidin, Gelber and others started asking to see the actual maps that the legislators were drawing, they got stonewalled – and suspicious.

Gelber said they then started “doing what lawyers do. Dig.”

They filed lawsuits and started asking detailed questions.

“We found a very secretive process,” Gelber said. “It was less than honest.”

What they found were GOP “operatives” who were drawing new maps still designed to protect the incumbents.

Emails disappeared. People drawing the illegal maps wouldn’t show them, saying the work was “trade secrets.”

To make it appear that the new maps were the result of citizen suggestions, legislators set up a website for citizen input. They then had friends of the map-drawing operatives submit the rigged maps to the site.

That way, the bogus maps couldn’t be traced back to the operatives who were working with the legislators.

“It was fraud on the citizens of Florida. It was pure power politics at its most vile,” Freidin said.

Both attorneys credited the media for aggressively covering the wrongdoing. The result, Gelber said, “is that shame was reborn in Tallahassee.”

At this point, the Florida Supreme Court has approved the new map for the state’s House districts. But the legal fight continues over the state Senate and congressional districts.

Gelber and Freidin say the final maps will be approved within the next few months and the new districts will produce better politics in Florida.

Gelber said candidates “will have to be fighting for votes from everyone in the district,” not just the small groups of often radical partisans who now decide elections.

“We’ll have more vibrant elections,” he said.

Tom O’Hara is a veteran newspaperman. He is the former managing editor of The Palm Beach Post and the Plain Dealer in Ohio. Column courtesy of Context Florida.