Jacob Ogles
Mapmaking season has begun, and Florida Senators have given direction to staff for drafting political districts.
The Senate Reapportionment Committee’s directives, to be outlined in a formal memo, parrot the Tier 1 and Tier 2 standards previously presented to senators and based on a Florida Supreme Court ruling from 2015.
The Tier 1 standards include forbidding any intent to favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent, protecting the ability for minority communities to elect a candidate of their choice, and keeping districts contiguous.
Sen. Ray Rodrigues, an Estero Republican and chair of the committee, said the existing maps for Florida’s congressional districts and state Senate and House districts would serve as a baseline.
“We cannot regress from that, and will make sure we are not engaging in retrogression diminishing those opportunities,” he said.
As for Tier 2 standards, Rodrigues conceded the Florida Legislature has more discretion to balance out those demands but must hold as closely to those as possible.
The requirements include keeping districts as nearly equal in population as practical, draw compact districts, and utilize existing political boundaries wherever feasible.
The direction approved by the Senate Committee instructs staff to draft legislative maps with populations that deviate no more than 1%. Rodrigues noted that while there exists court precedent to defend districts within populations within 3%, the Florida Supreme Court in 2015 tossed the Legislature’s Senate map for failing to hold to 1% differences.
Congressional maps must not deviate more than a single person.
The most significant discussion at the committee level around the standards centered on how much lawmakers must respect other boundaries. Staff intends to group rural counties into political districts and keep them whole, but that’s not possible with more densely populated counties.
Sen. Audrey Gibson, a Jacksonville Democrat, noted that her home county of Duval offers challenges because Jacksonville’s municipal boundaries overlap the county lines. “Is there wiggle room?” she said. She also noted that the city of Jacksonville has its redistricting process for local districts going on now, like many cities.
The other topic discussed at length was related to outside submissions. Sen. Doug Broxson said some constituents were uninterested in submitting maps through the Florida Redistricting website run by the state. Other senators sought direction on how to bring a citizen-submitted map to committee.
Rodrigues said it’s imperative senators reach out to individuals about the constitutionality of the maps before raising them for Senate consideration. Any such communication must be documented, and relationships between senators and submitters must remain transparent. Failure to hold to such standards during the last redistricting attempt led to two of three maps being found by the courts in violation of the Florida Constitution, and the goal of lawmakers must be to avoid that fate.
“If a member doesn’t want to complete the forms and disclose who they have worked with, they must not want their map to be considered by this body,” he said.
It’s increasingly clear the website will be the primary channel for maps to be submitted for consideration. Already, multiple proposed maps have flowed in from members of the public.
Some have complained there won’t be a tour for public input, as occurred a decade ago.
“Right now, I don’t see any roadshow for that redistricting process, so we’re going to draw a map without people’s input. You can say that, hey, there’s a portal that anyone can draw a map. It’s not the same thing, and everybody knows that, and anyone that was involved in that process knows that hearing from constituents throughout the state made a great deal of difference in the final maps that came out,” said Rep. Evan Jenne, House Democratic Co-Leader.
“Unfortunately, it was used as cover last time, as we saw in the lawsuits following it. I still hold that hope that legislators can do the right thing. We’ll have to see, but I do not anticipate a smooth, quiet transition from Session to the political world.”
Rodrigues said every member should want defensible maps. If nothing else, he said the 2015 case showed the courts have no druthers about taking away the discretion of the Florida Legislature to draw its maps. The process in 2015 didn’t even consider alternative maps considered by the Legislature but imposed one from the League of Women Voters, which brought the winning lawsuit against the state maps.
All lawmakers should want to protect legislative discretion, he said, or risk having all efforts sidelined altogether.
