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Weekly Roundup – A Fair Fight?

(Recap and analysis of the week in state government)
Keith Laing, The News Service of Florida, Feb 12, 2010

The fight over the proposed constitutional amendment to put restrictions on the way lines are drawn for legislative and congressional districts rumbled in the Capitol this week, though by the time the leader of the effort finished trading fire with a pair of legislative committees, fairness was in the eye of the beholder.

FairDistricts Florida campaign chair Ellen Freidin told a combined hearing of House and Senate redistricting committees that the plan to limit lawmakers’ ability to draw themselves politically-beneficial seats "is not rocket science” and would not hurt minority representation or take redistricting out of the hands of legislators. But lawmakers shot back that FairDistricts would be impossible to implement and would blow the state's minority-leaning congressional and legislative districts off the map.

"There's no question these are workable standards," Freidin told the combined redistricting committees. "This is not rocket science."

It was the first time Freidin, who lead the campaign to successfully gather 676,811 signatures for each of two ballot initiatives, had gone 12 rounds with a legislative redistricting committee. With no one to punch back, Republican lawmakers who control both the House and Senate have battered the proposal, which was financed heavily by Democratic-allied organizations, in recent weeks.

Among the jabs thrown by lawmakers was the belief that the measures would create new state requirements that clash with the federal Voting Rights Act designed to protect minority voting strength. Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, executed the rope-a-dope, displaying a map of Democratic U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown's wide-ranging district, which snakes from Jacksonville to Orlando and asking whether such boundaries would be barred by the FairDistricts approach.

"It depends on why you are drawing the district that way," Freidin replied, insisting the ballot measures would not reduce minority representation.
Senate Redistricting Chairman Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, who will lead the chamber next year, got into the act, challenging Freidin to submit maps that would meet the conditions outlined by the measures slated to go before voters in November. Freidin dodged the haymaker, saying a map drawn now would be useless until the 2010 Census is completed.

Thrasher also questioned whether testimony at a public hearing could be used against an incumbent. If constituents said they liked a particular lawmaker and wanted to retain the incumbent as their representative, Thrasher asked whether that could affect subsequent line-drawing.

"We're asking you to not look at trying to help anyone" through map-making, Freidin countered.

"You're saying we should go to these hearings and put earmuffs on, and I'm not going to do that," Thrasher sharply replied.

Democratic voter registration in Florida exceeds Republican strength by more than 700,000 voters, but the district lines drawn in 1992 and 2002 have helped the GOP capture two-thirds of the state's congressional delegation while dominating the state House and Senate.

With stakes that high, it’s a fight that’s likely to continue because both Democrats and Republicans see redistricting in 2012 as a battle they have to win.