Is Gerrymandering in Vogue: Best Check with FL GOP About Their Past Stunt

 

Historical image of “Gerrymandering”

(Some states draw lines far worse)

What follows is a very timely review of forthcoming events now that the 2020 census is officially out and states will be rushing to re-draw voting and district lines to favor their party and incumbents, naturally. A fact; not fiction.

The 2010 FL example of corrupt redistricting is a lesson worth reviewing. It failed because the public rose up and the court acted and tossed the corrupt results. 

This timely story is here from the Miami Herald with this headline:

“High-stakes redistricting process to start. Will Florida redeem its bruised reputation?”

Key Introduction: FL voters wanted a fair process, but the GOP thought otherwise.

Unlike many other states, Florida voters in 2010 approved the Fair Districts amendments to serve as a check on legislative power by prohibiting legislators from drawing maps to benefit incumbents or political parties.

The amendments also require districts to adhere to geographic and political boundaries and be reasonably compact in design. 

A decade ago, House and Senate leaders vigorously opposed the Fair District amendments but, when voters approved them with 63% of the vote, they responded by vowing to conduct the most transparent redistricting process in state history. 

They spent a summer traveling the state, seeking input from the public about how best to draw the maps to provide the fairest representation to local communities.

However, behind the scenes, political operatives were drawing their own maps and scheming to have them submitted by members of the public, under fake names, through the public portal. 

The process worked.

The maps drawn by the operatives were enacted into law and remained in force for the 2012 and 2014 cycles that is: Until the court threw them out for violating the state Constitution.

It was a precedent-making period in FL history. To enforce the Fair District rules, the coalition of voting groups led by the League of Women Voters relied on the court to be the extra eyes on the redistricting process and sued to challenge the maps as unconstitutional. In the end, the court’s role was pivotal.

Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis concluded: “FL’s legislative leaders had destroyed documents and allowed political consultants to make a mockery of their self-described transparency in the redistricting process.”

He found that GOP political consultants wrote scripts for people to read at public hearings such that they: “Infiltrated and influenced the Legislature” and “Manipulated the Legislature into violation of its constitutional duty.”

FL courts invalidated the Legislature’s map for Congress. Predicting the FL Senate map would face a similar fate, Senate Republican leaders admitted that the map that they had passed for the Senate was unconstitutional because it had been drawn with intent to favor the Republican Party.

Although legislators attempted to redraw the Senate map, they couldn’t avoid protecting incumbents, and the court rejected their attempt, and ultimately implemented a new map for the state Senate.

My 2 Cents: Let’s face it both political parties want to get into and retain power for their party and incumbents – but in the end the people matter – not Gerrymandered wild crazy-dawn districts.

Simple solution: Get the people fired up on the critical issue of voting rights and what we see now: A massive GOP movement since 2020 to change the laws and such to ensure that they never lose again. That must not stand. 

Time to tell both sides: Serve the people

The people need to stand firm and so do the courts – at all levels, and this FL example of blatant corrupt and illegal line drawing is a classic case to be repeated over and over.

Thanks for stopping by.