A Florida House Committee Friday approved a redistricting plan criticized by anti-gerrymandering groups. James Call reports the effort to draw new legislative and congressional boundaries took a dramatic turn when Chairman Will Weatherford blasted the critics after they submitted a last-minute alternative proposal and then declined to explain it to the committee.
The League of Women Voters, Common Cause and the National Council of La Raza backed the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts amendments approved by voters in 2010. Thursday afternoon the coalition delivered a 12-page letter explaining a plan they say better complies with Fair Districts than the one the committee was preparing to pass.
Wesley Chapel Representative Will Weatherford introduced the group’s proposal. When he called for someone to explain its methodology no one stepped forward. Weatherford even called out by name League of Women Voter spokesman Ben Wilcox.
“I want to one more time, before I go into an explanation of the map... I know there are members of the League of Women Voters here. Mr. Wilcox serves as their lobbyist. Mr. Wilcox we would love to have you come and express any thoughts on this map. I know you worked hard on it. Just one more time, we would love to give you a chance to share any words with the committee. ..Not prepared to do that? Okay…”
Weatherford’s explanation was to question the motives of Fair District’s supporters. He started by saying the citizens of Florida deserve better than a letter delivered the night before a scheduled vote.
“Frankly I find it disappointing that anyone would suggest, first calling our maps… looking at them in a derogatory manner …saying that they don’t follow the letter of the law. And then refusing to stand before us and say to us how theirs does. I’m very disappointed by that but Mr. Chairman since we don’t have members to speak on that I think that it’s frankly political and most likely a legal stunt taken and I frankly, find it offensive.”
Before and after the meeting Wilcox said the group is letting its letter do its talking for now. It explains a nesting concept where House of Representative seats don’t cross Senate district lines. The method produced a map with three house seats in each senate seat. The results are sometimes a meandering district, raising questions about Voting Rights Act compliance, and whether communities of interest remain intact.
Broward Representative Evan Jenne, who says he generally supports the League, offers insight into why the group is declining to publicly explain itself. There is probably no more of a political act than the drawing of districts for which politicians will compete to represent. Battle lines are being drawn, and Jenne says the skirmishes will occur in the court room.
“At the end of the day a lot of these questions to be frank are going to be answered in deposition. I won’t be any part of it but there will be people suing left and right.”
And Jenne predicts the battles will be waged on the House floor and in neighborhoods across the state. The committee approved a plan for the House that pits 38 incumbents into districts with other legislators. For instance, the proposal place Democrats Jenne in the same district as Hollywood’s’ Joe Gibbons.
“It’s going to be very ugly on both sides of the aisle. Friendships will end. Tears will have to be dried. Teeth will gnash. It is not going to be… its not going to be a good couple of months for some folks.”
Jenne says his friendship with fellow Democrat Joe Gibbons will survive redistricting. That so many incumbents will have to compete against other sitting politicians somewhat explains Weatherford’s anger with the criticism that his committee drew a plan protecting sitting politicians and favoring one party over the other. A Herald Times analysis of the plan says the Republican controlled House’s proposal increases the odds of Democrats winning nine to 11 additional seats.
“Based on newspaper articles I read, by your very newspapers, almost a third of members in our chamber are drawn out of their seats. There is not a single Legislature in the history of America that I know, without a court order, that has drawn that many members out of their seats. We did that because that was what the constitution said we had to do. That is why the attack on the integrity of the process of that letter was so disappointing.”
Even with an additional 11 Democratic seats the balance of power wouldn’t change at the Capitol. The GOP would still have a 70-50 advantage in the House while Democrats hold about a half a million edge in voter registration.
Weatherford said the plan is to present the proposal to the House Thursday. And then send it to the Senate Friday. Then the redistricting maps head to the Florida Supreme Court for a 30-day review.