The Senate voted Wednesday to approve a new set of district lines. But that narrow passage points to an ongoing feud that has marked the process from the very beginning.
Florida’s lawmakers have gotten very familiar with the redistricting process over the past three years. Despite some successes along the way, so far each Senate and Congressional plan lawmakers have approved has been sent back for revisions. Sen. Jack Latvala (R-Clearwater) expects more of the same, and he warns fellow lawmakers the courts are likely to choose the plaintiffs’ map.
“So you probably ought to take a real good look at that, if you’re tempted to vote for this plan today,” Latvala says, “because in my humble opinion the plan that you’re gonna get if you vote for the plan today is that plan.”
Latvala argues the map proposed by the plaintiffs late Tuesday night is more compact than the Senate’s version. The circuit court chose a congressional map drafted by the plaintiffs earlier this month primarily because it out performed legislative proposals on compactness.
Speaking for the Senate’s other GOP faction, was former Senate President Don Gaetz. The Niceville Republican chaired the Senate’s reapportionment committee when the whole ordeal began.
Shortly after Senators approved the map, hostility within the caucus took center stage.
Drama isn’t rare in the Senate chambers, but the members don’t often take shots at one another on the floor.
Invoking a little-used rule, Gaetz took issue with Latvala’s recent assertions that Gaetz should be held responsible for the past three years of controversy surrounding the state’s reapportionment.
“I take no satisfaction from this exchange—I did not seek it, but when a bully throws a sucker punch, you hit back and never give in,” Gaetz said after a lengthy and blistering speech criticizing Latvala’s conduct early in the process.
Gaetz points to a last minute amendment filed by Latvala that gained approval. The change kept current Senators Denise Grimsley (R-Sebring) and Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) from having to face off against one another.
Latvala is lobbying to be the chamber’s next presiding officer and Grimsley is seen as a likely supporter in that race.
Meanwhile, Gaetz contends his biggest mistake was not putting each public commenter under oath during the initial round of reapportionment hearings. But in this and last year’s congressional redistricting sessions, GOP lawmakers blocked efforts by Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez (D-Miami) to do just that.
