Redistrict This !

Well the time that so many of us have been waiting for has finally arrived, the redistricting Florida ballot initiative petitions have finally been approved and are ready for mass distribution!

Here is a snippet from their website which shows why their mission is so important (the link is in the title bar):

"Not a single incumbent in Florida's State Legislature or in Florida's U.S. Congressional delegation was defeated in 2004. In that cycle, 72.5% of state legislative races had only one major party candidate. Of the 142 seats up for re-election, 103 were uncontested by a major party. That made Florida the second least competitive state behind Arkansas. "

How does this happen? Computers have made the process of redistricting a process where whoever is drawing the lines can decide who wins the district before the candidate gets in the race. You can draw squiggly lines that circle in and around Democrat and Republican voters to make sure that you slant the numbers in your favor. Once you are elected in Florida you are in your seat until the district is re-drawn or until you are term limited out, which ever comes first.

I am excited because if we re-draw the lines in Florida it will allow us to make house, senate, and congressional districts competitive.... So that we elect the best candidate no mater the party, and Democrats can win more seats and we can have an actual two party system in Tallahassee again. There are 400,000 more democrats in Florida then there are Republicans link . A non-partisan redistricting panel will only help everyone receive better representation in the state and federal houses.

We will discuss this further at our next meeting, but I am hoping that the LCYDs join together to gather petitions and to help promote this initiative around the area.