Excerpts on important article about redistricting opposition:
"Both houses of the Republican-controlled state Legislature are opposing a ballot initiative that would strip the Legislature of its power to draw political districts and give it to an independent commission.
But they disagree on whether to spend public money to fight it....
Legislators named as parties in the Senate opposition are ... Democrat, Al Lawson of Tallahassee...
Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Dania Beach, who supports the ballot initiative, said an independent commission would have to comply with the Voting Rights Act provisions that require minority representation."
Read this article to see what is being said about this initiative fully supported by the Leon County Young Democrats.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
The Battle Begins
Posted by LCYD at 10:50 PM
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From Tallahassee Democrat:
Bense targets redistricting plan
GOP lawmakers file objections in state Supreme Court
By Aaron Deslatte
CAPITOL BUREAU
A dream team of powerful Republicans is taking aim at a signature drive attempting to strip Florida lawmakers of a major weapon in partisan politics: the power to draw their own districts.
In papers filed with the Florida Supreme Court late Thursday, state House Speaker Allan Bense, three state senators and three Miami congressional members argue the two amendments would mislead voters and shift a bedrock power of lawmakers to the high court.
The volley of court filings is a response to the successful signature gathering of the Committee for Fair Elections, a Tampa-based group backed by Common Cause, Florida AARP, two former GOP officeholders and Democratic stars Bob Graham and Betty Castor. The group has collected more than half a million signatures toward the 611,000 needed to get three proposed amendments on the ballot next year.
If passed, the amendments would place the once-a-decade job of redrawing state and congressional lines in the hands of a "nonpartisan" commission instead of the Legislature.
Bense, R-Panama City, explained his move in an e-mail to House members Thursday: "I feel it is my responsibility as Speaker to protect our institution and the people of Florida."
Florida's redistricting fights have landed in court twice in the last two decades, with Democrats and then Republicans in charge of drawing them accused of gerrymandering to keep incumbents in office and their party in power.
Bense's brief, written by House Lt. Rep. Dudley Goodlette of Naples and GOP lawyer George Meros, argues the amendment summaries falsely claim to establish a "nonpartisan" process since partisan officeholders would appoint a majority of the commission.
"To the contrary, it guarantees that the majority of commissioners indeed will be partisan advocates," they wrote, because "it would be fanciful to suggest that the partisans responsible for selecting the commissioners would choose persons holding views directly contrary to their own beliefs."
Bense is joined in separate filings by GOP state Sens. Charlie Clary of Destin and Jim Sebesta of St. Petersburg, as well as Democratic Sen. Al Lawson of Tallahassee. Their brief, written by former George W. Bush lawyer Barry Richard, takes issue with how the committee bundled the amendments when gathering signatures, among other arguments.
Three Miami congressional Republicans - Mario Diaz Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen - also filed papers claiming the amendments are "logrolling" multiple issues into a single amendment.
The ballot questions would give power to fill three seats on the 15-member commission to both House and Senate leaders, both chambers' minority parties and the Supreme Court's chief justice in 2007.
Since neither party could name enough members to muster the two-thirds majority needed to pass new maps, the commission would invariably punt the job to the high court and tilt the constitutional separation of powers, they argue.
Bense's brief also claims the commission could run afoul of federal law by not protecting minority representation in drawing the maps.
"It is no exaggeration to state that 15 white men from only three counties in Florida could decide the boundaries of districts for 120 house seats, 40 senate seats and 25 congressional seats for more than 14 million Florida citizens," they wrote.
Tallahassee lawyer Mark Herron, working for the Committee for Fair Elections, said he wasn't surprised by the united GOP front.
"I've been on both sides of these constitutional amendments, and when you challenge them you throw everything in including the kitchen sink," he said. "We're confident we followed the constitutional provisions regarding these two amendments."
http://www.groupsolve.com/cgi-bin/go.cfm?6685007
The fact is that federal caselaw will continue to protect the rights of minorities. However, instead of having districts that are 80-90% minority Democratic, we will have districts that are majority minority.
If you want a good example, look at the district of Frank Peterman in St. Petersburg. His district runs from St. Petersburg south all the way to Sarasota, picking up four or five counties, and creating a bunch of very safe Republican seats in its wake. If his district was wholly contained in St. Petersburg, it would still be safe to elect an African-American, however, the districts to the south would be far more competitive.
It is not only about minority seats---just look at the way that Democrats in general are packed in Broward and Palm Beach (as well as Orange County) counties in order to create a couple of Republican seats, or the way they are spread out in places like St. Lucie Counties to keep voters from electing a Democrat.
Beyond that is the raw political argument for Democrats: we can continue to protect our overwhelmingly safe seats, and remain forever in the minority, or we can create a fair map (that still protects minority access seats), but creates opportunities for us to compete elsewhere.
Mike,
I agree with you that the people running redistricting have done a very poor job in framing the issue, but that in itself is not a reason to vote against it. I thought Kerry was a disaster, but in the end, I knew the result was better than the status quo.
I certainly don't think Lawson is opposing this thing for any thing other than the right reasons. I do believe that there are some Democrats who oppose it because they like the safety and security of a non-competititve election; just like the Republicans who oppose it because the current structure is a guarantee to protect their power.
The Democratic Party could do a lot to help quell the concerns of some by doing more to truly help African-American candidates---especially those running in traditionally "white" districts, like the Party did when it supported Joyce Cusack (an African-American woman), when she beat Pat Patterson (a white guy), in a predominately white northeast Florida state house race. Same goes for Ed Jennings in Gainesville.
Just my two cents.
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