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    Florida Supreme Court Orders Congressional Districts Redrawn

    By trkingmomoe on Fri, 07/10/2015 - 3:01pm |

    The League of Women Voters filed this case 5 years ago after the GOP held Legislators failed to follow the Fair Districting state constitutional amendment. Instead they held secrete meetings and sent emails to political operatives and pretending to comply with the law. The results was gerrymandered districts.   It has been fought all the way up the court system and now 8 congressional districts have been ordered to be redrawn and submitted to the court for approval.  

    In the historic 5-2 ruling, the court not only ruled the maps were the product of an unconstitutional political gerrymandering, it signaled its deep distrust of lawmakers and provided detailed instructions on how to repair the flawed map in time for the 2016 election.

    "This is a complete victory for the people of Florida who passed the Fair District amendment and sought fair representation where the Legislature didn't pick their voters," said David King, lead attorney for the League of Women Voters and the coalition of voter groups which brought the challenge. "The Supreme Court accepted every challenge we made and ordered the Legislature to do it over.''

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/florida-supreme-court-orders-new-congressional-map-with-eight-districts-to/2236734 

    Here is a run down of the districts that are effected by this order.  This will redraw also all the districts that are around them.  This will change most of the state districts. 

    Districts ordered redrawn

    The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that legislators must go back to the drawing board for eight of the state's 27 congressional districts:

    • District 5, held by Rep. Corinne Brown, D-Jacksonville

    • District 13, held by Rep. David Jolly, R-Tampa

    • District 14, held by Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa

    • District 21, held by Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton

    • District 22, held by Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach

    • District 25, held by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami

    • District 26, held by Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Miami

    • District 27, held by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/florida-supreme-court-orders-new-congressional-map-with-eight-districts-to/2236734 

    District 5 snakes all the way down to Orlando picking up African American voters making it a predominate AA district.  The judges have ordered it to be drawn westward to take up all of Jacksonville.  This will open up an opportunity for another AA seat.  It will also effect Orlando that is trending Democratic.  Rep. Webster(R) will have a hard time keeping a seat because that will move Democratic vote into his district in Orlando suburbs. 

    St. Petersburg was carved out of district 13 and will now have to be returned to comply with the law.  Right now it is in the Tampa district 14 which is a huge Democratic voter sink. Rep. Jolly (R) will not be able to hang on to his seat because that returns 30,000 Democratic votes back into the county.  Rep. Castor (D) in Tampa won't have any trouble holding her seat with picking up suburbs because of such a bright blue voter sink in the city. 

    The rest of the districts are on the South East Coast and Miami.  That will make it very competitive for Democrats to win more seats in the Miami area. There will no longer be safe seats for Republicans in Miami. 

    Florida should be picking up some more seats in the House of Representatives in 2016.   We will have to see what the new districts look like to actually know how many are in play.  

    Comments

    You can get a good look at what FL-5 House District looks like.  It took 5 years to get the courts to agree it was not a fair district under the Fair District Amendment to the Florida's Constitution. 

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/10/one-of-americas-snakiest-congressional-districts-has-just-been-trashed-by-the-florida-supreme-court/?tid=sm_fb 

    The saga began back in 2010, when Florida voters overwhelmingly approved — despite objections from the Republican-controlled legislature — two constitutional amendments requiring lawmakers to redraw congressional and state legislative districts along more cohesive and less partisan lines.

    The maps were redrawn before the 2012 midterm elections, approved by the legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

    This is a big deal to Florida because the majority of voters in Florida are registered Democrats. This law passed over 60% of the voters. 


    by trkingmomoe on Fri, 07/10/2015 - 9:03pm

    There is a similar fight in North Carolina that is now in the courts.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 07/12/2015 - 1:37pm

    A case was filed in Wisconsin also against gerrymandering the House seats this past week.  It has to do with the constitutionality of the way they are drawn. 


    by trkingmomoe on Sun, 07/12/2015 - 5:35pm

    This is all engineered by Republican legislators and Governors. I don't see any for the current GOP Presidential candidates forming a DOJ that would file cases to undue gerrymandering or voter suppression.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 07/12/2015 - 6:03pm