Brown: Court should stop lawmakers from redrawing district

Rep. Corrine Brown filed a federal lawsuit Thursday in an effort to stop the redrawing of Florida’s congressional districts. District 5, which snakes from Jacksonville to Orlando to help Democrat Corinne Brown, would run west to Tallahassee.

Defenders of an east-west arrangement for the district say that the district’s Democratic primary will be controlled by African-American voters and that a Democrat is likely to win the general election, meaning that a black candidate would still have a chance to win the seat.

Brown, a Democrat representing the 5th District, is challenging the Supreme Court’s redistricting decision, which directed lawmakers to redraw the district from its current configuration, from Jacksonville to Orlando.

The Florida legislature is set to meet starting next week to redraw numerous state’s congressional districts, eight of which were drawn improperly to favor the Republican Party, the state Supreme Court ruled last month.

Wagner, the associate professor at FAU, said the new maps should make for more competitive districts. “What matters is that you have somebody that represents you at the table”, she said.

Members of the public who would like the Legislature to consider their maps should attend a meeting of the House Select Redistricting Committee or Senate Committee on Reapportionment in Tallahassee to explain their map in person, including who drew the map, who had input into the map, and the sources of any data used in the creation of the map. As they stood in the past, Florida’s maps were the most biased districts in the country, according to one expert.

She claims there is a movement underway to dismantle the Federal Voting Rights Act in Florida. As the result of a settlement of a lawsuit, the Legislature will also hold a 19-day special session to redraw state Senate district lines beginning October 19. District 21 would be the only one entirely within Palm Beach County.

A Senate spokeswoman said Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, previously had decided to produce the map “in seclusion”. Politico reported Wednesday that two Republican Party county chairmen have filed a federal lawsuit in Pensacola contending the Fair Districts amendments violated their First Amendment rights to free speech in essentially prohibiting political participants from talking to lawmakers about redistricting.

To prevent the problem in the future, leaders in the Florida legislature advised lawmakers to avoid communications that “might be construed to reflect an intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent”.

“Plaintiffs wish to exercise their First Amendment rights and speak with legislators and the Legislature as a whole about their concerns with redistricting maps for Congress and the state Senate”.

But Steele said the legal action is just a last-ditch effort to extend the inevitable redistricting process.