Florida legislature continues to plug away at congressional redistricting

The Florida House approved a new congressional district map for Florida Tuesday, keeping the base map legislative staff unveiled two weeks ago with a drastically different District 2, which includes Taylor County.

A Lee amendment, approved Monday by the Senate Reapportionment Committee, would consolidate eastern Hillsborough County into one congressional district shared with the northwest corner of Polk County and put all of Sarasota County into the same district, one that also includes western Manatee County and the far southwestern corner of Hillsborough.

The 120-member House approved its map by a 76 to 35 vote, with nine legislators not present.

U.S. representatives are not legally required to live in the district they represent.

“You have to understand that I am in a position of defending a configuration that I don’t believe, in my personal interpretation, fits the constitutionality requirements as did the enacted map”, House Select Committee on Redistricting Chair Jose Oliva (R-Miami Lakes) says.

Crisafulli, when asked about the new Senate map, said, “We’re focused on what the House has to do right now and obviously we have a bill before us tomorrow that looks like it could be the base map”.

House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said, even if the Senate passes its map, he doesn’t expect the special session to go past Friday, the scheduled end date.

“The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over this”, Ray said after the vote.

A better way?: Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on much, but they are in sync that the ongoing redistricting fiasco in Tallahassee should never happen again. The two sides have until Friday to reach an agreement.

Rep. Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, vice chairman of the House redistricting panel, said while he agreed the court may have overreached its authority, the House has a legal obligation to comply with the court order to redraw the lines within 100 days. Galvano said he and Oliva would meet publicly to discuss the maps – avoiding phone calls and any email conversations. The state supreme court ordered that a new map for Congressional districts be adopted and implemented for the 2016 election. Pensacola Rep. Mike Hill complained the state and U.S. constitutions “were under assault” and that the Legislature should fight back against the state court. “The Florida Supreme Court describes a shadow redistricting process” says Rodriguez.

“We feel like the base map produces that”.

“If we do nothing at all, this court has it completely within its purview to draw these maps in their entirety”, he said. The court specified that at least eight districts must be redrawn (it is likely that other districts will also need to be redrawn, if only slightly, to account for changes in the specified districts).