Judge will ask Florida Supreme Court to solve map flap

The Florida GOP doesn’t know how to fairly redraw the lines without giving up their district advantage, reported Politicus USA.

Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis said he needs guidance from justices about whether he should hold a hearing, send the matter directly to the high court, or urge lawmakers to take another stab at drawing new districts. The chairman of the Senate redistricting committee said – despite the failure of their special session last Friday – legislators ought to try again to realign the state’s 27 congressional districts.

It looks like it’s going to be up to the Florida Supreme Court to sort out what happens next in the tussle over the state’s congressional districts.

The Legislature technically has until September 25 to pass new districts, with the Florida Supreme Court set to review them in October.

The special session was called after the Supreme Court last month found that current congressional districts violated the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” standards.

But Senate President Andy Gardiner said Senate attorneys will ask the judge to give the Legislature more time to draw up a new map.

Afterward, state Sen. Bill Galvano, a Bradenton Republican and lawyer, told reporters he still believed the Legislature could make the situation right and come up with “a compromise map (that) could put us somewhere in the middle”.

“The Senate offered two resolutions to extend the special session and made numerous attempts to enter into a formal conference process to resolve differences between the House and Senate maps, ” said Gardiner, R-Orlando.

“The original (court) order … anticipated that there may be a hiccup in the road”, Galvano said.

The House prefers a “base map” drafted entirely by legislative staffers from both chambers with input from legal counsel from the House and Senate.

The Senate filed a motion Monday asking the Florida Supreme Court to relinquish jurisdiction of the case to allow Lewis to conduct a hearing to decide whether the proposed Senate map or the House map was better.

“I don’t feel I have the authority to do anything”, Lewis told attorneys for the Legislature and plaintiffs in the redistricting suit. “It’s not always smooth and it’s not always easy and this year is a good example of that”.

“They may have that in mind, but we’ll be offering a map that will be a little different in certain districts – not a lot”, he said.