New congressional map impacts Taylor

The Republican-controlled Florida House approved new congressional districts that would upend the state’s political landscape following a sharp debate Tuesday during which legislators quoted everyone from Thomas Jefferson to Bob Dylan.

Lower parts of Leon and Jefferson counties will be a newly configured District 2 that wraps around the Big Bend from Panama City to the outskirts of Ocala, under the pending plans.

Lawmakers made it clear, they resent the Florida Supreme Court for ordering them to redraw Florida’s congressional lines. “Our constitutions are under attack”, said Pensacola Beach Republican Rep. Mike Hill, according to the News Service of Florida.

“Nowhere in our [Florida] Constitution does it say the court is the final arbiter of our laws”, said Hill. Twenty-six Democrats and nine Republicans voted against. “We are here because the Legislature has overstepped and violated the Constitution”.

Many Republicans chafed at the state court ruling, and nine of them voted against the map supported by GOP leaders as a protest.

The Florida House of Representatives approved the original proposed base map on Monday.

Sen. Tom Lee (R-Brandon) developed a series of proposals over the weekend. The Senate will take up its revised version of the map Wednesday.

Dave Dunwoody reports on Florida redistricting.

The move pushes the House to a clash with the Senate, where a different congressional district map is advancing. “The change just has to be an improvement to the current map”. I will attempt to give some background as to how we got to the place we are today. “The nerve!” Some members, including Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, asked whether leadership considered having staff or observers from the Democratic Party participate or watch as the base map was drawn.

“We set out to try to see if we couldn’t address some of those priorities that existed based upon the knowledge of how the way communities operate and not do any damage to the maps”, Lee says. House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, and House Redistricting Chairman Jose Oliva, R-Miami, said they would consider the alternative Senate plan if it is sent to them later this week. But Minority Leader Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, citing lingering tensions from a budget crisis earlier this year, said he wouldn’t advise members to book Friday afternoon flights. Galvano said he and Oliva would meet publicly to discuss the maps – avoiding phone calls and any email conversations.

Democrats also started to prepare for future battles.

District 9, which Democrat Alan Grayson of Orlando holds, would change drastically. Republicans are exceedingly unlikely to allow that bill to come up for a vote. The second is the redrawing of the state senate districts. The session is scheduled to end Friday.