Senate admits fault, will redraw own districts in special session

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Legislature will go into special session in October to redraw the state’s Senate districts.

House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner said that ruling would have implications for the Senate maps, which are also being challenged in court by a coalition of groups including the Florida League of Women Voters.

In what one critic of the Legislature called an “unprecedented admission”, the Florida Senate conceded Tuesday that the chamber’s districts are unconstitutional and should be redrawn in a special session beginning in October. The League and the progressive nonprofit Common Cause filed suit in 2012 after being, shall we say, underwhelmed at the level of attention the Senate paid to a 2010 voter mandate requiring lawmakers to draw congressional and state senate districts contiguously and in a manner that doesn’t intentionally favor one political party (Republicans, obvs) over another, or incumbents, thereby ensuring control for Republicans. “We felt the House map did abide by constitutional standards”. “And whether that comes from the body itself or comes from a particular congressperson, that’s open”.

Nonetheless, Galvano said legislative leaders did not want to use the possibility of further legal cases as way to delay enacting the Supreme Court-ordered plan.

“Opportunities for appeal have not been exhausted”, said Galvano, who will steer the redistricting process. They took care of that in June during a special session with the help of a bunch of mysterious wheeling and dealing (a shit-ton of which was inconsequential thanks to the governor’s grotesque veto pen). The state court has ordered the district to be reconfigured in an east-west direction, running from Jacksonville to the Tallahassee area.

King said the key is whether the new District 5 is an “ability to elect district”, meaning it is reconfigured to give minority candidates a chance to win an election.

“If that’s the situation, I don’t think there is a basis for any sort of a federal claim”, King said.

Meanwhile, the ruling that invalidated the congressional map is also provoking discussions over a possible settlement in the Senate map, as the Herald/Times reported first last week.

The Senate districts faced a similar legal challenge in a trial that was set to start in late September.