What is it, one might ask, that senators don’t understand about the word "compact"? Or Incumbent Favoritism?
OF "BIZARRE AND UNUSUAL SHAPES": VERSION 2
What to do! We’re Drawing This Goofy District For Our Next Senate President!
Written by Duane Bradford. Last updated Monday March 19th, 2012
By DUANE BRADFORD
It is difficult enough for legislative staffs to draw new member districts, as required by law to do every 10 years, to reflect changes in where the voters live. It is downright frustrating though, for those staffers to shape the new districts while the politicians are hovering over their shoulder at every turn.
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As published in the Supreme Court’s opinion invalidating the Florida Senate’s reapportionment plan, here is how the senate defined the word "compact" that is now a factor in drawing new voting districts. |
This year the Florida Supreme Court held the new apportionment maps of the House and Senate up to the state constitution to see if they met all the tests. New apportionment requirements overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2010 are clear.
No games to favor incumbents; be fair to the voters. The House map won Court approval. The Senate’s design flunked, for a variety of reasons. In the case of Senate districts one and three, (above) there was the added problem of two Republican senators who live close to each other in the same county vying for the right kind of district space. Sen. Greg Evers lives in Baker, and Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, is scheduled to become president of the Senate next year. Gaetz presided over the very committee that prepared the unconstitutional map that the Court determined was rife with inequities.
The Senate drew the elongated districts, said the Court, "for all of the wrong reasons," adding that there "is no valid constitutional justification to draw [the districts] in this configuration..." The Court also declared the Senate plan unconstitutional because the districts were numbered in a way to permit some senators to serve beyond the eight years limited by law.
Both Senate and House must approve any new Senate district configuration. The first new design was distributed today. The legislature has until Wednesday, March 28 to send a completed map to the Court for a second review. If the Senate flunks again, the court is required to fix it.
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