Senate counters attack on its redistricting maps

The Republican-led Florida Senate shot back Friday on the three-barrel attack by the NAACP, a coalition of voters group and the Florida Democratic Party with a 106-page brief that attempts to counter claims that the Florida Supreme Court should reject the second Senate redistricting plan and rewrite it themselves.

The court is scheduled to hear the case a week from today and it will then have 30 days to decide to accept or reject the maps or 60 days to write them itself. As a bit of a reminder of the ticking time limits between now the candidate qualifying, which will take place June 4-8, in time for the Aug. 14 primary, Secretary of State Ken Detzner filed a memo to the court that outlined the election year deadlines.

The Senate argues that the alternative map offered by the Democrats “engineers Democratic districts” because it achieves a 20-20 partisan balance and diminished the ability of Hispanics in South Florida to elect candidates of their choice.

The Democrats had argued, in its brief filed April 10, that despite the court’s March 9 ruling that provided a road map for fixing the Senate’s first flawed map, the new version “is still replete with evidence of an intent to favor incumbents and the dominant political party.’’

Senate hires former justice Raoul Cantero to help its redistricting case

After being slapped by the Florida Supreme Court for creating a redistricting map that was “was rife with indicators of improper intent,” Senate Republican leaders have hired former justice and Miami lawyer Raoul Cantero to handle their case as they return to the court with a second try.

Cantero, who was apponted by former Gov. Jeb Bush to serve on the Florida Supreme Court, was a member of the bench from 2002-2008 and is now with the White & Case law firm. He will be paid $695 an hour plus expenses. Last summer, the House and Senate had spent close to $1.2 million on legal fees on redistricting, and that was before the public hearings were held and the maps were drawn.

Cantero's contract says he will be representing the Senate on its "remand from the Court and advising the Senate on how to draw legislative districts that comply with the court's opinion."  Download White & Case LLP re Justice Cantero redistricting SE19D

The Florida Democratic Party has also hired a former judge, former federal district court judge Joseph Hatchett, who presided over the court's redrawing of congressional district lines in 1992.

The court has not yet received the revised map. Attorney General Pam Bondi has until April 11 to send it to the justices and the court will then have 30 days for review.

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/florida-redistricting/page/2/#storylink=cpy

Legislature seeks federal redistricting review even without a final map

The Florida Legislature’s legal team has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to begin the process of reviewing its legislative maps for compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act, even before the Florida Supreme Court signs off on a final product.

In a March 30 letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, lawyers for the House, Senate and attorney general asked the federal government to expedite its a pre-clearance of the maps so that candidates will know the district boundaries when they are required to qualify during the week the June 4. Download Preclearance_Senate

Under the Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, Florida must submit its legislative and congressional maps for approval, or pre-clearance, because five counties – Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe – have a history of discrimination against racial or language minorities.

After overtime work of special session, some lawmakers get straight to the business of fundraising

Rep. Scott Plakon wants his supporters to know he’s been working overtime.

Campaign staffers for the Longwood Republican sent out a fundraising note Wednesday, lauding the Legislature for its hard work during an elongated session, and asking for donations to make up for lost time.

By law, state lawmakers are not allowed to raise funds while the Legislature is in session, and 15 extra days of duty has hurt the coffers of some who are facing elections in a few months.

Reads the missive: “Representative Plakon just returned from Tallahassee late last night. Their work in producing a balanced budget and fair legislative districts as our constitution requires has required him and other legislators to be in session far more than normal this year. In fact, they have been in session for all but 3 business days since January 9th.”

But the overtime work (if you can call 90 minutes in the Chamber overtime) was basically self-inflicted.

Historic redistricting fight leads to historic scramble for House seats

As the Florida Legislature finished its historic special session and sent a revamped redistricting map back to the state Supreme Court Tuesday, another kind of history was being made.

Dozens of state House members were voluntarily house hunting, running for a different office, or planning to sit out the next legislative session to avoid a match-up with another lawmaker.

Republican James Grant filed papers Tuesday to run in a Pinellas-Hillsborough district that will force him to leave his current Carrollwood home. Rep. Perry Thurston, the incoming Democratic leader, planned to move in with his mom. Republican Eddy Gonzalez planned to rent in the Hialeah neighborhood where he grew up. And Rep. Scott Plakon of Longwood was ready to move in with his adult son a town over.

"It's historic,'' said Rep. Will Weatherford, the Wesley Chapel Republican and incoming House speaker who led the House's redistricting effort. "It's the first time in the nation this many members have been drawn into the same districts where it wasn't a court order." Keep reading here.

Here's the list of the House match-ups:

House approves Senate map, sends it to the court

The Florida Legislature ended its two-week extraordinary legislative session on redistricting Tuesday, sending a redrawn map of new Senate districts to the Florida Supreme Court for one last review.

In a clipped, 90-minute session, the House voted 61-47 to approve the Senate-drawn plan — making no changes. It’s now up to the state’s highest court to decide if the upper chamber did enough to fix the flaws in the first map that provoked the court’s rebuke.

“I believe this is the right map at the right time.,” said House Redistricting Chairman Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.

Dem's proposed map that creates 13-11 GOP majority in Congress

A Herald/Times analysis of the new congressional map submitted Monday in Leon County Circuit Court shows that the proposed districts would create 13 Republican-leaning districts, 11 Democrat-leaning districts and 3 swing districts. That compares to the map created by the Legislature that creates 16 GOP-leaning districts and 9 Democrat-leading districts with only two swing districts.

More significantly, the map shifts the sprawling congressional district now held by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown into a much more compact district, creates more minority districts than the Legislature's map and does it without reducting the minority population in Brown's map -- leaving it at 48.9 percent black voting age population.

Republicans have argued that the new Fair Districts amendments prevent the state from diminishing the opportunity for a black in Brown's sprawling district to elect a black, regardless of how many other minority seats are created in the rest of the state. How Circuit Judge Terry Lewis rules on this point could be pivotal.

The map was submitted as part of the Florida Democratic Party's lawsuit challenging the congressional plan. The Herald/Times analysis is based on voting data and elections results from the 2008 presidential race and the 2010 governor's race. A look at the proposed population data shows that the Democrat's proposal creates 7 minority majority districts including the following:

Here's our interactive look at Florida Senate's newly approved map

After crediting the court with providing an historic road map, the Florida Senate voted 31-6 Thursday for its second and final redistricting map that leaders said will create an unprecedented number of minority members and a more politically-competitive chamber. Story here.

The plan is “a plan sensible to our constituents, understandable to all the members of the Senate and faithful to the Constitution,’’ said Redistricting Chairman Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, before the Senate voted.

According to a Herald/Times analysis, the plan creates five districts that could elect a black senators and seven districts that could elect a Hispanic and it retains a Republican majority. (UPDATE: Only two senators are drawn into the same district: Republican Sens. Andy Gardiner of Orlando and David Simmons of Maitland. Sens. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale and Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach appear to be separated, based on their home addresses. They were not likely to face off as it was.)

Based on voting performance in the 2008 and 2010 general elections, the map would allow for the election of 23 solid Republican Senate seats, two competitive seats and 15 solid Democratic seats – compared to the current composition of 28 Republicans to 12 Democrats. Click here for our interactive map and a look at how each performed in the past elections.

Down to the wire, Senators propose last-minute changes to new Senate map

With little time left to shape the Senate district maps for the next decade, five senators submitted amendments on Wednesday in an attempt to enact changes to the newly-drawn Senate redistricting map that is up for a vote today.

Sens. Thad Altman, R-Viera, and Ronda Storms leave the map proposed by Senate Redistricting Chairman Don Gaetz unchanged but alter the numbering systems. Altman's plan would jettison the numbering system that dramatically sprung from a lotto-style lottery and replace it with a numbering system that would begin from left to right on the Panhandle and then number based on the northern most line of each district. Storms, R-Valrico, would use a similar numbering scheme that prohibits any incumbent senators from receiving more than an eight-year term. 

12 Senators win in the 'extended term' lottery include Margolis, Flores and Ring

The Florida Senate conducted it's first ever drawing for districts Wednesday complete with bingo-style balls and brass cages, and 14 incumbents won the lottery to extend their terms to 10 years beyond the eight-year term limits -- if voters choose to return them to office. The other 12 senators would get the maximum of eight years as a result of the drawing.

The winners in the extended terms lottery are: Don Gaetz, Bill Montford, Charlie Dean, Steve Oelrich, Thad Altman, Alan Hays, Nancy Detert, Jim Norman, Arthenia Joyner, Andy Gardiner or David Simmons, Jeremy Ring,  Gwen Margolis, and Anitere Flores.  Oscar Braynon, who was elected in March 2011, is the biggest winner with the potential to serve to a total of 11 years.

The Florida Constitution requires staggered terms for the Senate's 40 members but, in a reapportionment year, every district must have an election, so half the districts get a two-year term and the other half gets four. Those who have already served six year, like Gaetz, Oelrich and Ring, expected to be termed out of office in 2014 but now get two more years. (Oelrich, however, has announced he is running for the newly drawn congressional seat in North Florida so is unlikely to take advantage of the extended time.)

The Florida Supreme Court rejected the Senate's original numbering scheme because it gave nearly every returning incumbent a four-year term, an apparent violation of the new Fair Districts amendments, which forbids lawmakers from intentionally favoring incumbents. That prompted Gaetz to order up the bingo machines and conduct a Lotto-style drawing in the committee room Wednesday.

Here are the results of the drawing: