Redistricting's incumbency protection test: How Senate numbers its districts

As Florida lawmakers reconvene Wednesday for a two-week special session to redraw the Senate maps, one question remains: Will they be able to stop themselves from protecting incumbents?

That question may be answered best by looking at one simple test: how the Senate numbers its districts.

Armed with new redistricting standards approved by voters in 2010, the Florida Supreme Court threw out the Senate’s first proposed map last week on the grounds that it “was rife with indicators of improper intent” and included a district numbering scheme that “plainly favors certain incumbents.”

Because of the once-a-decade reapportionment process, all 40 of the Senate districts will be up for re-election this year. Depending on how the numbering is handled, many senators could get an automatic advantage that gives them the opportunity to serve a longer term than the eight years prescribed by term limits.

In its 5-2 decision, the court established guidelines legislators should adhere to when drawing their districts and said that the House redistricting map appeared to comply with those guidelines. The Senate map, the court said, did not.

The court said the Senate’s map included eight districts that clearly violated the Florida Constitution’s Fair Districts amendments and included a numbering scheme with a “built-in bias” that favored incumbents. Keep reading here.

Democrats to offer up alternative Senate map; argue entire map needs rewrite

Florida Democratic Party leader Rod Smith said Tuesday that Democrats will submit an alternative redistricting map for legislators to consider when it convenes in a two-week special session starting Wednesday. He also vigorously disagreed with Senate Redistricting Chairman Don Gaetz that the Senate needs to fix only 8 of the 40 districts. 

"An entire redrawing of the Senate map is necessary in order to comply with the court’s unprecedented order,'' Smith told reporters Tuesday in a conference call. "There is no such thing as tweaking the map."

Gaetz said Friday, hours after the Florida Supreme Court voted 5-2 to reject the Senate reapportionment map, that he believes the Senate must change just eight of the 40 districts ruled invalid by the court because those were the only districts in which the court detailed problems.

Senate lawyers want court to wait to decide congressional maps until after election

Fresh off the heels of a major defeat in the Florida Supreme Court, lawyers for the Florida Senate are asking the court to wait until after the November elections to hear a challenge to the congressional redistricting maps that were built using the same principles the high court has already rejected.

"...under a reasonable schedule, it is practically impossible to resolve this case in time for any remedy to be implemented for the impending elections,'' wrote lawyers for the Florida Senate in a scheduling brief filed Monday in Leon County Circuit Court. Download Senate's memo re Litigation

By contrast, lawyers for the League of Women Voters, the Council of La Raza and Common Cause of Florida, who filed the challenge to the maps, want the court to move quickly in resolving their claim and postpone filing dates if necessary.

Redistricting session puts Senate under the gun again

Fresh off a bruising 60-day session that ended Friday, the Florida Senate will remain in the spotlight this week when legislators travel back to the capital city Wednesday for a special session to redraw the court-rejected Senate map.

It will be a one-sided exercise, as the House leadership has decided to continue its "gentlemen's agreement" and allow the Senate to redraw its own lines. During the first redistricting round earlier this year, each chamber also drew its own maps but the court upheld only the House plan.

Both chambers, however, will return to Tallahassee Wednesday to convene their two-week session beginning at 1 p.m. House members will press a green button to indicate their attendance and then most of them will turn around and head home until ordered to come back to vote on the Senate map.

After the brief session convenes, the House and Senate redistricting committees are scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon for two hours each, to get updates on the March 9 Florida Supreme Court ruling. The court voted 5-2 to reject the Senate map, specifically invalidating eight proposed districts for violating the new anti-gerrymandering rules, while it upheld the House map in its entirety 7-0. 

Highlights of the Supreme Court ruling on redistricting

Here are some highlights of the Florida Supreme Court ruling today rejecting the Legislature's Senate map and validating the House map:

The court has a different role in redistricting than for ordinary legislative acts:

"Even though we continue to recognize the presumption of validity that governs ordinary legislative acts, the operation of this Court‘s process in apportionment cases is far different than the Court‘s review of ordinary legislative acts, and it includes a commensurate difference in our obligations. Challenges to the constitutionality of ordinary legislative acts passed by the Legislature must be brought in a trial court and then reviewed by a district court of appeal. This Court has mandatory jurisdiction in those circumstances only if the legislative act is found to be unconstitutional."

"The new requirements dramatically alter the landscape with respect to redistricting by prohibiting practices that have been acceptable in the past, such as crafting a plan or district with the intent to favor a political party or an incumbent. By virtue of these additional constitutional requirements, the parameters of the Legislature‘s responsibilities under the Florida Constitution, and therefore this Court‘s scope of review, have plainly increased, requiring a commensurately more expanded judicial analysis of legislative compliance."

Court upholds House redistricting map, rejects Senate's plan

Left to Right: Senators Don Gaetz, R- Niceville, incoming Senate President, Joe Negron, R- Stuart, and Senate President, Mike Haridopolos, R- Merritt Island, huddle at the rostrum, Friday as members found out the Florida Supreme Court ordered that chamber to redraw its political maps to more accurately adhere to the anti-gerrymandering directive of voters but validated the House map that pits 38 incumbents against each other.    [Scott Keeler | Times] 

The Florida Supreme Court on Friday tossed out the proposed state Senate legislative redistricting maps, approved the House's forcing lawmakers to start over in a special session later this month. Story here.

In an extraordinarily thorough 234-page opinion, the court voted 7-0 to validate the House maps, and rejected the Senate maps 5-2. The court defined the terms of the new constitutional standards and called out the Senate for being the worst violator, ruling eight districts as invalid.

"We conclude that the challengers have demonstrated that the Senate plan, but not the House plan, violates the constitutional requirements. We therefore declare the Senate plan constitutionally invalid and the House plan constitutionally valid,’’ the court wrote for the majority in an opinion written by Justice Barbara Pariente.

Concurring opinions were  written by Justices Fred Lewis, Jorge Labarga and James E.C. Perry. Chief Justice Charles Canady and Justice Ricky Polston disagreed with the ruling to reject the Senate map and dissented.

Senate moving slowly but Oelrich, congressional hopeful, has time for fundraiser

Senator Steve Oelrich, R-Alachua  [Scott Keeler | Times]

Want to know how eager Florida legislators see this session end? Sen. Steve Oelrich hasn't even waited until session is over to hold a lobbyist fundraiser today from 5:30 - 7 p.m. at the offices of one of the largest lobbying firms in the city, Southern Strategies. Download 3-8-2012_Tallahassee_Fundraiser

Oelrich, R-Alachua, is a candidate for Congress in the Central Florida district created by the new congressional map. (The map is being challenge in circuit court.) Although Florida legislators adhere to a self-imposed ban on fundraising during the legislative session, the practice has not been consistently followed by candidates for Congress. Former House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and former Sens. Frederica Wilson and Al Lawson all congressional fundraisers during session. Only Wilson won her bid.

Meanwhile, with the budget complete and PIP reform blowing up, legisalators are just binding their time until they can vote on the budget Friday at 4:22 p.m. and get out of Dodge. After a three and a half hour break, the Florida Senate has started back to work at 2 p.m. while the House remains in recess until 4 p.m. as it await the Senate to send it some bills.

 

Haridopolos: We'll be back for a special session on redistricting

Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R- Merritt Island, reflection can be seen in his office conference table during a press conference Monday. Haridopolos all but admitted defeat Monday in the first round of court reviews over the legislature's redistricting map and predicted lawmakers would be back in a special session to revamp their maps. [Scott Keeler, Times]

Senate President Mike Haridopolos all but admitted defeat Monday in the first round of court reviews over the legislature's redistricting map and predicted lawmakers would be back in a special session to revamp their maps.

“We’re going to be here for extraordinary session, my guess, I think, given the give and take last week in the Supreme Court,'' Haridopolos told reporters Monday.

His reasoning: “nothing surprises me in the Supreme Court anymore,'' he said.

During rigorous questioning last week, four of the seven justices -- led by Justice Barbara Pariente -- raised questions about the maps, particularly that drawn by the Senate. Justices Pariente, Quince and Lewis and Perry appeared to be seeking advice on how to define the new standards voters approved when they put the new anti-gerrymandering amendments into the state Constitution in 2010. By contrast, Chief Justice Charles Canady appeared solidly opposed to getting into the details of implementing the new rules, preferring instead to have it sorted out at the trial court level and then ultimately appealed to the high court.

Justices review redistricting maps and ask for direction

Faced with writing a precedent-setting ruling that could shape the state’s political lines for decades, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday aggressively grilled lawyers representing Democrats and Republicans, asking them how to interpret the state’s new redistricting rules.

“We need help,’’ said Justice Barbara Pariente, who dominated the questioning during the three-hour hearing into the Legislature’s reapportionment plans.

The court has until March 9 to decide if the maps comply with the Fair Districts anti-gerrymandering standards approved by voters in 2010. It has three options: Send the maps back to the Legislature to try again; validate the maps as compliant, validate the maps, but acknowledge that a lawsuit could be brought through the trial court to sort out flaws.

“You are the ultimate authority,’’ said Jon Mills, a University of Florida law professor and former House speaker arguing for the Florida Democratic Party. The Legislature’s interpretation “may be interesting but your interpretation is binding.” Read story here.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/29/v-fullstory/2668053/justices-seek-input-on-how-to.html#storylink=cpy

Redistricting is creating rifts in the state's high court

As the Florida Supreme Court opens redistricting arguments Wednesday over the Legislature’s proposed maps, recent deliberations of the normally subdued court have signaled an internal feud over how to handle the issue.

Two of the court’s conservative justices, Charles Canady and Ricky Polston, appear to want to limit the court's review while the court’s two liberals, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince, appear to want them to dig deeper. In the middle are the swing votes, moderates Justices Fred Lewis, Jorge Labarga and James E.C. Perry.

In the last two weeks, Pariente and Quince have teamed up with two of the moderate judges to demand that legislators turn over their addresses as the non-partisan court is weighing into the once-a-decade partisan battle. Meanwhile, Canady and Polston have also aligned themselves with moderates to block a request from a coalition of voters groups who asked to submit a new version of their proposed map and stopped the Florida Democratic Party from admitting testimony from an expert witness.

"We’re in uncharted waters,’’ said Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, the chairman of the House’s redistricting committee. The new amendments, he said, are "giving the court the opportunity to look at it in a different way.”

The court will hear oral arguments in the case on Wednesday and, if the last two weeks are any indication, the panel could be prepared with some feisty questions. Story here.