Legislative plan to give themselves immunity sparks another redistricting feud

As legislators defend against a lawsuit accusing them of unconstitutionally drawing redistricting maps for Republican advantage, a House committee on Thursday passed a bill protecting lawmakers and their staff from being forced to testify and turn over documents.

Proponents said the timing of the bill had nothing to do with redistricting, but instead was a long-overdue attempt to clarify the law amid recent attempts to subpoena legislators.

“We’re seeing more and more people filing litigation,’’ seeking legislators to testify in depositions, said Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, who presented the bill on behalf of the committee. Seated in the front row were the lawyers for the redistricting committee.

Voting shifts weaken Republican strength of Miami Dade's congressional seats

To understand the demographic shifts of Florida’s growing Hispanic vote, you need only look to South Florida, where three congressional districts long dominated by registered Republican voters are being crowded out by more Democrats and independents.

Tallahassee has taken notice. This week, legislators approved a redistricting plan that would offer safer and stronger districts for Miami’s three Cuban-American Republican lawmakers, U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and David Rivera.

Since 2002, the last time legislators reconfigured the political districts to reflect the new census data, the number of registered voters has soared in their districts.

Growth has been particularly strong among non-Cuban Hispanic voters, the majority of which have registered as independent, no party affiliation or Democrat, political analysts say.

The results have Democrats salivating while Republicans, armed with new maps, remain confident they will retain their stronghold. Story here.

Start your redistricting clock: Bondi sends maps to court

A day after lawmakers finished their legislative redistricting maps and sent them to Attorney General Pam Bondi, she has swiftly turn them around and certified them to the Florida Supreme Court.

The clock starts ticking now as the court has 30 days to get it back to lawmakers and either approve it or tell them to take another shot at it. By our count, that means the court will have until the very last day of session, March 9, to respond. That's enough of a window for lawmakers to extend and give themselves extra time if they need it to work on a re-do. It also opens the door to allow them to keep alive hard-to-pass or outstanding bills -- think prisons, schools, insurance, gambling -- which may come in handy when votes are needed for a trade.

Here's Bondi's  three-page letter.

Iraq war vet, federal prosecutor Ron DeSantis to run in CD-6 (bad news, Craig Miller)

Nothing's coming easy to businessman-turned-political candidate Craig Miller, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in '10 and, this year, dropped out of the Republican U.S. Senate race to run for Congress.

Now he has what looks like a pretty serious challenger: Ron DeSantis, a decorated veteran with an Ivy-league education and a hard-hitting political team in Data Targeting, a Gainesville-based firm that is the de-facto election machine for the GOP leadership in the state Senate. (State Rep. Fred Costello might run as well.)

Here's the press release:

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Republican Ron DeSantis, an Iraq war veteran, former prosecutor and principled conservative, announced that he will be running for the United States House of Representatives, seeking to represent his fellow residents of the newly-proposed 6th Congressional District along Florida's First Coast.

Adam Hasner gets NRCC "On the Radar" nod

Adam Hasner, the former state lawmaker with his eye on the congressional seat Rep. Allen West is leaving behind, is one of 21 Republicans who'll have backing from the GOP committee charged with holding onto control of the House of Representatives. 

The National Republican Congressional Committee is announcing that Hasner made it into the second stage of its so-called "Young Guns" program, which helps candidates who've proven their ability to meet crucial campaign benchmarks to develop their campaigns. Hasner made it to the "On the Radar" status,  the second set of  organizational and fundraising benchmarks.

"Adam Hasner's dedication and experience positions him to advocate for pro-growth policies and fight the failed Democrat status quo in Washington," said NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas.

Hasner, who dropped his bid for U.S. Senate last month, is one of 21 Republican congressional candidates to make the NRCC list. He raised $1.3 million in his bid for statewide office, and has $666,000 cash on hand. Hasner also has the backing of West, who plans to run in a friendlier Palm Beach County-based congressional seat. 

The endorsements from West and the NRCC come in the midst a political scramble for Florida's congressional seats. Thanks to redistricting, sitting lawmakers are trying to find friendly home districts -- and so are potential challengers. 

Two Democrats also are in the race: Former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, and Broward County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs, who just entered the race. Democrat Patrick Murphy, who had also been seeking the seat, announced this week he will instead take on West.

House passes redistricting maps with a party line vote

The Florida House voted along party lines for three redistricting maps Friday that proponents say reflect the state’s growing diversity and meet new anti-gerrymandering standards.

But Democrats, who united in opposition in the 80-38 votes, said the proposals are unconstitutional because they manipulate political boundaries for Republican advantage, particularly a Senate map that appears to protect every returning incumbent.

Despite the criticism, House Republican leaders congratulated themselves for finishing the maps with four weeks left in the session, and doing it with unprecedented public input.

“What we have just done is historic and rare,” said House Speaker Dean Cannon after the House finished two-days of lengthy debates.

Redistricting maps are reshuffling Florida's political landscape

For the last year, Broward Democratic Rep. Marty Kiar planned to run for the state Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Nan Rich of Weston.

But when the Senate released its redistricting maps in November, the Davie lawmaker was faced with a choice: run in a district based primarily in Palm Beach County, stay in his safe House district for two more years, or run in an open county commission district.

He chose to stay home and run for county commission. “It’s a nice time to be with my two-and-a-half year old, my new baby and my wife,’’ Kiar said, adding, “I’ve always wanted to serve for local office.”
Kiar is among a growing list of legislators deciding to move to new posts as Florida lawmakers complete their redistricting maps under new rules imposed by two constitutional amendments.

The Republican-dominated House voted 80-39 along party lines Thursday to give preliminary approval to three redistricting maps drawn according to the new anti-gerrymandering standards of the Fair Districts amendments approved by voters.

The amendments prohibit lawmakers — for the first time in Florida history — from drawing the districts with any intent to protect incumbents or political parties and the results have shaken up the political landscape from Tallahassee to Jacksonville and from St. Petersburg to Miami.

The disruption, however, is mostly apparent in the House, where 38 of the chamber’s 120 incumbents are been drawn into districts with another member. The Senate and Congressional maps, by contrast, don’t appear to end the political careers of any incumbents. Story here.

Appeals court throws out Brown and Diaz-Balart redistricting lawsuit

In a blow to two incumbent congressmen -- and the Florida House which has spent taxpayer money siding with them -- a federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a challenge to Florida's Amendment 6, added to the state constitution by voters to curb so-called gerrymandering of congressional districts.

From the Associated Press: The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rebuffed claims by U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, and Corrine Brown, a Jacksonville Democrat, that the power to change congressional redistricting rules resides solely with the Legislature and not the voters through a referendum.

"The lawmaking power in Florida expressly includes the power of the people to amend their constitution, and that is exactly what the people did here in passing Amendment 6," wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus in the 32-page opinion, which affirmed a September ruling by a Miami federal judge. Full story here.

Weatherford to West: Legislative maps are not targeting you

As the House prepares to finish up the congressional redistricting maps later this week, Rep. Will Weatherford stepped in to quash a rumor that's been festering in GOP circles for the past month. The gist: Republicans are not targeting Allen West.

The controversial congressman from Broward County has earned a national reputation as a firebrand conservative. But his district is decidedly getting more liberal. Under the House congressional redistricting map, which is expected to be adopted by the Senate, West's district would move west into Plantation, where he lives, and also pick up a swath of Democratic voters.

A personal appeal from Broward Repubican Party Chairman Richard DeNapoli attempted to persuade lawmakers to shift the lines northward along the Palm Beach County coast, giving West a safer Republican district. His fellow Republicans even launched a web site, saveallenwest.com.

Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, is having none of this. He stepped into to fray Monday and posted this statement on his Facebook page:

 

Fair Districts lambasts legislative maps, details alleged legal violations

The Fair Districts coalition broke its silence on the legislature's nearly completed redistricting maps late Thursday and delivered a 12-page letter to lawmakers lambasting their proposals for manipulating the political boundaries for partisan and incumbent advantage, in violation of the state Constitution.

"It appears that all maps under consideration were drawn with an intent to gain partisan advantage and/or to protect incumbents," the group wrote in its letter to House Redistricting Chairman Will Weatherford. "The Legislature’s refusal to follow this efficient and logical redistricting method proves that it wanted to retain its ability to surreptitiously favor a party or incumbents, and the numbers bear this out."

In short, the group which helped bring new state's redistricting standards to the state Constitution, accuses lawmakers of not only strategically protecting incumbents with the drawing of districts but doing it to strengthen weak districts, pick favorites in competitive areas, pack minority voters into districts and strategically secure a Republican majority for the next decade.