Court to hear ballot proposal for redistricting
February 09, 2006
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Florida Republican leaders got what they wanted in 2002 when they chopped Volusia and Flagler counties into seven state House districts.
They packed black voters and other Democratic loyalists into a district that stretched from DeLand to Daytona Beach , a move that helped Republicans win all six of the other House seats in 2004.
That strategy, replicated throughout the state, likely cemented Republican domination of Florida 's legislative and congressional districts for the rest of the decade. But when the state Supreme Court meets today, it will consider a controversial proposal that threatens to strip lawmakers of those redistricting powers in the future.
The watchdog group Common Cause, backed in part by labor unions, is pushing a proposed constitutional amendment that would create a 15-member commission to draw political districts -- taking away control from lawmakers who often have a personal stake in the way boundaries are set. If Supreme Court justices approve the wording of the proposed amendment, it will go before voters on the November ballot.
"It (the current system) is a question of who's in power and who is able to use the process for political purposes," said Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause's Florida branch.
But the proposal has drawn fierce opposition from top Republicans, including Gov. Jeb Bush and state House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City , who say the proposed amendment is misleading and unworkable. They argue the commission, which would include an equal number of Republican and Democratic appointees, would not be able to agree on a redistricting plan -- ultimately forcing the Supreme Court to draw new political districts.
"I don't think the Supreme Court should be drawing the lines," said Bush, who last year raised money for a redistricting effort in California that could have helped Republicans there.
Florida lawmakers draw new legislative and congressional boundaries once a decade after the U.S. Census is completed. The process is highly partisan and often personal as lawmakers jockey to boost their political careers and the power of their parties.
Armed with computer mapping programs, Republicans used redistricting in 2002 to add to the party's clout and help individual politicians. In the case of then-House Speaker Tom Feeney, for example, that included drawing a new district that helped get him elected to Congress representing parts of Volusia and three other counties.
More broadly, Republicans reshaped boundaries to give their candidates an edge over Democrats in winning legislative and congressional seats. In Volusia and Flagler, that included stitching together areas that were heavily Democratic and heavily African-American into a House district for incumbent state Rep. Joyce Cusack, a DeLand Democrat who is black. When the lines were drawn, her district covered about one-third of Volusia County 's overall population -- including about three-quarters of the county's 41,000 black residents.
In doing so, they helped make it easier for Republicans to win the other six House districts that include parts of the two counties. And in 2004, the GOP captured two traditionally Democratic seats, when state Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, and state Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine, got elected.
The proposed constitutional amendment calls for creating a redistricting commission that would include six members appointed by Republicans, six members appointed by Democrats and three members appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. At least 10 members of the commission would have to agree on any redistricting plan -- or else the Supreme Court could wind up drawing districts.
With Common Cause putting up $2.6 million in cash and donated services and labor unions chipping in more than $320,000, backers of the amendment collected 689,000 petition signatures to get the measure on the November ballot. But the Supreme Court also has to approve the wording of the amendment to make sure that it will not mislead voters.
Unions have clashed repeatedly with Bush and Republican legislative leaders in recent years on high-stakes issues such as school vouchers and the privatization of state jobs. But Rich Templin, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO, said unions are involved to create a more-competitive political system, not to help Democrats gain power.
While Republicans have been the most outspoken critics of the redistricting proposal, it also could draw objections from some minority leaders. Drawing districts that are likely to elect African-American and Hispanic lawmakers has been a key legal and political issue in the past. Cusack said she likes the idea of taking the redistricting process away from the Legislature, but she also is concerned about making sure minorities are represented in drawing districts. "We have to proceed cautiously as we look at this," said Cusack, who is undecided about supporting the proposed amendment.
Bense, three state senators and three South Florida congressmen have filed legal briefs to try to keep the proposal off the ballot, with Bense agreeing to spend as much as $50,000 in tax dollars to oppose it.
Opponents argue, in part, that the ballot language would mislead voters because it refers to the proposed redistricting commission as being "nonpartisan." They say the commission would be partisan because Republicans and Democrats would appoint 12 of the members.
"Voters who favor the elimination of politicians from the redistricting process will support the petition based on their false impression that the amendment would eliminate partisanship in redistricting," a brief filed by Bense's attorneys said.
But Common Cause, which has long sought to overhaul Florida 's redistricting system and unsuccessfully backed similar proposals in California and Ohio , argues that the design of the 15-member commission will lead to a nonpartisan plan.
"That's going to mean that there's going to have to be some consensus across party lines and among independents," Wilcox said.
LOCAL REDISTRICTING
A proposal before the Florida Supreme Court seeks a ballot measure that would strip lawmakers of their authority to draw political boundaries. Critics say the current system can be abused by packing one party's loyalists into a single district, diluting its voting power in surrounding districts. Here's a look at how Volusia's three largest state House districts were split up.
District 26
Rep. Pat Patterson, R-DeLand
Registered voters in 2000: 84,281
Republicans: 36,163 (42.9 percent)
Democrats 33,462 (39.7)
Other 14,716 (17.5)
White: 77,859 (92.4)
Black 1,866 (2.2)
Other: 4,297 (5.5)
District 27
Rep. Joyce Cusack, D-DeLand
Registered voters in 2000: 66,909
Republicans: 19,635 (29.3 percent)
Democrats: 35,382 (52.9)
Other: 11,834 (17.7)
White: 49,967 (74.7)
Black: 13,138 (19.6)
Other: 3,646 (5.4)
District 28
Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange
Registered voters in 2000: 86,510
Republicans 34,967 (40.4 percent)
Democrats 34,916 (40.4)
Other 16,663 (19.3)
White 80,050 (92.5)
Black 2,313 (2.7)
Other 3,963 (4.6)
Source: Florida Legislature.
DID YOU KNOW?
The commonly used political word gerrymander came to us courtesy of a 19th-century Massachusetts governor and a lizard-like amphibian.
· Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) was a political figure in Massachusetts for many years. He signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, was a U.S. congressman from 1789 to 1793, and governor from 1810 to 1812. He then served as vice president under President James Madison from 1813 to 1814.
· Gerry is probably most famously known for the attachment of his name to gerrymandering -- the process of dividing up political districts to favor one party or group over another.
· In 1812, members of Gerry's Democrat-Republican party divided the state senatorial districts in an effort to defeat the Federalist Party.
· Though no one is certain who coined the term, one story is that the artist Gilbert Stuart, upon seeing a map of the new districts, noted that the shape was similar to that of a salamander. He proceeded to sketch a head, wings and claws around the map and then nicknamed the shape a "Gerry-mander." The word stuck, even though history suggests that Gerry himself did not favor such redistricting.
·
Compiled by News Researcher Megan Gallup
SOURCES: American Heritage Dictionary, World Book Encyclopedia
