Politicians continue attack on redistricting EDITORIAL - Fair Districts amendments threaten party power

The Bradenton Herald
April 20, 2010

Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature appears bent on maintaining the status quo in the drawing of political boundaries. With two constitutional amendments on the November ballot that would ban gerrymandering, a GOP-controlled House committee approved a counter attack measure designed to confuse voters into rejecting the tough but fair standards or blunt implementation.

Currently, the Legislature redraws legislative and congressional districts as the law requires every decade once new census data is collected. Lawmakers will tackle that task in 2012.

Armed with detailed figures on voting trends in every precinct, the party in power picks their voters instead of the other way around. Higher concentrations of the opposition are isolated into as few districts as possible so overall control remains in the hands of the dominant party.

Both Democrats and Republicans have been guilty of gerrymandering.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor’s 11th District features Tampa and St. Petersburg and then leap frogs Tampa Bay to include downtown Bradenton and Sarasota — gerrymandering at its worst. This congressional district is mostly Democratic, like Castor’s party affiliation.

The organization behind the citizen initiative and petition drive, Fair Districts Florida, aims to put the public interest ahead of politicians.

If approved by 60 percent of voters, Amendments 5 and 6 would require legislative and congressional districts be drawn up according to existing geographic and political boundaries where possible. Districts would have to be compact and contiguous, and follow city and county lines where feasible.

The proposals ban boundaries that favor one political party or incumbent, or that deny equal opportunity for language or racial minorities.

The GOP seized on that latter point in an attempt to confuse the issue. Republican lawmakers say their amendment requires that legislators conform to federal redistricting standards.

They also claim Amendments 5 and 6 could jeopardize districts currently held by minorities because those boundaries could be viewed as favoring an incumbent or party.

But language in Amendments 4 and 5 specifically addresses that point. But in politics, creating confusion and fear is a time-honored strategy to defeat the opposition.

Republican lawmakers tried to scuttle the redistricting amendments before, but failed to convince the Florida Supreme Court last year that the ballot summaries were misleading and violated the single-subject rule required of citizen initiatives.

Even the NAACP is not falling for the latest GOP attack, calling the measure “a sham” with a “deeply troubling” potential impact on minority voters.

Voters should not fall for this either. The issue remains a contest between powerful partisan politics and rigged outcomes versus voters’ rights and fair representation.

Amendments 4 and 5 will end the unfair practice of political gerrymandering and empower Floridians.