FL GOP fails to draw new, court-ordered Congressional Map for 2016

[Statistikhengst]

This happened in July, 2014:

Florida Judge voids FLORIDA GOP created congressional map | US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

Quote from near the end of the OP:

An important detail: this ruling has no effect on the 2014 mid-terms, but it will have an effect on the 2016 elections.

The FL GOP redrew the map, which was just as bad and just as gerrymandered as the old map, and so, last month, this happened:


Florida Supreme Court orders new congressional map with eight districts to be redrawn

guno also noted this in this thread:

Florida Supreme Court orders new congressional map with eight districts to be redrawn | US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

From the tampabay link:

In the historic 5-2 ruling, the court not only ruled the maps were the product of an unconstitutional political gerrymandering, it signaled its deep distrust of lawmakers and provided detailed instructions on how to repair the flawed map in time for the 2016 election.

"This is a complete victory for the people of Florida who passed the Fair District amendment and sought fair representation where the Legislature didn't pick their voters," said David King, lead attorney for the League of Women Voters and the coalition of voter groups which brought the challenge. "The Supreme Court accepted every challenge we made and ordered the Legislature to do it over.''

The new maps are likely to reconfigure nearly all of the state's 27 congressional districts, open the door to new candidates, and threaten incumbents, who will now face a new set of boundary lines and constituents close to the 2016 election...

...Last summer, Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis concluded that political operatives had worked to "hijack" the state's redistricting process and tainted the map with "improper partisan intent." But rather than reject the entire map, Lewis ordered two districts to be redrawn — District 5, a snake-shaped district that stretches from Orlando to Jacksonville and is held by Brown, a Democrat, and District 10, an Orlando-based district held by U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, a Republican.

In 12 pages, the Supreme Court recounted in detail the trial court evidence that revealed the depth of the relationships between the partisan political operatives and the legislative leaders — even noting how GOP consultant Marc Reichelderfer lived near former House Speaker Dean Cannon and how "their families spent time together, Reichelderfer saw Cannon on the weekends."

The court commended Lewis' finding that the maps were "tainted by unconstitutional intent" to benefit Republicans and incumbents but disagreed with his legal reasoning for limiting the fix to two districts and leaving the rest, because the Legislature no longer deserved to be given any deference.

"After reaching the conclusion that the 'redistricting process' and the 'resulting map' had been 'taint(ed)' by unconstitutional intent, the burden should have shifted to the Legislature to justify its decisions, and no deference should have been afforded to the Legislature's decisions regarding the drawing of the districts," the court wrote.

The Legislature held a special session last August to make the changes. Plaintiffs appealed, asking the Florida Supreme Court to reject the map and approve an alternate proposed by the plaintiffs.

The ruling renewed the racial tensions that have coursed through the Florida's redistricting battle for decades...

...GOP political consultant Frank Terraferma and other political operatives testified how proposed maps with shadowy names such as "Sputnik," "Schmedloff" and "Frankenstein" were created and then secretly shared during the months legislative staff were also drawing maps.

For the first time in state history, sitting legislators were called to testify and they admitted to routinely deleting redistricting records. A legislative staffer admitted to giving a flash drive of maps to a GOP political operative two weeks before they became public. Phone records of a House speaker and his right hand man, sought for more than a year, were never produced. And legislative leaders acknowledged they met secretly with their staff and political operatives to discuss strategy.

So, the FL House and Senate were supposed to draw up and approve a new map, and they failed this week, because of infighting in the FL GOP:

Florida Legislature ends special session with no agreement on new congressional districts

A special legislative session to fix Florida’s flawed congressional district lines ended in chaos Friday as senators staged a walkout and the House rejected Senate requests to extend the session into a third week.

Lawmakers ended the session on time but with no agreement on a new map. As a result, legislators have turned over the job of redrawing the 27 districts to a trial judge, who can choose a House or Senate map, solicit other options or create his own to comply with a Florida Supreme Court decision ordering lawmakers to fix eight districts that it said were illegally gerrymandered.

“That should make everybody nervous,” said Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando.

It’s the third session this year that has ended amid feuding between Republicans and it creates political uncertainty heading into the 2016 elections. The latest hostility, prompted by Senate demands to reshape congressional lines in Tampa’s suburbs, threatens to disrupt an October special session to redraw Senate district lines across the state.

Gov. Rick Scott has the power to force the Legislature back to work to agree on a map before a court hearing Tuesday. But after lawmakers failed for a third time to draw a legally defensible map, Scott said he would not order lawmakers back to work.

By mid-afternoon Friday, most legislators had left town after being evicted from hotel rooms because tens of thousands of Florida State and Florida A&M students and their parents are descending on Tallahassee for the start of the fall semester next week.

Also being reported here:

Judge To Redraw Florida's Congressional Maps After Legislature Fails To Reach Deal

With the failure of the Legislature to produce new maps, the job of shaping Florida's 27 congressional districts now falls to state Judge Terry Lewis, who has ordered hearings in September.

Even though finalized congressional maps are still at least a month away, redistricting has already shaken up next year's races in Florida. After the State Supreme Court said Florida's 13th Congressional was one of several to be redrawn, Republican Rep. David Jolly announced he would not run for re-election. Instead, he joined the race for the seat being vacated by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. When it's redrawn, Jolly's district is expected to lean Democratic. Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a Democrat who lives in the district, now says he's likely to run.

Redistricting is also likely to affect several other incumbents in Florida, including Republican Daniel Webster, whose 10th Congressional District near Orlando is likely to lean Democratic when redrawn. Florida's 2nd Congressional District is expected to become more Republican. Democratic first-termer Gwen Graham says she is waiting to see final maps before making a final decision on whether to run for re-election.

The long and short of this is that, where 8 districts were supposed to have been redrawn, it is likely that all 27 will be redrawn, at least to some degree, which could have unpredictable consequences. For instance, what happens when someone who was planning to run in one district and already started organizing there suddenly finds out that his home address was redistricted? For this reason, a number of people may wait before they declare.

Surely this will be cleared up by December, but for the first time that I know of, a state legislature has completed failed to present a Congressional map and a state judge will ultimately decide.

This is likely to create some interesting and unexpected drama in Florida, to say the least.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

To their credit, the people of Florida amended the state constitution to prohibit gerrymandering and other partisan contrivances with regard to drawing district maps:

'The Florida Constitution requires that all districts, whether congressional or state legislative, be contiguous. Also, "where doing so does not conflict with minority rights, [districts] must be compact and utilize existing political and geographical boundaries where feasible." Districts cannot be drawn in such a way as to "favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent."'

http://ballotpedia.org/Redistricting_in_Florida

Indeed, the state GOP's failure to follow the state constitution is why the courts have been compelled to get involved.

Most republicans are consistent in their mistrust of the voters and their contempt for the democratic process.

 

[Two Thumbs]

the epa ignores court orders all the time.

so why do you care?

 

[Derideo_Te]

the epa ignores court orders all the time.

so why do you care?

What does the EPA have to do with the OP topic?

 

[Two Thumbs]

the epa ignores court orders all the time.

so why do you care?

What does the EPA have to do with the OP topic?

they both ignore court orders.

one just pisses them off and they support the other for doing it.

I'll let you guess which one.



as a reminder, I'm not a rep

 

[CrusaderFrank]

^ Democrat district

 

[Nyvin]

What's crazy is the differences between the House and Senate map were pretty small and didn't really change PVI much in any district. It seems like the disagreement was mostly over Hillsborough County and FL-15 and to a lesser extent Sarasota County and FL-16. They barely talked about the differences in Orange and Lake counties at all.

 

[Nyvin]

^ Democrat district

Yes, both parties are guilty of Gerrymandering. Maps should be drawn by independent commissions.