Florida Judge voids FLORIDA GOP created congressional map

[Statistikhengst]

This is a big story. A REAL big story, and one with some far-reaching implications:


TALLAHASSEE: Judge throws out Florida's congressional map - Florida - MiamiHerald.com

TALLAHASSEE -- A judge threw out Florida’s congressional redistricting map Thursday, ruling that the Legislature allowed for a “secret, organized campaign” by partisan operatives to subvert the redistricting process in violation of the state Constitution.

Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis ruled that two of the state’s 27 districts are invalid and must be redrawn, along with any other districts affected by them, to bring the map into compliance with the state’s new Fair District amendments.

The 41-page ruling, issued late Thursday, invalidates the entire congressional map and raises questions now about whether the map will be redrawn before the November elections or revised later. The case, brought by a coalition led by the League of Women Voters, is expected to be appealed and ultimately decided by the Florida Supreme Court.

Any change in the political lines for Congress would have a ripple effect on other races, though not until the 2016 election cycle.

Lewis rejected challenges to districts in South Florida and Tampa Bay, but said that District 5, held by Democrat U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, and District 10, held by Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Webster of Winter Park “will need to be redrawn, as will any other districts affected thereby.”

The judge agreed with the coalition’s prime argument: that Republican legislators and staffers collaborated with political consultants to create “a shadow redistricting process” that protected incumbents and the GOP.

Judge invalidates two Florida congressional districts | Tampa Bay Times

Lewis drew no conclusions that House Speaker Will Weatherford, former House Speaker Dean Cannon and Senate President Don Gaetz were aware of the scheme, but he raised doubts that they were not in some way complicit. The judge detailed the involvement of Cannon's aide, Kirk Pepper, and repeated evidence that came out at trial about Pepper forwarding draft maps to GOP operative Marc Reichelderfer.

Lewis also noted that legislative leaders and the political operatives destroyed almost all of their emails and other documents related to redistricting and concluded that the circumstantial evidence surrounding all of those developments, and the evidence that the consultants attempted to influence the same districts he has found problematic, proved the GOP operatives were trying to influence the process.

"There is no legal duty on the part of the Legislature to preserve these records, but you have to wonder why they didn't,'' he wrote. "Litigation over their plans was 'a moral certainty' as their lawyers put it earlier in the case, and intent would be a key issue in any challenge."

Lewis tore apart the defense of the most controversial district in Florida's map — District 5, a snake-shaped boundary that runs from Jacksonville to Orlando and was first drawn by a court 20 years ago when Brown was first elected.

Lewis said the changes made to the other district, 10, "benefited the incumbent Representative Webster" and violated the Fair Districts rules.

Lewis also raised questions about the decision by House and Senate leaders to ignore the potential political performance of most districts they drew and why they didn't concern themselves with the authors of publicly submitted maps.

Florida's electoral map in flux after court ruling | Reuters

"The court found that the Republican consultants made a mockery of fair districting and that there was a secretive, organized campaign, a shadow process of map-drawing," Macnab added.

The was the latest development in a protracted legal fight that began after the state House and Senate redrew Florida's congressional districts in 2012. Republicans control both houses of the state legislature.

"What is clear to me from the evidence ... is that this group of Republican political consultants or operatives did in fact conspire to manipulate and influence the redistricting process," Lewis wrote in the 41-page ruling.

University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett said the ruling would bolster Democratic strength in the so-called I-4 corridor running across central Florida.

One prominent Democrat affected by the ruling, U.S. Representative Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, said the ruling dealt a blow to black voting rights. The judge ordered the redrawing of her congressional district and an adjoining Orlando-area district represented by Republican U.S. Representative Daniel Webster.

The plaintiffs who challenged the redistricting claimed that Republican legislators packed as many black voters as possible into Brown's district, which she was likely to win anyway, so that districts bordering on it would be more heavily white and likely to vote Republican.

Those districts include Webster's district in the Orlando area. Six of the seven congressional districts adjoining Brown's district are represented by Republicans.

A Florida judge just voided the state?s congressional districts. Here?s what you need to know. - The Washington Post

Lewis singles out the 5th District, saying it is "visually not compact, bizarrely shaped, and does not follow traditional political boundaries as it winds from Jacksonville to Orlando." Its finger-like appendage jutting into Seminole County "was done with the intent of benefitting the Republican Party." The 5th District was originally drawn in the 90s with the intent of creating a majority-minority district, and by extension a safe Democratic seat. Democrat Corinne Brown has held that seat since 1992.

But as I've described in detail before, when you concentrate minority voting power in one district, you necessarily dilute it everywhere else. You end up with district-level segregation: minority districts for minority voters. Judge Lewis notes this in the Florida case -- the appendage from District 5 going into Seminole County had the net effect of increasing the minority population in District 5, and decreasing it in neighboring District 7, making that district more friendly to Republicans...

...Democrat Corinne Brown, who's held the 5th District for more than 20 years, last night issued a blistering statement opposing the judge's ruling. As the Tampa Bay Times' Alex Leary describes in great detail, Brown partnered with Republicans to create that district in the 1990s. She's siding with them again in Florida's redistricting case, and it's easy to see the mutual benefit there: Brown gets a safe majority-minority district, while Republicans benefit from diluted minority representation in all the districts surrounding Brown's.

In effect, she's choosing political self-interest over the interest of her party...

...The Florida ruling adds up to a scathing indictment of the redistricting process in that state, and by extension the similar processes that happen in most other states. As long as redistricting remains in the hands of the partisans, real reform is unlikely.

The WAPO article links to the judge's ruling, but I could not get the link to work:

Navigator

The site may have gotten overloaded. I will update as soon as possible.


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



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And a personal note, on this thread over electioneering, a very large OP that covers the first five postings:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/clean-debate-zone/333884-electioneering.html#post8424470

I gave recommendations for how to do fair and impartial redistricting in all 50 states.

When you read what is happening in Florida (and could well happen in other states), I think that the argument I made has more and more merit with time.

Also, I want to make a specific note that in terms of Gerrymandering, the Democratic Party is often every bit as guilty as the Republican Party. This is a phenomenon that absolutely must stop.

 

[Stephanie]

ah yes, you must find him a rock star? gives you thrills, orgasams?

how about the supreme court? When did we ALLOW any judge to make policy, override the will of the voters, etc in this country?

and why doesn't it bother you?

 

[Statistikhengst]

ah yes, you must find him a rock star?

Do you actually ever read for content, Stephanie?

No one is a rock star for me.

This is news.

Learn to discern, like adults do. The information is all there in the OP.
And you might note the disclaimer at the end.

 

[Stephanie]

ah yes, you must find him a rock star?

Do you actually ever read for content, Stephanie?

No one is a rock star for me.

This is news.

Learn to discern, like adults do. The information is all there in the OP.
And you might note the disclaimer at the end.

naaa, I don't take anything from you as "adult"
but answer my questions? why are you in favor of allowing lowly judges to overturn the will of the people? where is that in their POWERS?

 

[eagle1462010]

Perhaps the map down in Miami needs to be looked at as well then.............

I'd agree area 5 looks retarded.

 

[Stephanie]

It's against the gop so it's AOK with you

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

What those on the partisan right fail to understand that the issue is not gerrymandering per se, but the fact that gerrymandering in Florida violates the state's constitution.

 

[Statistikhengst]

ah yes, you must find him a rock star?

Do you actually ever read for content, Stephanie?

No one is a rock star for me.

This is news.

Learn to discern, like adults do. The information is all there in the OP.
And you might note the disclaimer at the end.

naaa, I don't take anything from you as "adult"
but answer my questions? why are you in favor of allowing lowly judges to overturn the will of the people? where is that in their POWERS?

What makes this judge "lowly"?

The ruling is within his powers as a judge. It's the law of the land.

Why are Righties like you so against the law of the land?

The PEOPLE did not decide on new congressional districts. A political team, in this case, a GOP team, did.

Really, Stephanie, learn to read for content. It would make your life so much easier.

 

[Statistikhengst]

What those on the partisan right fail to understand that the issue is not gerrymandering per se, but the fact that gerrymandering in Florida violates the state's constitution.

Yepp.

 

[eagle1462010]

What those on the partisan right fail to understand that the issue is not gerrymandering per se, but the fact that gerrymandering in Florida violates the state's constitution.

LOL

It's not about gerrymandering but it is...............

 

[Stephanie]

What those on the partisan right fail to understand that the issue is not gerrymandering per se, but the fact that gerrymandering in Florida violates the state's constitution.

Oooo, gerrymandering doesn't bother you partisan HACKS IF it get people like, Jackson Lee, Pelosi, etc ..THEY have it SEWED up without fear of anyone running against them,. But damn them Republican
and I'm no favor of EITHER PARTY corrupting our political process

 

[Statistikhengst]

What those on the partisan right fail to understand that the issue is not gerrymandering per se, but the fact that gerrymandering in Florida violates the state's constitution.

LOL

It's not about gerrymandering but it is...............

He wrote "per se", meaning that there is more to it than just Gerrymandering itself.

You do understand that, right?

Then again, maybe you didn't understand it. This would not surprise me at all.

The judge is saying that the GOP violated the FL constitution by the way it redistricted 2 of 27 districts, which means that those two and any adjacent districts that would also be affected must be redrawn.

Did you understand that now?

 

[Stephanie]

stats, you are nothing more than clay



partisan hack tool in my book

it's shameful really

 

[Statistikhengst]

stats, you are nothing more than clay



partisan hack tool in my book

it's shameful really

Have anything to say about the information in the OP, or are you just here to attack members of USMB?

Still didn't read the disclaimer at the end of the OP, what?

 

[eagle1462010]

What those on the partisan right fail to understand that the issue is not gerrymandering per se, but the fact that gerrymandering in Florida violates the state's constitution.

LOL

It's not about gerrymandering but it is...............

He wrote "per se", meaning that there is more to it than just Gerrymandering itself.

You do understand that, right?

Then again, maybe you didn't understand it. This would not surprise me at all.

The judge is saying that the GOP violated the FL constitution by the way it redistricted 2 of 27 districts, which means that those two and any adjacent districts that would also be affected must be redrawn.

Did you understand that now?

I understood per se, and was joking...........and when I need an education from you I'll ask for it.

http://censusvalidator.blob.core.wi...ticipation/Redistricting_-_By_the_Numbers.pdf

ideal populations of districts................for Florida...........

Perhaps explaining some weird shapes...........in order to get as close as possible to the numbers.

 

[eagle1462010]

My Congressional District

All of the populations are in the same ranges across the state.

 

[Nyvin]

stats, you are nothing more than clay



partisan hack tool in my book

it's shameful really

Stephanie has nothing constructive to say...yet again....big surprise there.

 

[whitehall]

How does a circut court judge have the power to order congressional districts changed? Oh yeah, guess which political party the governor who appointed judge Terry Lewis to the bench belonged to? Hint, it wasn't the GOP.

 

[Statistikhengst]

lol....

 

[Dot Com]

STOP WHINING/DERAILING STAPHANIE!!! [MENTION=1668]Stephanie[/MENTION]

As to the OP, Republicorp always seems to be up to some chicanery of some sort in "Heaven's Waiting Room" AKA- Florida. Katherine Harris anyone? Katherine Harris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia