Legislative Redistricting: Want A New Method?
Two Constitutional Amendment ballot initiatives are being proposed to change the way legislative districts are determined in Florida. A petition drive to get them on the ballot in 2006 is underway. Here is the ballot summary of the two Amendments:
(1) Independent Non-Partisan Commission To Apportion Legislative and Congressional Districts Which Replaces Apportionment By Legislature.
Creates a fifteen member commission replacing legislature to apportion single-member legislative districts in the year following each decennial census. Establishes non-partisan method of appointment to commission. Disqualifies certain persons for membership to avoid partiality. Limits commission members from seeking office under plan for four years after service on commission. Requires ten votes for commission action. Requires Florida Supreme Court to apportion districts if commission fails to file a valid plan.
(2) Additional Standards To Be Followed In Apportioning Legislative And Congressional Districts. Establishes additional standards for legislative and congressional districts beyond those set forth in the state constitution. Requires that districts be compact, and where practicable, utilize existing political and geographical boundaries; that districts, where practicable, preserve communities of interest; that districts not be drawn to favor an incumbent, political party or other person; that competitive districts should be favored and that districts not consider the residence of any individual, except to comply with the constitution or laws of the United States.
More details on each are available at the following Ballot Initiatives site:
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/initiatives/initiativelist.asp
Basically, these amendments, if passed, would take the determination of legislative districts out of the hands of our state legislature and place it in the hands of an independent, non-partisan commission. These amendments will be highly debated, and we would like your point of view on them:
Would you favor or oppose these amendments, and why or why not?
Click on “Comments” below and let us hear from you.
posted by Blog Master @ 9:19 PM
16 Comments:
If anyone thinks we could actually get a non-partisan commission, I have a nice piece of flood-resistant property in New Orleans I’ll sell you very cheap!
I don’t think the current method works very well. Let me be honest with you, I’m a Democrat (but not a liberal one) so all of you Republicans might discount my point of view. I would like to see a commission do the redistricting. It won’t be perfect but it might take out some of the crazy and politically biased district structures we have. Has anyone ever looked at Ed Jennings district? Will it ever be truly non partisan, probably not but maybe less so.
I believe California recently tried something like this and it never got off the ground. Frankly, I see nothing wrong with the way we do this in Florida. The party in power has always called the shots. Let the Ds get off their butts and win back the redistricting privilege.
Marion County has been royally screwed with redistricting at the state and federal level. We have one of the largest delegations in the state but get little from our representatives. In another forum on this site, there has been a battle going on about whether Rep. Dennis Baxley does much for the county. Any fair minded discussion would conclude that Rep. Larry Cretul has done the most of anyone for the county (and yes, I am a close friend of Larry's and also consider myself a friend of Dennis. We got absolutely nothing out of Sen. Anna Cowan, and while I like her very much, I can point to little that my senator, Elelyn Lynn, has produced for us. Sen. Rod Smith has a reputation of responding to local concerns more than most of their others. Nancy Argenziano has helped on some things. Out of the whole nine member delegation, only Baxley is solely responsible to Marion County voters. In Congress, we have Reps. Ginny Browne-Wait, Cliff Stearns, Rod Smith, and Corine Brown, but I would be heard pressed to show any results for Marion County.
My point, the current system has not helped Marion County at all. We have been cut, sliced, tendered, tied and quartered and we get nothing. You guys do what you want, but I will vote for any plan that stops this gerry mandering like Ed Jenning's district and Corine Brown's district. If that makes me a bad Republican, well, I have been called wrose things. So Be it.
--pwf
I agree with PWF, Marion County is not geting the representation it needs. If this amendement will help that, I'm for it.
The republicans will be sure this proposal gets killed. No way are they going to allow somone else to redistrict.
You mean kill it, Al, the way the all powerful GOP killed the class size amendment, or killed the pig amendment, or killed the sout florida casino amendment?
You get this on the ballot, and the people will rule -- just as they did in California. Some of their decisions aren't worth a damn, but they are made anyway.
--pwf
This would be one thing to ask the voters about that has some value. Most of the amendments we are asked to vote on are a waste and no one knows anything about them
I agree that this proposed amendment won’t be totally non-partisan. But it will be better than the current. At least the minority party and the state Supreme Court will be given some specific spots for appoointments on the Commission. Also, the fact that people appointed can’t have served in an elected position four years prior to appointment and can’t serve four years after their appointment expires is good.
This will take a major effort (PR) on the part of those who are sponsoring the amendments.
I agree with AGK. Let's leave this alone. If the Dems were in power they would oppose this, the same as the Rs will do.
I don't think this could ever be done in a non-partisan way, commission or not. As long as there is an appeal to the courts in the process, leave it alone.
Question for those opposing the ammendment . . . Is what we now have fair? -- a US House district starts in Orlando and snakes it's way to Jacksonville and into Ocala or a Florida House seat starts in Gainesville and ends up in Marion Oaks running along 441 and a Florida senate district starts in Tallahassee and ends up in Marion County -- None of you can possibly believe this is fair to anyone. We certainly have gotten the shaft as our county is split, quartered and sliced.
--pwf
The petition issue is now held up on a technicality. The petition is six words too long and a court has ruled it illegal. Looks like the petition solicitors are going to have to start over. What a shame.
Here is the latest on the court challenge of the petitions:
Florida Supreme Court To Weigh Redistricting
Two proposed state constitutional amendments that would strip the Legislature of its redistricting power and give that job to an independent commission have gained sufficient support for preliminary reviews by the Florida Supreme Court.
The reviews were triggered Friday when Attorney General Charlie Crist notified the Supreme Court that Secretary of State Glenda Hood certified the citizen initiatives each received at least 10 percent of about 611,009 signatures needed to get on the ballot.
One proposal would take away the Legislature's power to reapportion itself and the state's congressional districts while creating the 15-member Apportionment and Districting Commission. The other would require the commission to complete the first redistricting in time for the 2008 elections.
Both proposals are sponsored by the Committee for Fair Elections, which is backed by the public-interest lobbying group Common Cause and a number of political figures including former Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and former Florida Comptroller Bob Milligan, a Republican.
A third proposed amendment offered by the committee has been declared invalid because its ballot summary was six words over a 75-word limit.
The committee will have to start its petition campaign for that amendment from scratch after shortening the title, said Department of State spokeswoman Jenny Nash.
It would require that new districts be compact and follow, whenever practical, existing geographical and political boundaries such and county lines and city limits.
The independent commission would have 15 members appointed, three each, by the state House speaker, Senate president, minority party leader in each chamber and the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court will decide whether the proposed amendments each pertain to no more than one subject, as required by the state Constitution, and if they are clear and unambiguous.
(THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
An update on the redistricting issue:
Posted on Sat, Oct. 22, 2005
Bense targets redistricting plan
GOP lawmakers file objections in state Supreme Court
By Aaron Deslatte
CAPITOL BUREAU
A dream team of powerful Republicans is taking aim at a signature drive attempting to strip Florida lawmakers of a major weapon in partisan politics: the power to draw their own districts.
In papers filed with the Florida Supreme Court late Thursday, state House Speaker Allan Bense, three state senators and three Miami congressional members argue the two amendments would mislead voters and shift a bedrock power of lawmakers to the high court.
The volley of court filings is a response to the successful signature gathering of the Committee for Fair Elections, a Tampa-based group backed by Common Cause, Florida AARP, two former GOP officeholders and Democratic stars Bob Graham and Betty Castor. The group has collected more than half a million signatures toward the 611,000 needed to get three proposed amendments on the ballot next year.
If passed, the amendments would place the once-a-decade job of redrawing state and congressional lines in the hands of a "nonpartisan" commission instead of the Legislature.
Bense, R-Panama City, explained his move in an e-mail to House members Thursday: "I feel it is my responsibility as Speaker to protect our institution and the people of Florida."
Florida's redistricting fights have landed in court twice in the last two decades, with Democrats and then Republicans in charge of drawing them accused of gerrymandering to keep incumbents in office and their party in power.
Bense's brief, written by House Lt. Rep. Dudley Goodlette of Naples and GOP lawyer George Meros, argues the amendment summaries falsely claim to establish a "nonpartisan" process since partisan officeholders would appoint a majority of the commission.
"To the contrary, it guarantees that the majority of commissioners indeed will be partisan advocates," they wrote, because "it would be fanciful to suggest that the partisans responsible for selecting the commissioners would choose persons holding views directly contrary to their own beliefs."
Bense is joined in separate filings by GOP state Sens. Charlie Clary of Destin and Jim Sebesta of St. Petersburg, as well as Democratic Sen. Al Lawson of Tallahassee. Their brief, written by former George W. Bush lawyer Barry Richard, takes issue with how the committee bundled the amendments when gathering signatures, among other arguments.
Three Miami congressional Republicans - Mario Diaz Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen - also filed papers claiming the amendments are "logrolling" multiple issues into a single amendment.
The ballot questions would give power to fill three seats on the 15-member commission to both House and Senate leaders, both chambers' minority parties and the Supreme Court's chief justice in 2007.
Since neither party could name enough members to muster the two-thirds majority needed to pass new maps, the commission would invariably punt the job to the high court and tilt the constitutional separation of powers, they argue.
Bense's brief also claims the commission could run afoul of federal law by not protecting minority representation in drawing the maps.
"It is no exaggeration to state that 15 white men from only three counties in Florida could decide the boundaries of districts for 120 house seats, 40 senate seats and 25 congressional seats for more than 14 million Florida citizens," they wrote.
Tallahassee lawyer Mark Herron, working for the Committee for Fair Elections, said he wasn't surprised by the united GOP front.
"I've been on both sides of these constitutional amendments, and when you challenge them you throw everything in including the kitchen sink," he said. "We're confident we followed the constitutional provisions regarding these two amendments."
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