Redistricting: New Map Looks Like Old Map
With the Florida Senate releasing its (first) proposal for redrawing the US Congressional and State Senate districts, their similarity to current districts should not come as any surprise. No one can imagine a map that is better for the GOP than what they have right now. There is no wonder that they want it to stay that way as long as possible, and yes, another ten years of anything like current maps would be sweet for them.
This decennial exercise in redistricting follows every decennial US census to allow for reapportioning representatives and adjusting the lines of districts accordingly. It’s in the US Constitution and a responsibility of the states.
In Florida, the state legislature does redistricting. Depending on who is in the majority, and by how large of a majority, generally defines how the maps will look. Yes, it’s very political. Surprised?
When Democrats had overwhelming majorities prior to the 1990s, they gerrymandered districts into whatever shape was needed to gain themselves the most seats possible. Now that Republicans have overwhelming majorities, they have gerrymandered districts into whatever shape was needed to gain themselves the most seats possible. Surprise!
Simply put, the political parties have largely controlled who would get elected by drawing the district lines. Those boundaries decided representation far more than any voting by the electorate. It has been common for incumbents to draw no challenger because it is a complete waste of the challenger’s time and energy. They don’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hallandale of winning given the way a district has been “gerrymandered,” a term to describe the politically motivated line drawing.
A large majority of Floridians voted to change things in 2010 when they endorsed the Fair Districts Amendments (5 and 6), easily clearing the 60% majority threshold for approval. Voters took offense at the ridiculously drawn districts that followed streams to connect unrelated areas, or hopped from one side of the street to another (like in the Fort Lauderdale area in the Senate current district map above with 4 districts intertwined-peach, tan, pink and green), or from one coast to the other, picking up voters who are most likely to elect the desired party’s candidate.
The amendments say, “No apportionment plan or district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent,” and call for districts that “consist of contiguous territory … be as nearly equal in population as is practicable; districts shall be compact; and districts shall, where feasible, utilize existing political and geographical boundaries.”
An addition to the controversy surrounds interpretation of the Voting Rights Act and the creation of majority minority districts, or districts in which a minority population of, say, African Americans or Hispanic Americans constitutes a majority of the voters, thereby enhancing the likelihood of minority representation. While it’s a worthy aspiration, it has led to some disturbing politics on the way to significantly improving minority representation.
This made strange bedfellows as African Americans partnered with Republicans in the 1990s redistricting. It provided the justification for gerrymandering on steroids and helped create the crazy imbalance in the legislature since then. In a state with more Democratic voters, Republicans have a large majority in the Congressional delegation, and veto-proof majorities in the Florida House and Senate, enabling the GOP in Tallahassee to do virtually anything it wants.
Majority minority districts allowed Republican mapmakers to gerrymander huge majorities of African Americans into single districts, virtually guaranteeing not only the election of an African American legislator, but also assuredly a Democrat since something like 90% of African Americans are registered as Democrats – really. This provided the desired minority representation. That it would likely be a Democrat was perfectly okay with Republicans, too. Huh?
You see, by packing so many African Americans and Democrats into one district, the surrounding districts were effectively “bleached.” Republicans would gladly give up one district with a huge Democratic majority for the whole decade because they would snap up three, four, or five surrounding districts with smaller, solid majorities of Republicans. That’s how you get a skewed legislature and congressional delegation representation in Florida.
This is only the first of what will be a series of maps, and the games have only begun. Just don’t be surprised that a lot of the maps drawn by Republicans look a lot like the maps we have already.
Having to add two congressional districts because of population increase since 2000, primarily around The Villages and the new Hispanics in central Florida, makes keeping majorities like those presently enjoyed rather difficult. But that’s the goal for Republicans – keeping things just the way they are as much as possible. For the GOP, it simply won’t get any better than this.
