Florida Supreme Court OKs ballot questions to alter method for redistricting

Josh Hafenbrack
Sun-Sentinel
Jan 30, 2009

Effort advances to alter method for redistricting

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for a 2010 ballot amendment designed to end political gamesmanship in drawing district boundaries, in what could be the first step to reshuffling the state's Republican-dominated political landscape.

The court ruled that two proposed ballot questions, dealing with state legislative and congressional district boundaries, satisfy the requirement that constitutional amendments address only a single subject, a legal standard that tripped up past bids to change Florida's redistricting system

The unanimous ruling hands a long-sought victory to Florida Democrats, who have virtually no way to loosen the Republican grip on the state Legislature without changes to the way voters are grouped into districts.

The amendment bars districts from being "drawn to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party."

Districts also must be "compact," the amendment says, and can't be created to block racial or language minorities from having "equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice."

The Supreme Court decision is only a first step, however. Now, the group Fair Districts Florida has to gather 677,811 valid signatures by Feb. 1, 2010, to secure a spot on the November 2010 ballot. And then, 60 percent of voters must approve.

"When people say this is a start, it is really much more than a start," Thom Rumberger, a Republican lawyer spearheading the Fair Districts Florida effort, said of Thursday's decision. "It's a big boost to getting it done."

Under the current system, the Legislature's Republican leaders use complex computer models to draw districts that make it almost impossible to unseat incumbents.

To accomplish this, districts commonly sprawl across county lines and connect communities that have little in common. In other cases, minority voters are packed into one district, rather than being spread out where their electoral influence would be broader.

In November, despite the national Democratic wave and Barack Obama's victory in Florida, not a single incumbent Republican legislator lost. One incumbent Democrat did lose.

The next once-in-a-decade round of redistricting comes in 2011, so putting the issue before voters in 2010 is a critical mission for Democrats and good-government groups like Common Cause that are pushing the initiative.

"Right now, we have a situation where there are no races because districts are so unbalanced and gerrymandered," said Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston. "The goal of this is to make sure that people, constituents, get to pick their representatives and the representatives don't get to pick their constituents."

Josh Hafenbrack can be reached at jhafenbrack@sun-sentinel.com or 850-224-6214.