Take Back Democracy

Editorial
The Miami Herald
Sunday Jun 21, 2009

OUR OPINION: Support drive to fix the way that representatives' districts are drawn

It's no wonder a group of legislators last year tried to quash a state petition drive to reform how Florida redraws its congressional and legislative districts. The drive threatens lawmakers because it would put an end to the blatant gerrymandering that protects incumbents and the political party in power at redistricting time.

The legislators suing to stop the petition lost -- deservedly so. The petition challengers were Republican. But there is little doubt that if the Democrats controlled the Legislature they would have tried to stop it, too. It's all about keeping political power.

Now voters have a chance to take democracy back and get a fair system of representation.

The goal of the drive, sponsored by the nonpartisan FairDistrictsFlorida.org, is to obtain 676,811 legitimate signatures by Feb. 1, 2010, to put two constitutional-amendment proposals on the ballot that year. The group's campaign chairwoman is Miami lawyer Ellen Frieden, a Democrat who served on the 1997 Constitutional Revision Commission, where redistricting reform failed to gain final approval. Chairman of the group is Tallahassee lawyer Thom Rumberger, a former Republican legislator who participated in the 1992 redistricting battle and later vowed to change it. The FairDistrictsFlorida.org petition is worth signing. It may be Florida voters' only chance at having more candidates in congressional and legislative races that truly reflect the state's growing political diversity.

Based on census

The U.S. Constitution requires states to redraw their federal and state lawmakers' districts every 10 years, using new U.S. Census data. There's a good chance that Florida will get one, maybe even two, new congressional seats after the census next year, so the stakes are even higher for proponents and opponents of reform.

The people who stand to lose or gain the most in the redistricting reform battle are Floridians, who in one sense don't get to choose their representatives. Instead, incumbents choose which voters to put in their contorted districts to ensure reelection.

Florida's Constitution requires only one thing when lawmakers redraw district lines -- that they be contiguous, meaning district borders must be complete, no gaps. Other than that, lawmakers can slice and dice the state's communities into as many pieces as suits their political goals. And they do.

This explains why Fort Lauderdale, with a population of 180,000, is cut up into four congressional districts that literally put people living across the street from each other in different districts. Winter Park, population 29,000, likewise has four Central Florida members in Congress.

Little in common

It explains why state Senate District 27 includes both the cities of Palm Beach and, 112 miles away, Fort Myers, whose residents have very little in common besides being Florida residents of coastal communities.

In terms of equity, it explains why, though Florida's registered Democratic voters slightly outnumber Republicans, the Congressional Delegation is two-thirds Republican and the Legislature is overwhelmingly controlled by Republicans.

Two amendments

Though 20 percent of the state's voters are registered as nonaffiliated, there are no independent representatives.

Republicans were in charge when the districts were redrawn in 2002 -- but Democrats would have done whatever it took to protect their party if they had been in power, too.

What to do to stop the political gerrymandering? The language on the two proposed constitutional amendments in the petition points the way:

• Congressional and legislative districts may not be drawn with intent to favor a party or incumbent.

• Districts must maintain the equal opportunity of minority communities to elect representatives of their choice and participate fully in the political process.

• Districts must be contiguous and to the extent possible compact and adhere to existing local boundaries.

• Districts must be roughly equal in population.

If approved, these amendments would have several salutary effects. They would enshrine the voting rights of minority communities in the state Constitution, as they now are protected in the U.S. Constitution. They would make it much harder to manipulate redistricting to serve any special interest other than the voters' good.

Skeptics -- and there are plenty -- will ask how to stave off political manipulation. It will require vigilance on the part of voters. Since the Legislature -- rather than a commission appointed by lawmakers (as has been proposed in the past) -- would do the redistricting, the process would be open to public scrutiny. If it appeared that lawmakers were trying to rejigger districts to protect incumbents or a political party, they would have to justify it under the above criteria.

If lawmakers persist in trying to gerrymander, the proposed districts can be challenged in court, where judges would have clear criteria, based on voters' wishes for fair districts, upon which to decide what is constitutional. In the 2002 redistricting litigation that challenged the Legislature's political gerrymandering, plaintiffs said the districts weren't compact or community based. The Florida Supreme Court rejected the challenge because compactness and community-based boundaries weren't ''constitutionally required.'' Passage of the two redistricting amendments would correct that oversight.

Florida voters' rights are at stake -- as is Florida's future well-being. Our elected representatives make the decisions that will determine our children's quality of education, Florida's economic growth, the protection of natural resources and a host of other vital issues.

Floridians must have the right to select these decision-makers knowing that each of their votes counts equally -- and hasn't been lumped into one district simply to protect an incumbent -- when deciding who will lead them into the future. Redistricting reform can guarantee that right.