Florida’s Constitution strictly prohibits gerrymandered district maps, but that didn’t stop Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday from releasing a proposed district map intended to boost his party anyway.
Of the Sunshine State’s 28 congressional districts, the GOP already controls 20, but under the governor’s plan, that total would grow to 24.
As this week got underway, there were some questions about whether the Republican-led state legislature would brush off state law, discount concerns about diluting GOP-held districts too much and follow DeSantis’ orders. Those questions received a prompt answer.
Just two days after the governor unveiled the partisan map — sharing the proposal with Fox News before he shared it with policymakers — Republican legislators scrambled to approve it with minimal scrutiny. The Miami Herald reported that the Florida House approved the gerrymandered map “with no Republican debate.”
Just 48 hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled his proposal for a new congressional map that could give the GOP four more seats, the Florida Legislature approved the plan. […]
No Republican spoke out in support of DeSantis’ plan during debate on Wednesday in the House or Senate.
Careful scrutiny of an important issue it was not. Indeed, the GOP-led state Senate followed suit just hours later, sending the map to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
The remarkably fast developments come just one week after voters in Virginia approved a redistricting measure of their own intended to help Democrats, as part of the broader arms race the White House started in Texas last year.
Recommended
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
Latest Post
Florida Republicans advance DeSantis’ gerrymandered map, setting stage for legal fight