![\"Ron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/260427-desantis.jpg\")
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Chris O’Meara\/AP<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tGet your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 mapmaker doesn\u2019t want you to know who helped gerrymander Florida.<\/p>\n That was one of the most significant takeaways from Jason Poreda\u2019s testimony Tuesday before the Florida legislature. Poreda, a senior official in DeSantis\u2019 governor\u2019s office, told lawmakers during a special session that he was responsible for drawing a proposed new map that would tilt the Sunshine State\u2019s already lopsided congressional delegation even further toward Republicans\u2014potentially giving the GOP up to 24 of 28 US House seats. The map, which was publicly released Monday after first being given to Fox News, is expected to be formally approved Wednesday by the Republican-dominated legislature.<\/p>\n During committee hearings, Poreda walked lawmakers through the changes. He said he began working on the new map two weeks ago and had finished it over the weekend. While he said he was the sole creator of the map, he acknowledged that others also worked on it and reviewed it. But refused to say who they were.<\/p>\n When state Sen. Jennifer Bradley, a Republican representing several counties in northeast Florida, asked who else was involved in producing the map, Poreda answered: \u201cI did work with other EOG [DeSantis\u2019 Executive Office of the Governor] counsel and staff, but I\u2019ll leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n State Sen. Lori Berman, a Democrat from Palm Beach County, questioned Poreda further.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you tell us who reviewed this map before it was published yesterday?\u201d Berman asked.<\/p>\n Poreda didn\u2019t budge. \u201cI\u2019m going to leave that with the same answer I just gave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Berman pressed on: \u201cI\u2019m confused. Why can\u2019t you tell us who had the opportunity to review this map?\u201d<\/p>\n Poreda responded that he was \u201cadvised by counsel\u201d not to disclose anything further.\u00a0<\/p>\n Standing next to Poreda was Mohammad Jazil<\/a>, a private attorney representing the governor\u2019s office. Berman asked Jazil what legal basis there was for declining to reveal who was involved. Jazil said that a previous court ruling gave DeSantis the same legislative privileges that shield lawmakers from having to disclose documents or testify regarding their work.\u00a0<\/p>\n Poreda also fielded questions from Democrats about the origins of the red-and-blue-colored version of the map<\/a> DeSantis\u2019 office provided to Fox News Monday morning, even before submitting his proposal to the Florida Legislature. The explicitly partisan shading\u2014red for GOP-leaning seats, blue for Democratic ones\u2014is particularly notable given that the state\u2019s constitution prohibits partisan gerrymandering. Poreda said he did not know who had colored the map in that way. He did, however, disclose that he used partisan data<\/a>, among other datasets, to draw up the map, which would create up to four more Republican-leaning districts.<\/p>\n Florida is the latest state to engage in aggressively partisan mid-decade redistricting after President Donald Trump last year successfully pushed Republicans in Texas<\/a> to revamp their maps. Other GOP-controlled states, including Missouri and North Carolina, followed suit. But as my colleague Ari Berman reported last week, \u201cthe gerrymandering arms race<\/a> [Trump] started hasn\u2019t resulted in the lopsided victory the White House envisioned\u201d\u2014at least not yet. California Democrats, for example, successfully countered the Texas map with a ballot measure creating their own gerrymander. And last week recently, Virginia voters approved a map that would help Democrats secure up to four new seats there. \u201cRight now,\u201d Ari wrote, \u201cthe parties are basically even in the states that have redrawn their maps since last summer.\u201d<\/p>\n Much now depends on the impact of a raft of high-stakes legal battles. On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court dramatically limited<\/a> a key Voting Rights Act provision. While its unclear how that case will affect this year\u2019s redistricting fights, the ruling, as my colleague Pema Levy wrote in October<\/a>, will ultimately help Republicans \u201cdismantle Black political power as well as Democratic seats.\u201d Meanwhile, Republicans are suing to block the new Virginia gerrymander, arguing that the Democratic-backed referendum there was illegal. And Democrats have already promised to sue over the new Florida map.<\/p>\n On its face, the Florida proposal does seem to violate the state\u2019s constitution\u2014specifically an anti-gerrymandering amendment that voters overwhelmingly approved in 2010. As Politifact reported<\/a>, \u201cMid-decade redistricting wouldn\u2019t be illegal, but doing it to intentionally benefit one political party would be,\u201d according to law professors the news outlet interviewed.<\/p>\n