At Thursday\u2019s meeting, Redondo declared that any map drawing in Florida would not be done for partisan gain, a pledge that drew loud laughs from the crowd largely made up of progressive protesters and voting rights advocates.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.<\/p>\n \u201cOur work as a committee and as a legislative body is not directed by the work of other states or partisan gamesmanship,\u201d Redondo said, his words temporarily drowned out by laughter.<\/p>\n Opponents of the effort had crowded the meeting room in the bowels of the House office building on Thursday, only to be told lawmakers would not be hearing the testimony they had traveled hours to give. Instead, the committee got a slideshow presentation on the basics of redistricting, before gaveling out more than 30 minutes before the hourlong meeting was slated to end.<\/p>\n Donna Gillroy, who traveled more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) from Naples, Florida, to attend the meeting, described the proceedings as \u201cdeath by PowerPoint.\u201d<\/p>\n Infighting in Florida GOP<\/p>\n The push for redistricting faces still major challenges in Florida because of bitter infighting<\/a> between DeSantis and leaders in the GOP-dominated Legislature, along with a provision in the state Constitution that explicitly bars redrawing maps with the intent to \u201cfavor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis has voiced support for redistricting and even called for a redo of the 2020 U.S. census<\/a>, claiming that Florida was shortchanged in the count, which determines how many congressional seats each state gets. Florida currently has 28 congressional seats, with a Republican-Democratic split of 20-8. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to press this issue,\u201d DeSantis said in August. <\/p>\n This week, in an interview with online outlet The Floridian, DeSantis floated the possibility of calling lawmakers back in a special session if they do not get redistricting done in the regular session.<\/p>\n The state Senate has declined to wade into the fray so far.<\/p>\n Senate President Ben Albritton, also a Republican, has said there is \u201cno ongoing work\u201d on the matter in his chamber, citing the governor\u2019s desire to address it in the spring. <\/p>\n Civil liberties and voting rights organizations have maintained that any redistricting for partisan gain in Florida is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n \u201cTo redraw the lines for partisan reasons is illegal. Period, full stop,\u201d said Genesis Robinson, executive director of the voter engagement organization Equal Ground.<\/p>\n Redistricting battle goes nationwide<\/p>\n Nationwide, midcycle redistricting has resulted in nine more congressional seats that Republicans believe they can win and six that Democrats think they can win. The redistricting is being litigated in several states, however, and there is also no guarantee that the parties will win the remapped seats.<\/p>\n The last time Florida redrew its maps in 2022, DeSantis took over what is typically a legislature-led process, vetoing the maps<\/a> drawn by lawmakers and muscling through his own, which dismantled two traditionally Black districts<\/a>. Black lawmakers staged a sit-in<\/a> on the House floor in protest of what they declared an overreach of executive power. <\/p>\n DeSantis argued that the previous maps \u2014 which kept the districts of Black representatives largely intact \u2014 represented racial gerrymandering. Earlier this year, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the maps<\/a> pushed by DeSantis, finding that restoring the previously united Black communities in Florida\u2019s Panhandle region would amount to impermissible racial gerrymandering in violation of the U.S. Constitution\u2019s equal protection guarantees.<\/p>\n The ruling had weakened a provision in the state Constitution barring racial gerrymandering, but it left intact the ban against partisan mapmaking, citizen-led amendments that Florida voters approved in 2010.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n
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