TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Florida Legislature took its first official step Thursday toward potentially redrawing the state\u2019s congressional districts as lawmakers convened a new House committee tasked with exploring possible changes.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The Florida House’s Select Committee on Redistricting on Thursday held its first public meeting in Tallahassee
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\u00a0The group is tasked with exploring the oppuurunity to draw new congressional maps in Florida
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\u00a0Critics from across the state travelled to attend the hearing, and held an outside demonstration<\/p>\n
The Florida House\u2019s Select Committee on Redistricting met Thursday for the first time in Tallahassee, kicking off a process that could reshape the state\u2019s congressional map. The meeting Thursday provided lawmakers with an overview of Florida\u2019s redistricting process and its legal limits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me be very clear,\u201d Redondo said, before garnering a notable laugh from critics in attendance. \u201cOur work as a committee and as a legislative body is not directed by the work of other states or partisan gamesmanship. We may ultimately decide to propose a new congressional map based on our exploration, or we may not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside the Capitol, protesters gathered to oppose Republican effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lotta people didn\u2019t expect anyone to come from this far away, but we are a determined bunch,\u201d said Teresa Stohs, a Naples resident who traveled to Tallahassee to protest.<\/p>\n
At least six other states are redrawing maps, or at least attempting to, ahead of next year\u2019s midterm election. Florida\u2019s redistricting process is somewhat unique, however, because of its 2010 \u201cFair Districts\u201d constitutional amendment, which prohibits maps drawn to favor political parties or incumbents.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlorida voters approved the Fair District Amendments in 2010 because we wanted to rid our system of this type of partisan gerrymandering and rigging for political gain,\u201d said Genesis Robinson of the voting rights group Equal Ground.<\/p>\n
Over the summer, President Donald Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw their congressional maps to expand the GOP majority in Congress, alleging Democratic leaders in other states have gerrymandered maps of their own. Gov. Ron DeSantis reaffirmed his administration’s intent to follow along, noting the state will likely pursue changes if and when the U.S. Supreme Court rethinks federal redistricting rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to do it,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cAnd part of it is we\u2019re going to be forced to do it, I think, because the Supreme Court\u2019s VRA decision is going to impact the current map. So just no matter what else happens, that is going to have to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s plan, though, will require House and Senate cooperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree people have to turn the keys at the same time in order to get new maps,\u201d said Jonathan Webber of the Southern Poverty Law Center. \u201cAnd right now, it does not seem like all three people are aligned. And maybe that\u2019s a good thing. Maybe it\u2019s a bad thing. But overall, it\u2019s a bad thing for the people of Florida that there is not clear leadership from their leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus far, the Senate has taken no action on the issue. In a memo, Senate President Ben Albritton said work on redistricting may launch in the new year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Governor has expressed a desire to address this issue next spring,\u201d Albritton said in a statement. \u201cAs such, there is no ongoing work regarding potential mid-decade redistricting taking place in the Senate at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Florida Legislature took its first official step Thursday toward potentially redrawing the state\u2019s congressional districts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3140,6074,28,30,29,2203,115,139,99,135,835],"class_list":["post-72141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-capital-connection","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jason-delgado","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-politics","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}