It looks like Florida’s Congressional redistricting dilemma be decided in Court after all. Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli (R-Merritt Island) has indicated in a memo to Florida House members and a letter to Senate President Andy Gardiner (R-Orlando) that he is not interested in pursuing a special session of the Florida Legislature to take another try at drawing up a map that would fulfill redistricting requirements. In his letter and memo, Crisafulli stated “Until and unless there is more direction from the Supreme Court, the most prudent course of action is to act on the map that was the joint work product of our two chambers”. He also said given the October 17th deadline by the Court, it would be difficult to “hash out the remaining concerns” the House has with the Senate’s version of the redistricting map. It appears that Speaker Crisafulli is not open to compromise stating it was possible the Senate would come together to pass the map the House adopted “with overwhelming and bipartisan support”.
Senator Gardiner has repeatedly called for a another special session “where the House and Senate can resolve minor differences, pass a compromise map and meet the Legislature’s Constitutional obligation to the people of our state”. Senate redistricting chairman Sen. Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) proposed a compromise map last weekend that took into account the House’s concerns of a Senate map that did not apply consistent standards. In fact, Gardiner stated Tuesday he believed Galvano’s map ” was “more constitutionally compliant” than the House’s original map; Crisafulli rejected that claim and stated that “in redistricting, unlike other legislative matters, the final arbiter of legislative intent is the Florida Supreme court”.
And so, in the absence of any last minute desire for true compromise, two versions of a Congressional redistricting map will be presented to Leon County Judge Terry Lewis in October and the final decision will be made by a Court, instead of the Legislature.
