The redistricting of Florida’s Senate Districts took an ugly turn this week, with accusations of partisanship flying from both sides of this volatile issue. Late this past Wednesday, a coalition of plaintiffs from the League of Women Voters and Common Cause filed a brief asking Leon County Circuit Court Judge George Reynolds to favor a map submitted by the group. The plaintiffs accused Republican lawmakers of conspiring to favor incumbents, while lawyers for the lawmakers accused the plaintiffs of “operating in the shadows” to help democrats.
The plaintiffs map says the Senate map “smacks of partisan intent because it failed to maximize population and respect political boundaries while offering unmistakable benefits for the Republican Party and incumbents”. They also argued the Legislature ordered staff to draw up 6 maps without an order to correct for the constitutional defects the plaintiffs previously identified. The Senate is accused of then coming up with an “amalgam ” of maps. “The Senate found just the right combination to create better Republican performance and pair fewer incumbents than any of the six base maps”.
Lawyers for the Senate blasted plaintiffs for relying on map drawing experts with ties to democrats and drawing maps that systematically favored them. They further accused plaintiffs of “insisting on an open and transparent process free from partisan intents” while failing to record telephone conversations and withholding their map until after the special legislative session had adjourned. The lawyers also argued “the principal map drawer is a young democrat political activist trained in the art of gerrymandering by Strategic Telemetry, a democrat microtargeting firm” used previously by the plaintiff group. They concluded their argument, “Plaintiffs drew their own alternative maps in complete secrecy in and collaboration with partisan operatives. Because their maps emerge from a tainted process, they are unconstitutional as a whole and must be presumed invalid”.
The Senate Redistricting trial is scheduled to be held December 14-18, in Leon County. One obstacle for the Legislature has been the shift of burden of proof from the plaintiffs, who had to prove gerrymandering was involved, to the Legislature, who must now defend their map as constitutional.