Florida House of Commons leaders push back against redistribution criticism

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (NSF) – House redistribution leaders are pushing back criticism from outside groups on the draft proposals rolled out this week as part of the ten-year process to redraw the lines of Congress and legislation.

A day after the chairman of the House Congressional Redistribution Subcommittee, Rep. Tyler Sirois decried the responses to the plans of the “self-proclaimed partisan political class,” the chairman of the state legislative redistribution subcommittee , Representative Cord Byrd, noted on Friday how “punditocracy grabbed the headlines. . “

“With all the political rhetoric that’s being tossed out in the media, very little is talking about the constitutional standards that apply to our cards,” Byrd, R-Neptune Beach, said at the start of a meeting of his subcommittee. “This irony is not lost on me, and it shouldn’t be on you either. External groups judge us on what we cannot assess, consider or even know.

Byrd and Sirois, R-Merritt Island, alluded to the Florida Constitution’s anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts requirements that prohibit new districts from favoring individuals or political parties. Voters approved the Fair Districts requirements in two constitutional amendments in 2010.

Byrd, as Sirois did, advised members of his subcommittee to “divest yourself” from outside groups with particular interests in the new lines and “their rhetoric which seeks to impute their political ambitions in your decision-making. “.

The bills, which were developed by House staff and released on Monday, will ultimately be replaced by committee bills sometime after the start of the 2022 legislative session, which begins on January 11.

The House and Senate will ultimately have to negotiate a map of congressional districts. Common ground appears to have emerged on a key issue of establishing a new Congressional District in Polk County. Florida will grow from 27 to 28 congressional districts next year due to a population increase in the U.S. census.

The Senate, meanwhile, is drawing a new map of the Senate, while the House will deal with a new map of the House.

Shortly after the House bills were released on Monday, Matt Isbell, a Tallahassee-based analyst who worked for the Democrats, called the cards “woefully drawn”, “just lazy” and “inferior” to the Senate proposals. .

He said one of the Congressional plans of the House “is a pretty remarkable gerrymander” as he “nuke” the District 7 seat in Central Florida held by Democratic Congressman Stephanie Murphy, while maintaining the grip of the Democrats in two seats in the Tampa area.

Isbell added that the House’s first legislative map proposal would give Democrats “concessions” around Orlando, but “bypass” the Democratic Party in Tampa and sharply divide Democratic Tallahassee by two to three seats.

Meanwhile, the anti-gerrymandering group RepresentUs, in conjunction with the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, gave House Congress cards an “F” rating, stating “bad for category, could be much better.”

RepresentUs and Princeton had assigned a “B” to the Senate congressional map projects, indicating “better than average for the category, but the bias still exists.”

The House’s legislative redistribution proposals did much better, earning “A” ratings from the team at RepresentUs and Princeton.

Representative Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs, said on Friday he would like to be more informed when any additional maps or changes are released. In addition, Daley said more attention needs to be paid to public comments submitted through a legislative redistribution website.

Byrd said members of the public submitted eight house map proposals.

Concerns were also voiced by lawmakers and local officials on Friday over House district proposals that would further divide cities such as Tallahassee and Tampa and counties like Orange and Seminole.

Representative Allison Tant, D-Tallahassee, said local officials are “obviously concerned about the cannibalization of our community.”

Byrd said the staff’s proposals are a “starting point.”

“That’s why we’re preparing it now,” Byrd said. “This is why we have had training so far, so that we can understand and understand what the staff has given us to consider. “

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