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Opponents claim the congressional redistricting plan would make it harder to elect black candidates.
By STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Tallahassee Deputy Bureau Chief
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 5, 2002
MIAMI -- Democrats attacking a new map of Florida congressional districts got to the heart of their case Tuesday, and it was all about race.
An expert hired by Democrats testified that Republicans have diluted black voting strength in several seats held by blacks, especially in a South Florida district held since 1992 by U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings of Miramar.
The accusation appears to be the Democrats' best chance of defeating a map that passed on party line votes in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
To survive legal scrutiny in court and with the U.S. Department of Justice, redistricting plans must not dilute the minority vote.
Historian Allan Lichtman of American University told a three-judge panel that if Hastings reran his first campaign in his newly drawn district, he would lose to Rep. Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach, the white candidate who narrowly lost a 1992 runoff to Hastings.
Lichtman, a participant in more than 60 voting rights cases, said the district has a history of racially "polarized" voting trends, with blacks voting for black candidates and whites voting for whites.
He said the Legislature reduced the black Democratic voting strength in Hastings' new District 23 by 4 to 8 percentage points, depending on the turnout -- enough to jeopardize the chances that black candidates can keep winning.
"We will see changes that are politically consequential in terms of the ability of black voters to fully participate and elect the candidate of their choice," Lichtman testified.
The testimony of Lichtman, who is being paid $300 an hour, is based partly on the elimination of the runoff, and on Florida's new open primary that allows Republicans and independents to vote in Democratic primaries where there is no GOP candidate.
Courts have held that the "totality of circumstances" can be taken into account in evaluating how district changes affect minorities.
Lichtman said he focused on Hastings' 1992 campaign because that was the last time black and white Democrats faced off for the nomination, and the district had been drawn in Florida's last redistricting.
Lichtman's testimony came in the second day of a trial that is expected to last into next week. Attorneys for Republican legislative leaders will put on their own experts in the days ahead to rebut Lichtman's analysis.
"What we did was a best effort to maintain a district that performs for African-Americans, and it will," said former Senate President Jim Scott, an attorney for the Senate.
Scott said the redrawing of Hastings' seat was complicated by demographic trends. Hastings' minority district did not keep pace with Florida's growth in the past decade, while adjoining districts held by white members of Congress grew dramatically, he said.
Scott said lawyers for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division who are scrutinizing the map also have raised a number of questions about the changes to Hastings' Broward-based district.
Republicans are expecting a decision this week on whether the plan has survived a review for its effect on minority voters in five counties, including Hillsborough.
The redistricting case is before a three-judge panel that is headed by Gerald Tjoflat of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta and includes U.S. District Judges Robert Hinkle of Tallahassee and Adalberto Jordan of Miami.
The downtown Miami courthouse lists the names of former federal judges on a wall near the entrance, including Hastings, who was stripped of his judgeship and impeached by Congress after a 1983 trial in which he was acquitted of bribery conspiracy.
His impeachment was subsequently overturned.