State: Judges approve congressional map

TALLAHASSEE -- The new map of Florida congressional districts cleared its last legal hurdle Tuesday when three federal judges rejected Democratic charges of political gerrymandering and approved the map for a decade's worth of elections.

The judges also endorsed new state Senate boundaries that were part of the same lawsuit, but did not approve newly drawn House districts that the federal government rejected the day before.

The U.S. Department of Justice said one House district straddling Collier and Broward counties violated the Voting Rights Act because it diminished the ability of eastern Collier's growing Hispanic population to elect a Hispanic lawmaker.

How that problem will be fixed is unclear, leaving House candidates hanging. The congressional picture, meanwhile, is set.

The approved congressional map slices St. Petersburg into two congressional districts for the first time in an attempt to ensure that Republican Rep. C.W. Bill Young's district remains securely in GOP hands long after the venerable House Appropriations chairman retires.

To accomplish that, lawmakers shifted much of heavily Democratic south St. Petersburg from Young's district to the Tampa-based district of Rep. Jim Davis, a Democrat.

Redistricting, which occurs once every 10 years, always is driven by partisanship. The new map seeks to add two more Republicans to Florida's delegation. House Speaker Tom Feeney and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart helped design districts for themselves.

A third, Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, is running in the redrawn 5th Congressional District, held since 1992 by Rep. Karen Thurman, D-Dunnellon. Republicans made Thurman's district more Republican in part by removing heavily Democratic Gainesville.

Florida is crucial to the GOP's national strategy. Republicans hold a 15-8 advantage in the Florida delegation, and the party has a precarious majority of 222-211 in the U.S. House, with two Independents.

With another court victory in hand, Republicans could not resist celebrating their latest triumph over Democrats. As GOP chairman Al Cardenas put it, Democrats treat the courts "as their personal complaint department," challenging "everything from vouchers to license plates."

For the Legislature, all that remains is fixing the problem with the House map.

Feeney's experts feverishly reworked the map Tuesday, altering the makeup of three House districts on the southwest coast, 76, 101 and 112, to boost the Hispanic population in 112. A computer disk with the changes was sent to the judges, who set a hearing for 10 a.m. Monday in Tallahassee.

With campaigns heating up and relations poor between House and Senate leaders, Gov. Jeb Bush and Feeney want to avoid a special session that could lead to more chaos and give Democrats time to renew allegations of gerrymandering.

So the House asked the judges to approve the fix.

Florida Senate President John McKay, however, doesn't want the Legislature to "abdicate our responsibility to the court."

The deadline for candidates to qualify for upcoming elections is July 26, and the now-famous overseas military ballots for the Sept. 10 primary must go out soon after.

U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan of Miami said the congressional and Senate plans were valid, and that the Democrats "have not met their respective burdens with regard to any of their claims."

The suit claimed the Republican-controlled Legislature illegally gerrymandered districts for partisan gain and diluted black voting strength in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

"I'm very disappointed," said Miami lawyer Thomasina Williams, who argued much of the Democrats' case. "The losers here are the black voters who live in Congressional District 23."

-- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk