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Legislators to fight redistricting initiative

The House leader will use public funds to challenge an initiative for an independent panel to draw districts.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published October 22, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Both houses of the Republican-controlled state Legislature are opposing a ballot initiative that would strip the Legislature of its power to draw political districts and give it to an independent commission.

But they disagree on whether to spend public money to fight it.

House Speaker Allan Bense will spend up to $50,000 to keep the proposal from reaching voters, while Senate President Tom Lee said he "could not justify" spending tax dollars to thwart a citizens' initiative.

Their target is the Committee for Fair Elections, a political group trying to get an amendment to the state Constitution before voters in next year's election. Financed mostly by the watchdog group Common Cause, the committee wants to create a 15-member commission to draw state House, state Senate and congressional district lines.

Organizers say legislators, driven by partisanship and political survival, have drawn gerrymandered districts that have all but eliminated competitive legislative elections, leading to Republican dominance in a state where Democratic voters narrowly outnumber Republicans.

Lawyers for the House, Senate and three Republican members of Congress from Miami filed papers this week at the Florida Supreme Court, disputing the ballot language proposed by the Committee for Fair Elections.

The court must decide whether the proposal meets the requirement that such ballot proposals deal with a single subject and are written clearly. The court has rejected ballot initiatives in the past for not meeting those criteria.

In an e-mail to House members, Bense said that because the proposal would "dramatically" shift power away from the Legislature, "I feel it is my responsibility as speaker to protect our institution and the people of Florida."

Paul Dunn, campaign manager for the Committee for Fair Elections, says it's not surprising that Florida politicians are fighting to preserve their redistricting power.

"The incumbents want to continue to pick their own voters and draw their own districts," Dunn said. Bense hired attorney George Meros, a redistricting expert, to work with Rep. Dudley Goodlette, R-Naples, also a lawyer, in opposing the creation of an independent panel. House lawyers, who are state employees, helped craft the argument.

In papers filed with the Supreme Court, the House says the petition is misleading because it calls the commission "nonpartisan," though 12 of its 15 members would be appointed by partisan legislators, both Republicans and Democrats.

The House lawyers also said the petition violates the single-subject rule because it deals with at least two issues: the creation of a redistricting commission and new standards for drawing districts.

The House's decision to use tax money to fight a citizens' ballot drive follows earlier criticism that legislators have actively thwarted the public's use of the initiative.

The Legislature has not yet implemented the regulation of slot machines in Broward County, though voters in that county in March approved the machines, as permitted by a constitutional amendment passed statewide in November. And many House Republicans support repeal of the 2002 class size amendment.

Senate leaders also oppose the redistricting idea, though they have not yet decided how they will pay the lawyer they hired. Lee said he won't use tax money.

"I could not find any precedent, and I could not justify it in my own mind," Lee said. "This is the public's right, to amend their Constitution."

Senate Republicans have hired lawyer Barry Richard, a key member of George W. Bush's legal team during the 2000 recount.

Legislators named as parties in the Senate opposition are Republicans Jim Sebesta of St. Petersburg and Charlie Clary of Destin, as well as a Democrat, Al Lawson of Tallahassee, an African-American. In the groundbreaking 1992 redistricting, blacks forged an alliance with Republicans, then in the minority, to create districts where blacks made historic gains in Florida. But one byproduct of that was that suburban districts became dominated by whites, and Republicans won enough seats to capture both houses in 1996, for the first time in more than a century.

Lawson could not be reached for comment. Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa, leader of the Senate's 14 Democrats and an African-American, said he would not join the Republican legal briefs but voiced concern that racial diversity would be lost if an independent panel drew districts.

"We need to look at what kinds of safeguards we can put in place to keep African-American representation in this body," Miller said. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Dania Beach, who supports the ballot initiative, said an independent commission would have to comply with the Voting Rights Act provisions that require minority representation.

Florida is one of several states - along with California, Ohio and Massachusetts - where the momentum for independent redistricting commissions appears to be growing. In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, wants to shift redistricting power away from the Democrat-dominated General Assembly and give it to a panel of retired judges.

[Last modified October 22, 2005, 08:05:03]