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Two GOP commissioners say a third one's proposals hurt the areas they should protect.
By BILL VARIAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 10, 2001
TAMPA -- County Commissioner Chris Hart has played master cartographer as his colleagues redraw voting districts. The Republican commissioner handcrafted one of the two options on the table and a third that has yet to get a public airing.
Hart says his proposals do the best job of preserving minority representation on the commission and grouping neighborhoods with similar interests.
They also help fellow Republican Stacey Easterling's chances of winning re-election next year by increasing the number of GOP voters in her district. And that aids Republican ambitions to maintain a 4-3 majority on the commission for the next decade, an analysis of voter registration records shows.
"This sort of stuff happens at the state and federal level, but at the county level? Come on!" said Commissioner Jan Platt, a Democrat.
Under both of Hart's proposals, Easterling's new district would run from the revitalizing urban neighborhoods of South and West Tampa to the horse farms and newly built subdivisions of northwest Hillsborough. They turn her decidedly Democratic district into one nearly split along party lines, infusing it with Republicans who are frequent voters.
The plans have the backing of influential Republican activist Sam Rashid, who played a key role in Easterling's election last year.
Rashid visited Easterling's and Hart's commission offices the night Hart's latest plan was unveiled. Brief social calls, Rashid said.
Hart says he never saw Rashid that night and denies politics influenced the lines. "We did it simply by population stats," Hart said.
Predictably, the maps have touched off a fierce, behind-the-scenes battle. Not so predictably, the competitors are Republicans, and the outcome could ripple through next year's races.
Republican commissioners Jim Norman and Ronda Storms support the other proposal on the table. It adds Democrats to Easterling's district.
Norman said Hart's plans divide the very communities they purport to protect while lumping together neighborhoods with widely differing wants.
"I agree that if Republicans can help each other, they should try to do that," Norman said, "but, to borrow from Ronda Storms, "not at the expense of throwing communities under the bus.' "
For that view, Storms said she's getting the cold shoulder from some Republican friends. "And it all started on the day of the last redistricting hearing," she said.
The commission holds a public hearing on the options at 6 p.m. Thursday at the County Center.
Commissioners are required to redraw voting districts every 10 years to reflect census changes. Seven commissioners serve Hillsborough -- four from single-member districts, three chosen at large.
Option 1, supported by Norman and Storms, nibbles at Norman's north Hillsborough district, mostly south and west of the University of South Florida. It slightly enhances the edge that registered Republicans hold over Democrats in his district, precinct counts show, though term limits bar Norman from running for the seat again.
Storms said her priorities are maintaining the percentage of black residents in the central Tampa district held by Democrat Tom Scott to ensure U.S. Department of Justice approval, and keeping her district's communities intact.
A Republican majority holds in Storms' district with either option. "If I can help my teammates, then I will do that," Storms said. "But I'm not going to sacrifice my district for the benefit of the party."
Rashid, who funneled $8,500 to Easterling's campaign, said, "Population rebalancing is paramount above all other issues."
The first option leaves Storms' district with 23,000 more people than Easterling's.
"I don't call that fair," Easterling said. "Especially since I believe in one man, one vote."
Hart's proposals -- Options 2 and 2a -- achieve a closer balance but are not wed to existing lines.
Option 2 shifts Norman's district east and south along Interstate 75 and into Thonotosassa and Brandon -- now part of Storms' southeast district. Hart's alternate -- 2a -- returns land near Thonotosassa to Scott's district.
But nowhere is the change more pronounced than with Easterling's District 1 seat, which currently has Democratic strongholds in south and west Tampa and stretches north to Town 'N Country.
Easterling, a former prosecutor, won the seat in November by defeating Democrat Ben Wacksman, who had been appointed two years earlier. She must run again next year after only two years on the job.
Her district, under Hart's plans, would taper to a mile-wide isthmus at its current northern boundary, then blossom anew into northwest Hillsborough. Hart says if he were trying to help her, he would have given her a smaller district. "That's just a lot of land to cover," he said.
District 1 had about 6,700 more registered Democrats than Republicans in November, a 6 percent advantage. Under the Hart plans, the gap narrows to between 1,000 and 2,000 voters, an edge of roughly 1 percent, with most of the new Republicans voting in high-turnout precincts.
The competing plan, which pushes District 1 slightly north and east, gives Democrats as many as 9,400 more voters than Republicans and as much as a 7 percent advantage.
Though Hart says his proposal responds to citizens, such as those in Westchase, who feared being moved to a new district, it invites complaints from residents of Lutz and northern Carrollwood. Those communities would be divided, and their residents have showered commissioners with e-mails.
The redistricting also has divided Republican loyalists. Rashid claims Norman is allied with Storms and Scott to help Norman and some of his friends control four seats on the commission. Others, including Lutz Republican activist Denise Lasher, think Rashid is behind Hart's plans. Rashid and Hart deny that.
Rashid has supported all the Republican commissioners but now calls Norman "unpredictable."
Businessman Ralph Hughes, who has been a Rashid ally, said Rashid's comments are "outrageous" and called on him to apologize.
Last month, Storms said no other decision commissioners make is as political as this. Even she seems a little surprised how true her words now ring.
"I feel like I'm in a dark room," Storms said. "I can feel people boxing, but I can't see who they are."
- Bill Varian can be reached at (813) 226-3387 or at varian@sptimes.com.