Democrats fret over Capitol office politics

At issue is a third-floor office with a security keypad that is set aside for work on redistricting.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 27, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- Republicans in the Legislature promise that the redrawing of legislative districts will be the most open in Florida's history. But what happened Monday didn't make Democrats feel any more confident about that.

Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach, wondered aloud what Republicans plan for a recently refurbished third-floor Capitol office.

She said "the rumor on the street" is that Room 327 is where Republicans will redo the state's political map for 2002, so she decided to pop the question to Rep. Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, chairman of the House Procedural and Redistricting Council.

"I'm wondering if all of us will have access to that office," Gannon asked at an afternoon meeting.

"I don't know what's up there," Byrd answered. "I think there's a press room up there. . . . Could you be more specific?"

The office was used for a couple of news conferences, but now it has a huge printer capable of printing large maps of districts.

A staffer in the office, Jennifer Chester, works in a room with colorful maps of the current districts on the wall. Yes, she said, Room 327 is a redistricting office, and an October House guide lists it that way.

"You're telling me something I don't know, if there's a staff person who has an office in there," Byrd said, "and quite frankly it doesn't matter. Redistricting exists in the hearts and minds of the members."

It surely was a decade ago, when Democrats controlled the House and Republicans regularly complained that they were denied access to the computers and demographic data needed to make maps of the state's political landscape. Now the tables are turned and the Republicans are in charge.

The chairman of the House committee on congressional reapportionment, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, said Democrats knew full well that Room 327 is a redistricting office because several of them took lessons there to learn how to use "FREDS," the software for the redistricting process.

"How can it be a secret room if Democrats were invited to go there?" Diaz-Balart said.

Gannon said she knew all along that Republicans had set up shop in the room but wanted to "get it on the table."

Most worrisome to some Democrats is that the wall outside 327 contains a security keypad, which holds a secret code known only to those allowed access to the room.

Democrats have nothing to fear, Byrd said: "When we say this is going to be an open, fair and member-driven process, we mean it."

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