Florida House leadership believes the Senate map will pass muster in the Florida Supreme Court, but a Justice Department review -- now that might be a tougher sell.
The House on Tuesday, as expected, approved the Senates second effort to create a map based on the less-than-2-year-old Fair Districts Amendments.
However, a number of South Florida Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the map, questioning the lack of Hispanic representation in South Florida, which could set the map up for rejection by the U.S. Department of Justice under the federal Voting Rights Act.
House Majority Leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, said the Senate map is textbook packing by shifting Hispanics and carving the Hispanic population of Miami-Dade County into three of four districts.
I like to think when the Senate map is reviewed by the judiciary, the fourth seat in (Miami-)Dade County will be created, he said. "I just wish the Florida Senate had done it and not left it to the judiciary.
Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the state needs federal pre-clearance to enact the changes for jurisdictions in which less than 50 percent of the voting-age citizens are registered to vote or voted in the presidential election, had a non-English-speaking population of more than 5 percent, and provided voting materials only in English.
House Minority Leader Ron Saunders, D-Key West, said there are still constitutional issues with the Senate map and he expects a challenge will be filed against the map on the federal level, regardless of the state receiving a pre-clearance on the map.
House Speaker-designate Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said the Senate map is an improvement over the map the court ruled invalid on March 9.
And he believes the map will hold up under the Voting Rights Act, since none of the minority populations retrogress in the five counties, meaning the minority voting-age populations remain higher or equal in the new districts to where they stand under the current districts.
I think the map (the Senate) drew is compliant, but well see what the court says, said Weatherford, who chaired the House Redistricting Committee.
The state Supreme Court once again will have to decide if the Senate map meets the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts amendment requirements. The amendment requires that districts be more compact, following geographic and existing government boundary lines without favoring incumbents.
If the court rejects this map, its staff would redraw the lines before the qualifying period for legislative candidates begins in June.
The proposed fourth Hispanic district is seen as an effort by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, to open the seat now held by Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami, for his brother, former state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, to return to the Legislature.
Lopez-Cantera said the South Florida delegation that preferred a fourth Hispanic district in Miami-Dade County didnt push for an amendment on Tuesday, in part so that the House wouldnt be accused of playing last-minute politics with the map.
The House and Senate had an agreement that each chamber would oversee its own redistricting map.
Among the Republicans joining Lopez-Cantera in voting against the map were Jose Feliz Diaz, R-Miami; Jeanette M. Nunez, R-Miami; and Erik Fresen, R-Miami.
This map allows for only three Hispanic Senate seats in Miami-Dade County, even though the Hispanic population has grown substantially over the past two decades, said Diaz. It is hard to argue there was no packing of Miami-Dade Hispanics when you have three districts that are over 70 percent Hispanic, while the neighboring districts are below 30 percent Hispanic. Why arent these districts more balanced?
Nunez said the maps show a blatant disregard for the Hispanic population in Miami-Dade County.
The Senate got an opportunity to do it over and get it right and yet they refused, she said.
The House, also as expected, rejected on Tuesday an amendment by Evan Jenne, D-Dania Beach, that he said would give the map a better chance of getting Supreme Court approval. He said it would make districts more compact and increase minority representation in the Jacksonville, Central and South Florida regions.
One-fifth of incumbents in the Senate potentially would have faced another sitting member under Jennes amendment, up from the two potential races under the Senates map.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
