All of Florida’s state senators will have to run for reelection in 2016 as part of a new Senate map proposal passed by the Senate redistricting committee Friday. The vote was 4-3.
This redistricting special session is the latest after a contentious few months between the two chambers. During this year’s regular legislative session, state lawmakers left without an agreement on the budget due to an impasse on whether to expand Medicaid in Florida. As a result, they had to reconvene in June to create a state budget to avoid a government shutdown.
State lawmakers met again in August to draw up new congressional districts but were unable to reach an agreement on the proposed maps, ultimately leaving the mapmaking responsibility up to the court.
Earlier in the week, state lawmakers clashed over whether senators would have to run for office again in 2016 -- a point heavily contested by redistricting chair Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, at the beginning of the special session.
Three legislative staffers drew up six base maps to start off negotiations. Like the congressional maps, the trio of staffers created the maps in private, and did not receive any input from any state lawmakers during the mapmaking process.
Despite hesitations and disagreements, one map, SB 9090, emerged as the winner, heading to the floor for a vote Monday. That map would result in all 40 state senators running for reelection in 2016, despite only half usually being up every cycle.
“I think we have done the work and done the due diligence, but this is different, the product is different,” said Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, who noted the redistricting process was much more restrictive than a regular legislative effort.
Montford also said he hoped state lawmakers would be willing to come forward and give input on the map before passing it out the gate.
“I think our colleagues on the floor…[should be] encouraged to make amendments [on the map,]” he said.
Passing SB 9090 didn’t come without some criticisms, however. Democrats said they weren’t happy with moving forward with a base proposal without any modifications from state lawmakers.
“I support what we we went to court and used taxpayer dollars to defend which was our ability as the Legislature to draw these maps,” said Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, who vehemently opposed simply accepting a staff-drawn map right off the bat. “I can’t support just a map produced by staff, because I do not want to send a message to the other members that that’s what we are going to do.
Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon emerged once again as a hesitant voice on the map, saying despite Galvano’s hard work, he didn’t want senators to think the base map was the magic solution.
“I don’t want the full body of this Senate to view this work product to having any air of superiority,” he explained.
Despite disagreements, the passage of a map is a quick turnaround compared to the previous redistricting session, which resulted in a crumbling of relations between the House and Senate at the eleventh hour.
With two weeks to go, there’s still plenty of time for state legislators to make changes to the map and give input on its boundaries.
Galvano reaffirmed his confidence in the map, saying it was a good product to head to his fellow lawmakers.
“I am confident that map 9090 is a constitutional, compliant product that is worthy to go to the floor,” said Galvano.
Reach Allison Neilsen at allison@sunshinestatenews.com.
