Will Weatherford: Senate Map shows 'Significant Improvements'

House Redistricting Committee Chairman Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said Monday the Senates latest redistricting map has significant improvements over the earlier, rejected effort.

The Senate also went through a process of better documenting for the court how they analyzed compactness and the use of political and geographic boundary lines, Weatherford told members of the Redistricting Committee.

You will see noteworthy improvements in terms of county splits, city splits, and districts wholly located in one county.

The committee, called back for a special legislative session just on the Senate map, began a review of the second attempt to create new boundary lines for the Senate Monday afternoon.

The full House is expected to vote Tuesday and possibly Wednesday on the Senate map, which must still go back before the court for approval.

The state Supreme Court ruled eight of the Senates 40 districts invalid for failing to follow the requirements of the voter-approved Fair Districts amendments on March 9. The court found the House map valid.

The amendments, one for legislative and another for congressional lines, requires districts to be compact, follow existing geographic or government boundary lines, and not to favor incumbents.

The Senate approved its new map on Thursday.

The new map increases the potential for there to be two contests this fall between sitting incumbents, up from zero in the first map. The latest Senate map reduces the number of counties split by districts from 45 under the current map to 24, and the number of cities split from 126 to 47.