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.

Doesn't anyone else think it's time the public found out who funded the coalition of groups suing the Legislature over its redistricting maps? Who paid plaintiff attorney David King?God knows, it wasn't the League of Women Voters of Florida. The Capitol Press Corps had more money in its scholarship fund during 2012 and than the League had. Check out the LWV's tax returns in the attachment below.

The Legislature on Wednesday released six draft maps of Senate districts for a special session that begins next week, opening up the next phase of a long-running battle over Florida's congressional and legislative lines.

Legislative leaders hope to have a new map of the 40 state Senate districts done by 3 p.m. on Nov. 6, according to the official "call" of a special redistricting session scheduled to begin in two weeks.

House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, and Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, issued the call Monday for the special session, which will start at noon Oct. 19. Legislative leaders earlier announced the dates of the session, but the call provides formal details.

All of the parties involved in a legal fight over the shape of the state's congressional districts have until Monday to submit maps they believe should be used in the looming 2016 elections, a Leon County judge ruled Friday.

An order approved by Circuit Judge Terry Lewis lays out the timeline for the latest stage of the courtroom battle, now in its fourth year. The Legislature's version of the congressional map was thrown out in July by the Florida Supreme Court, which said the plan violated the anti-gerrymandering "Fair Districts" standards approved by voters in 2010.

If this week’s events are any indicator, Florida’s redistricting drama is far from over even as the clock winds down to Oct. 17, when both chambers must reach some kind of agreement on Florida’s congressional maps. Ever since they left Tallahassee at the end of August, the question of which set of maps will get the rubber stamp has been looming over state lawmakers, who can’t come to a mutual agreement on which set is best for Florida voters.

The Florida Supreme Court told a state trial court to head back to square one with congressional redistricting, according to an order filed Friday. As part of the court order, the trial court will be able to look at both the House and Senate’s map proposals. Trial court Judge Terry Lewis will hold a hearing on "remedial plans" to see which one best meets the directions of the court. The trial court must make a decision on the map by Oct. 17.

The legal arguments about Florida's political maps continue to mushroom.

While the Florida Supreme Court and the Legislature grapple with how congressional districts will be drawn, more legal fights are building in federal courts.

In recent years, Florida Republicans have contrasted the way government is run in the Sunshine State with the dysfunction in Washington, D.C., insisting things were run smoothly in Tallahassee. That fiction was exposed Friday as the two chambers of the state Legislature were at each other’s throats over congressional redistricting. 

Senate leaders crafting new districts for the chamber in 2012 held confidential meetings to discuss maps with lawmakers before the maps were made public, while at the same time boasting about "the most open and transparent redistricting process in Florida's history," according to court documents.

Depositions and other evidence in a long-running lawsuit about the Senate districts were released this week, at the same time that lawmakers are holding a special session to redraw congressional lines that were struck down as unconstitutional gerrymanders by the Florida Supreme Court.