Two top lawmakers are on a list of witnesses and depositions that the Florida House and Senate plan to use at a Thursday court hearing to defend congressional redistricting proposals.
The hearing before Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis is meant to help decide which map will go to the Florida Supreme Court for a final review after justices struck down the current congressional districts in July. The Supreme Court ruled that plans drawn by lawmakers in 2012 and tweaked two years later violated the anti-gerrymandering "Fair Districts" guidelines approved by voters in 2010.
The Senate told the court in a brief filed late Monday that Senate Reapportionment Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, and Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon, would be called to testify about two potential sets of congressional districts that the upper chamber has submitted in the long-running court battle. Galvano oversaw efforts to draw a new map during a special redistricting session that imploded last month, while Lee sponsored an amendment at the middle of a House-Senate battle.
Lawyers for the Senate also said they will call Jay Ferrin, the staff director for Galvano's committee, along with two experts: Florida International University professor Dario Moreno and University of Utah professor Baodong Liu.
Attorneys for the House also listed Moreno and Liu as witnesses, along with staff members Jason Poreda and Jeff Takacs and Stephen Ansolabehere, a Harvard University professor who helped prepare a map for a group of voters known as the "Romo plaintiffs."
But the House also plans to use a raft of depositions from earlier proceedings in redistricting litigation, apparently in an effort to discredit proposals submitted by critics who challenged the 2012 map. The Legislature and its lawyers have complained that the Romo plaintiffs, supported by the Democratic Party, and voting-rights organizations including the League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause Florida are trying to use the redistricting lawsuits to benefit Democrats.
The House wants to use depositions from Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Scott Arceneaux; Democratic political consultant David Beattie; Common Cause Chairman Peter Butzin; Ellen Freidin, one of the leaders of the campaign for the "Fair Districts" initiative; Steven Paikowsky, an adviser to Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz; and employees of groups like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which helped draw a map offered by the Romo plaintiffs, and the National Democratic Redistricting Trust.
A spokeswoman said the League of Women Voters and Common Cause only plan to call two witnesses: American University professor Allan Lichtman and John O'Neill, who drew the three proposed maps offered by the organizations. O'Neill works for Strategic Telemetry, a firm whose founder worked for the presidential campaigns of Democratic nominees John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Also late Monday, the Florida Supreme Court rejected a request from the House that could have shed more light on maps proposed by the groups that challenged the 2012 districts.
In a 5-2 decision, the court said House attorneys would not be allowed to gather additional information about proposed maps through a legal process known as discovery.
