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.
Lawmakers have to draw new Senate districts as part of a settlement with voting-rights organizations and voters who sued to overturn the existing map under the anti-gerrymandering "Fair Districts" redistricting standards approved by voters in 2010. The current map was drawn in 2012, following the once-a-decade U.S. Census.
The Legislature abandoned its defense of the lines in July, shortly after the Florida Supreme Court struck down eight of the state's 27 congressional districts for violating Fair Districts. An August special session failed to produce an agreement on the congressional map, and Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis is trying to decide which of seven proposed maps, or which combination of those maps, to suggest to the Supreme Court.
In addition to the brief call, Gardiner sent a memo Monday to Senate members reminding them to preserve redistricting records in case the new maps are challenged in court.
"Accordingly, you and your staff should continue to keep and not delete any and all records related to redistricting, including copies of unfiled draft maps, unfiled draft bills and amendments, correspondence, emails, texts and other electronic communications related to the enactment of new congressional districts, whether sent or received on official Senate accounts or devices or personal email accounts or devices," Gardiner said.
Lawmakers are expected to consider several possible configurations of Senate districts during the upcoming session. Unlike with the congressional map, the Legislature will record aides as they prepare the "base maps" that House members and senators will consider, according to an agreement between the House and Senate redistricting chairs announced last month.
"I have the utmost trust that our professional staff will draw a set of constitutional maps, however I cannot dismiss the fact that a great deal of discretion and decision-making is vested in them when they do so," Senate Reapportionment Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, wrote to House Redistricting Chairman Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, in September. "While it is the intent of the Legislature and our decision to accept a map that ultimately matters, I also recognize the safest course is to record such meetings to protect against the circumstance where the court might see it differently."
It's not clear how wide-ranging the changes could be. While the Legislature had a Supreme Court ruling to guide its work on the congressional map, there is no clear roadmap for which Senate districts have to be changed. Critics of the current Senate map challenged 28 districts in the lawsuit.
