Kicking off the first meeting of the House Redistricting Committee, Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, who chairs the committee, said Wednesday redistricting "is not supposed to be a political process."
That's going to be easier said than done, as there has already been some political sniping over the membership of the committee, before the hectic process of drawing the congressional and legislative boundaries has really begun.
When members for the full Redistricting Committee and three subcommittees were announced Tuesday by House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, the legislator named by Democrats to lead them in the process, Rep. Perry Thurston of Plantation, was not on the list. That prompted House Minority Leader Ron Saunders of Key West to send Cannon a memo omitting the Democratic selection for a ranking member on the full Redistricting Committee.
"I anticipated Representative Perry Thurston being selected to the Redistricting Committee and expected to recommend him as the Democratic ranking member of the House Redistricting Committee. Because he was not appointed to the committee, the Democratic caucus will not recommend a ranking member to the committee. Regardless, Representative Thurston will continue to serve as our lead on redistricting matters," Saunders wrote in the memo.
Thurston, who is slated to be Saunders' successor as the House Democratic leader, attended the meeting Wednesday and said there is still a chance he could be placed on the panel.
"In speaking to Chairman Weatherford, I think there's a move afoot to make some changes. I do think that we certainly need to have representation from our leadership as does the Republican caucus," Thurston said.
Whether that will happen or not, though, remains to be seen. Weatherford said appointment decisions were made by Cannon, who doesn't look like changing his mind.
"Currently the speaker has no plans to make changes to the appointments announced on Monday," Cannon spokesperson Katie Betta wrote in an e-mail, adding that Thurston did not respond to his memo asking members whether or not they wanted to serve on the committee.
Still, Thurston said that he will lead the Democrats on redistricting, but has faith in his fellow party members that did make it onto the committee.
"I will be the lead whether those changes are made or not. We have some excellent people who were selected, and we're going to look forward to working together with them. I have their full support as the leader for redistricting, but they have my full support in the fact that they'll be able to do the job that's necessary to make sure that the process is fair," Thurston said.
Wednesday's meeting was largely informational, as members listened to updates on state and federal redistricting laws, as well as the latest demographic trends reflected in the 2010 U.S. Census, on which the new district lines will be ostensibly based. Weatherford, echoing his counterpart in the Senate, Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, called for an open, transparent, apolitical process.
"It's not supposed to be a political process. It's a process that's based on population, it's a process that's based on the law, and we're going to follow it to the greatest extent that we possibly can," Weatherford said.
As the flap over the membership proves, that will be very difficult as the process moves along. There are no less than four members of the House Redistricting Committee -- Rep. James Frishe, R-St. Petersburg, Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, Rep. Martin Kiar, D-Davie, and Rep. John Richey, R-Port Richey -- with their eyes on a state Senate seat in 2012. Of course, legislators must also add two new congressional districts.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
