Florida Governor DeSantis granted power to manipulate the state’s electoral maps

TThe Florida legislature will allow Governor Ron DeSantis to take the lead in redrawing the state’s 28 congressional districts, a highly unusual move that will likely diminish the political power of blacks in the state and allow Republicans to further distort the state’s map. for your benefit.

State legislatures, including Florida’s, typically come up with a proposal for a plan that the governor approves or rejects. DeSantis vetoed controlled by the Republican Party legislative districts proposed by the legislature on March 29 after proposing its own map that would increase the number of Republican seats and eliminate two districts represented by black Democrats. Legislative leaders said Monday that they would not try to write a new plan before a special session next week, but instead expected DeSantis, a likely 2024 presidential candidate, to come up with his own plan.

“We are waiting for a communication from the Government with a map that it will support. Our intent is to provide the Governor’s Office with opportunities to present that information to House and Senate redistricting committees,” the legislative leaders said in a statement. monday note.

The legislature passed a plan earlier this year that would have given Republicans a 18-10 advantage in the state delegation. DeSantis’ proposal would have given Republicans a 20-8 advantage.

DeSantis appears to be focused on eliminating two congressional districts with sizable non-white populations. One of them is Florida’s 5th congressional district, which stretches from Jacksonville to Tallahassee, is 46% black and is represented by Al Lawson, a black Democrat. He has also focused on the state’s 10th congressional district, which is largely nonwhite and is represented by Val Demings, another black Democrat.

“The Florida legislature is giving in to DeSantis’ bullying and his desire to create additional Republican seats in Congress by eliminating minority access districts,” Lawson said. in a sentence. “Again, I am not surprised, but disappointed with the inability of the legislature to fulfill their constitutional duties as elected officials without political interference from DeSantis.”

Mac Stipanovich, a veteran Republican strategist in Florida who has since left the party, told the Washington Post that Republicans were “bowing down” to the governor.

“It is simply about maintaining and acquiring power and keeping the position,” told the Post. “What we are witnessing is a milestone on the road to one-man rule in Florida, at least for the time being.”

The Florida legislature passed two versions of the 5th congressional district earlier this year to try to satisfy the governor, but DeSantis rejected both. His office argued that lawmakers had illegally classified voters based on race. One version also reduced the share of the black voting population, with DeSantis’ office saying they violated a provision in the state constitution that says the state cannot make it difficult for minority voters who meet certain criteria to elect the candidate of their choice.

that reason is “mind-boggling” and “inconsistent”, Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, tweeted. The governor’s office essentially argued that the maps violated the US constitution by taking too much into account of race and Florida’s constitution by taking too little into account of race.

At the federal level, however, DeSantis’ rationale echoes what the US Supreme Court has recently ruled on the Voting Rights Act. The court’s conservative justices have repeatedly expressed skepticism about the use of race in redistricting and are making it difficult for litigants to show that race needs to be considered when drawing redistricting lines.

DeSantis, a former congressman, is itching for a court fight over Florida maps, NBC News reported. He also points to a 2010 amendment to the Florida constitution, approved overwhelmingly by voters, that sets up barriers in the redistricting process. Part of that amendment says that districts cannot be drawn to limit “the equal opportunity of racial or linguistic minorities to participate in the political process or to lessen their ability to elect representatives of their choice.”

“I think our dispute may very well lead to saying that Florida’s redistricting amendments are not consistent with the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment,” DeSantis said in March. republicans have a 6-1 majority in the Florida Supreme Court.

The legislature will meet April 19-21 for a special session on redistricting.

Florida, Missouri and New Hampshire are the last three states to complete congressional districting. So far, there are 181 Democratic-leaning seats, 182 Republican-leaning seats, and 34 highly competitive seats among the 435-seat US House of Representatives. according to FiveThirtyEight.