JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida’s new congressional maps may not have changed the lay of the land in Northeast Florida, but Northeast Florida lawmakers were front and center during the two-day special session on redistricting.
State Representative Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) protested shouting through a bullhorn on the House Floor as a final vote was taken on the maps.
State Senator Jennifer Bradley (R-Fleming Island) also made waves, voting no on the Governor’s proposed maps.
“As the current state of the law, that is unconstitutional,” Bradley said during debate on the maps in a Senate committee Tuesday.
Governor Ron DeSantis argued Thursday that the need to eliminate a racially gerrymandered district in South Florida drove the map-redrawing effort, along with other factors.
“And the fact that we’ve had so much population growth and the districts are really not representative of where Florida is today,” DeSantis said.
But UNF assistant political science professor Sean Freeder noted that the population adjustment argument is undercut by the fact Northeast Florida districts saw no changes.
“Given the speed of growth in Northeast Florida, that is a surprise,” Freeder said. ”It’s not surprising to me in so far as, I and I don’t think any other election analyst interpret this as anything other than, it’s a partisan gerrymander.”
The Governor’s own mapmaker openly admitted to considering partisan data when drawing the new map, which creates four new Republican-leaning districts.
Representative Nixon argued it’s a clear signal voters’ voices are being ignored, given they explicitly prohibited partisan map drawing when they overwhelmingly approved the Fair Districts Amendment in 2010.
“For a party that purports to be a party about law and order, they sure as heck do not follow the law, and they ain’t got no order,” Nixon said.
The Governor’s legal team predicts a new US Supreme Court ruling released this week will cause Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment to be struck down in its entirety, opening the door to partisan considerations to be factored into redistricting.
Expect a lengthy court battle to ensue, as that theory is put to the test.
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