Palm Beach Post:
Reject voter deception bill: GOP leaders seek to protect gerrymandering as usual
Editorial Board
Palm Beach Post
Apr 20, 2010
In a democracy, voters are supposed to pick politicians. In Florida, the political leadership wants it to keep working the other way.
In 2011, as happens the year after every census, the Legislature will use updated population numbers to draw congressional and legislative districts. As happens the year after every census, the party in power will draw the lines to maximize the influence of its voters and dilute the influence of other voters. Now, it's Republicans. Then, it was Democrats.
Everything about it stinks. In 2001, two legislators drew new congressional seats for themselves that they won the next year. One legislative district begins near Wellington and gets to Fort Pierce via Lake Okeechobee. The party in power cuts deals with members of the minority party to create so-called "bipartisan" maps.
A true bipartisan group called FairDistrictsFlorida — of the honorary co-chairmen, three are Democrats and three are Republicans — wants to change that. The group got onto the November ballot Amendments 5 and 6, which would make it harder to pull off gerrymandering that, with computers, allows politicians to pick voters house-by-house.
Naturally, the two prospective leaders of the 2011 Legislature don't want to relinquish that power to keep creating the sort of safe districts that discourage challenges to incumbents and create narrow, faction-driven politics. Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Indialantic, and Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, back competing, deceptive amendments on redistricting. As happened in 1988, when developers in Palm Beach County wanted to dilute the power of condo communities through a switch to single-member commission districts, minority rights is the cover story.
But as the Florida NAACP made clear in a letter to the Legislature, the group supports Amendments 5 and 6. Indeed, voters who may agree only on their disgust at entrenched, self-serving politicians also should support the amendments and oppose Senate Joint Resolution 2288 and House Joint Resolution 7231.
To understand why, here is what the Republican leadership would like voters to approve: "In establishing congressional and legislative district boundaries or plans … districts and plans are valid if the balancing and implementation of standards is rationally related to the standards contained in the state constitution and is consistent with federal law."
And here is what Amendments 5 and 6 — one for Congress, one for the Legislature — would ask: "No apportionment plan or district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent." You can see why that terrifies politicians who want to pick voters.