DeSantis draws congressional map that will greatly expand GOP advantage in Florida

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis proposes a new congressional map that would create four more Republican-leaning counties and wipe out Democrats’ country redistribution advantage.

The map – will depict a Negro-held area – is release Wednesday afternoon, just a few days later state legislators said it would delay with DeSantis, a Republican, on the new congressional boundary. The Republican-controlled Legislature has drawn maps that may offer less advantage to the GOP, but DeSantis veto them last month.

DeSantis’ map will generate 20 Republican and 8 Democratic seats based on 2020 election data, according to Matthew Isbell, a Florida-based top Democratic data consultant who has worked map analysis on Wednesday night. Florida’s congressional delegation includes 16 Republicans and 11 Democrats in the House of Representatives. The state has been allocated an additional House of Representatives seat after the 2020 census.

“It’s blatantly partisan,” Isbell said. “The only way you can make a 20 and 8 map… is basically to say, ‘Demonstrate Screw Black.’

A top Republican in the Legislature privately agreed, saying the maps were likely drawn for partisan purposes by DeSantis – a potential GOP 2024 presidential candidate, who will run for re-election this year.

DeSantis said his administration is abiding by the law, which prohibits partisan gerrymandering.

Court challenges seem inevitable, but there’s little time to change the map before the primary in August before the midterm elections in November.

Daniel Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida who studies elections, said DeSantis appears to be inviting lawsuits. The map “is clearly being drawn up to challenge the remaining provisions of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court did not annul,” he said.

Despite significantly less control over the redistricting process across the country, Democrats have managed to make some gains in states like New York this year. According to Non-Partisan Cook political reportDemocrats have so far collected 1.5 seats while eliminating 1.5 Republican seats nationally.

While the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature has high level maps where Republicans are slightly more favorable, DeSantis seeks substantial gains for his party; in particular, he asked legislators to dismantle the majority of black electoral districts and argued that the North Florida county, which ran from Tallahassee to Jacksonville, was represented by Al Lawson, a black Democrat, to be an unconstitutional racist.

“We’re not going to have a 200-mile gerrymander that differentiates people based on the color of their skin,” DeSantis said Tuesday at a press conference in Miami. “That’s wrong. That’s not how we’ve managed in the state of Florida. And that’s obviously going to be litigated.”

DeSantis’ map will dissolve the area, the state’s 5th Congressional District, into several Republican districts. It would also affect the African-American voting population in another county with a significant black voter count, currently represented by Senate candidate Val Demings of Orlando. That would leave the state with only one black majority constituency.

In private moments, Republicans familiar with DeSantis’ map said they were uncomfortable with the way he proposed removing Lawson’s seat. And they think the map probably violates Florida’s ban on anti-party organization because of the way DeSantis has drawn District 13 in the Tampa Bay area – a revolving chair held by Democrat Charlie Crist in the city. St.Petersburg in Pinellas County.

DeSantis’ map will make the area more Republican by removing voters from the Democratic precincts of St.

During the last redistricting a decade ago, Republicans tried a similar approach by moving voters from the Democratic areas of St.Petersburg to Tampa. But the state Supreme Court stopped them, ruling that it was evidence of intentional partisan hacking. Essentially, the court banned legislators from crossing Tampa Bay.

“No map of the Legislature does this, and there’s a reason for it: The courts tell us you can’t, and they say we can’t because it’s for party purposes faction,” said a leading Republican involved in the redistricting effort.

“If DeSantis wants to go to court and defend this, I hope he doesn’t mind being impeached,” the Republican said.

Under the Fair County constitutional amendments that Florida voters passed in 2010, legislators are prohibited from pulling out counties that knowingly support or do not support incumbents or parties.

When asked on Tuesday what he was doing to ensure that the law was followed, DeSantis adjourned his legal team.

“Everything is done by our legal office and our attorneys and all that,” he said. “I mean, the people involved will come and testify before the Legislature about the product being created.”

Legislative leaders are likely to rubber-stamp the new map because DeSantis has vetoed their proposal and told them he wants his version with minimal changes or no, according to those Republicans are familiar with the dynamics in the State Capitol. Additionally, DeSantis has sky-high approval ratings with Republican voters, matching or surpassing former President Donald Trump in some polls, and well-aware Republicans running the Legislature. clear his power.

Senate President Wilton Simpson will leave office due to term limits and run for statewide agriculture commissioner. Republicans say he wants DeSantis endorsement and he doesn’t want to pass DeSantis.

“Why would you want to displease the leadership of the party?” Jamie Miller, a former executive of the state’s Republican Party, asked. “I don’t know if it has much to do with endorsements because of the fact that, if you’re running tickets with the governor, you’re going to want to do things like travel, go on stage with him. and send him a letter. “

Miller said he believes DeSantis’ map is legit and that existing congressional districts have been unfairly drawn by the Democratic-leaning state Supreme Court to the now Republican party. in favor of Democrats.

At his press conference in Miami with Simpson on Tuesday, DeSantis was irritated when asked why he still hasn’t endorsed Simpson.

“Look,” DeSantis said as the audience giggled, “we still have some work to do.”

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here