Florida Lawmakers To Hold Special Session After Gov. DeSantis Vetoes New Congressional Map
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/AP) — Florida lawmakers will hold a special session in April to redraw the congressional map after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the one they had approved.
The veto puts more pressure on the Republican-dominated Legislature to approve a map and resolve any resulting lawsuits before the June 13th to 17th qualifying period for federal candidates. Florida is also creating a new 28th district because of population growth.
"In their, I guess, understandable zeal to try to comply with what they believe the Florida constitution required, they forgot to make sure what they were doing complied with the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution," DeSantis said during a news conference on Tuesday.
In a rare move, DeSantis interjected himself into the once-a-decade process of drawing new political lines following the federal census by submitting his own map. The Senate did not take the governor's map into consideration, and the House approved two maps, a primary map to try to appease DeSantis and a second in case the first map was found to be unconstitutional.
While the House was debating the bill, DeSantis used Twitter to say the plan was "DOA."
Republican Senate President Wilton Simpson and Republican House Speaker Chris Sprowls told lawmakers to return to the Capitol from April 19th to 22nd.
"Our goal is for Florida to have a new congressional map passed by the Legislature, signed by the Governor, and upheld by the court if challenged," the leaders said in a joint statement.
At the news conference, DeSantis said, "We're not going to have it drawn by a court."
Under the governor's proposal, several Black districts would be impacted, and members of Congress could lose their seats. One of them is recently elected Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. She would no longer represent the portions of Palm Beach and the city of Miramar, which have large minority populations.
"It seems like just another attack on our communities. This one is just a little bit more impactful and long lasting," said CJ Stapes with the Dream Defenders. "Unless somebody's burning a cross outside of your house or wearing a white hood, people can say things aren't racist. But when you look at the data, when you look at how the legislation that's proposed seems to target specific groups, I refuse to look at that as coincidence."
In 2010, voters approved a constitutional amendment aimed at preventing gerrymandering. It states that political maps have to be drawn in a way that does not favor or hurt a candidate or party, that districts should be compact and contiguous and that the ability of minorities to elect members to Congress should not be diminished.
DeSantis argues that a later U.S. Supreme Court ruling determined that districts can't be drawn with race being the primary factor. The governor's map would likely result in two Black members of Congress losing their seats.
"Everyone gerrymanders, but there's gerrymandering within the rules," said Charles Zelden, a political science professor at Nova Southeastern University. "What it comes down to is if the gerrymander is designed to take away a voice of specific groups within the community, be them African American, be there Latino, be there Democrat, be there Republican. When it takes away your voice of these groups, it's not doing what voting supposed to do.
(© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)