Redistricting watchdog groups are crying foul after the Governor, in a rare move, proposed his own congressional map this week.
Political experts have speculated the Governor’s map could cut the state’s number of Black Congressional representatives in half and Jacksonville would see some significant impacts.
We were the first to report when the Governor released its map Sunday.
RELATED: Florida Governor’s Office releases proposed congressional map
It essentially disassembles District 5, currently held by Congressman Al Lawson.
“If his plan went into effect, I’d be cut off from Jacksonville, a large minority urban core,” said Congressman Lawson Wednesday. “The Governor and them know right now know that it’s a violation of the Voting Rights Act as well as the Constitution. I mean they have lawyers there that already know this.”
Currently District 5 spans from Tallahassee to the urban core of Jacksonville.
The Governor’s Office says Lawson’s District is gerrymandered.
“The northern Florida district is an unconstitutional gerrymander that unnaturally connects communities in Jacksonville with communities hours away in Tallahassee and Gadsden counties. We eliminated this flagrant gerrymander,” said DeSantis Press Secretary Christina Pushaw in an emailed statement.
UNF Political Science Professor Michael Binder admitted District 5 is gerrymandered but said that’s not unique.
“Guess what? A whole bunch of other districts are gerrymandered too. So, I’m not sure that necessarily matters a great deal,” said Binder.
Notably, District 5 was drawn up by the courts with the intention of ensuring Black Floridians had congressional representation.
It came as a result of a lengthy legal battle over redistricting the last time around.
“It appears that he [DeSantis] didn’t like the work of the House or the Senate as they preserved some of these districts where African Americans have the opportunity to run,” said Lawson.
But the Governor’s Office claims its proposal would increase the number of minority districts in Florida, while the House and Senate maps don’t.
“Our proposed map actually INCREASES the number of minority districts, specifically districts where the Hispanic voting-age population is greater than 50%,” said Pushaw.
President of the Florida League of Women Voters Cecile Scoon said it’s not just about how many minorities are in a district, but how many actually vote.
She said the Governor’s claims only hold water if you only consider raw population numbers.
“They’re voting age population numbers. That’s who’s in the community. That doesn’t mean they’re all voters. That doesn’t mean they’re all citizens,” said Scoon.
One thing is clear for Jacksonville, the Governor’s map would significantly shake things up in the Bold City.
If DeSantis gets his way, Binder said it’s likely Jacksonville will go from having one Democrat and one Republican Congressman, to two Republicans.
“If you are on the left, you know you’re going to have somebody representing you that you’re not at all supportive of,” said Binder.
Statewide, Binder estimates the Governor’s map would reduce the number of Florida’s Black Representatives from four to just two.
One of those, he predicts, would be in Jacksonville.
“And that has implications, not only for policy and benefits flowing into Jacksonville but also what that means for the youth of the city and the youth of the state for that matter,” said Binder.
Still unclear is whether the Florida Legislature will go along with the Governor’s proposal.
Although when it comes to Congressional districts, he does hold leverage with his veto pen.
The League of Women Voters said it is continuing dialogues with state lawmakers, in hopes of preventing another multi-year court battle over redistricting as we saw after the effort in 2010.
So far, the group told us it isn’t overly optimistic a legal battle can be avoided.
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