South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
New lines capture the diversity of a changing Broward
The future of Broward is in sharper focus with the County Commission’s remapping of all nine of its districts for the next decade.
Following a unanimous commission vote Tuesday, our hope is that in a few years at most, county government will more accurately reflect the rapid change and diversity of a place where Hispanic and Black residents together now make up a majority of the population. But diversity is slow to reach the highest level of county government, where seven of nine commissioners are white, two are Black and none is Hispanic.
Real diversity means greater political opportunity for a more diverse group of people. That will be difficult for lots of realworld reasons, such as the power of incumbency and the impact of special-interest money. Broward is controlled by Democrats, and while Black voters overwhelmingly vote Democratic, Hispanics are split between both parties. But fairness starts with geography, and districts drawn to improve the ability of racial and language minorities to elect candidates of choice, as required by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The once-a-decade process of redistricting went surprisingly smoothly, and the people of Broward deserve credit.
They wisely approved a change to the county charter in 2018 that took mapmaking out of the hands of politicians with a personal stake in the outcome and required that it be done by a university for the first time. Commissioners hired Florida
International University professors Dario Moreno and Maria Ilcheva, redistricting experts who hosted seven forums attended by an estimated 300 people. Afterward, they produced four map alternatives.
FIU’s presence removed the self-dealing that tarnished redistricting in the past. If only the Florida Legislature would do the same and take its redistricting responsibilities out of the hands of politicians.
The overriding question about Broward’s new map is how well and how soon it will reflect Broward’s majority-minority character, where the overall population is 40% white, 31% Hispanic and 27% Black, according to FIU. (The citizen voting-age population totals for each group are slightly different and favor white voters, because residents who are not citizens can’t vote.)
Map C, the one of FIU’s four options that was approved by the County Commission, looks much cleaner and more compact than the status quo version drawn a decade ago by commissioners looking out for themselves.
Map C features two majority-Black districts in central Broward, and they are divided east and west by Northwest 31 Avenue or U.S. 441. District 8 favors African-American candidates, and District 9, further west, favors Caribbean-American candidates in a county where 15% of residents were born in a Caribbean country.
Moving south, district lines change dramatically with the first majority Hispanic commission seat in the county’s history in southwest Broward (District 1, held by Nan Rich). In a new minority-access seat in south Broward, the voting population is 44% Hispanic and 36% Black (District 7, held by Tim Ryan).
Here’s where the district numbering scheme becomes a factor. Broward has staggered terms for county commissioners, who serve four-year terms. Even-numbered districts are on the ballot in 2022, and odd-numbered districts are up in 2024. Commissioners keep the same district number even when reapportionment moves the boundaries, which means many residents will get a new commissioner they did not elect.
“We need to have a new face there,” Ryan said, acknowledging the obvious in a dramatically altered District 7. Ryan is a member of a pioneer Broward political family synonymous with the city of Dania Beach, where his father was a legislator and his grandfather a city official.
Ryan, who was reelected in 2020 to a four-year term, now represents a transformed minority district through 2024, when he cannot run again due to term limits. If the map does its job, his successor will likely be Black or Hispanic.
Ryan’s old District 7 included Dania Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors and Oakland Park. His new district shifts south and west as it follows the county’s rapidly changing demographics. The other four districts all are safe terrain for incumbents Mark Bogen in District 2, Michael Udine (3), Lamar Fisher (4) and Steve Geller (5).
Broward’s pace of diversity is astonishing. Political progress for everyone has come much too slowly for too long. But this map is a definite step in the right direction, and it was done right. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.