State House panel gets 1st look at redistricting map draft

TALLAHASSEE — Draft redistricting maps drawn by Florida House staffers, which were panned by some Democrats and political consultants as an attempt to gerrymander the state, got their first in-depth review by lawmakers Thursday, but the potential partisan makeup of the maps wasn’t discussed.

Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island, cautioned members at the start of the meeting that under the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts Amendments passed by voters in 2010, lawmakers can’t consider and shouldn’t discuss the potential of a map or an individual district to elect a Republican or Democrat.

“External groups are judging us on the very thing we cannot evaluate, consider or even know,” Sirois said. “I ask you to divest yourself from those external groups and their partisan narratives, which are aimed at imputing their political ambitions into your decision-making.”

When the maps were made public Monday, they were blasted as a way to boost Republicans’ chances of gaining seats in Congress. One of the House’s draft maps has 18 districts that voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 and 10 that voted for President Joe Biden. The other draft voted 17-11 for Trump.

The draft maps drawn by Florida Senate staffers released earlier this month, by contrast, voted 16-10 for Trump and received relative praise from most Democratic-leaning political observers.

“The House map that they put forth is atrocious,” said Sen. Randolph Bracy, D-Ocoee. “It’s the most blatant form of gerrymandering you could possibly think of. I don’t know what else to say.”

Bracy is running for Congress to replace U.S. Rep. Val Demings, D-Orlando, who is running for U.S. Senate and whose district currently

covers western Orange County. Bracy declined to talk specifically about the district he intends to run in but claimed the entire map was done to boost Republicans.

In Central Florida, one of the House maps would put Seminole County, which currently sits in a district occupied by U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Orlando, into a district with part of Volusia County, a Republican stronghold. The maps also link western Orange County, which has more Democratic voters, to a district that stretches through part of Lake County, encompasses all of Sumter County and dips into Citrus County, all GOP strongholds.

The other draft House map keeps Seminole County in a similar district to Murphy’s current seat, taking in part of Volusia and part of Orange County, and draws western Orange County into a district completely within the county.

House staffers to drafted the maps said they were following state and federal law and trying to give lawmakers options to consider.

Redistricting is required every 10 years by the U.S. Constitution after each nationwide census. Because of population shifts during the decade since the previous Census, lines must be redrawn to ensure each district has an equal amount of population.

For the current redistricting cycle, each congressional district must have 770,376 people according to the 2020 Census.

By drawing part of Volusia County into a district that juts into north central Florida, the rest of Volusia needed to grab an area that met its ideal population, and Seminole County fit. In the other draft map, northern Volusia was drawn into a district with Lake County, allowing Seminole to remain in its similar configuration to Murphy’s current district.