Florida senators haggle

in a special session over how their districts should be drawn.

TALLAHASSEE — Lawmakers grappling with redrawing 40 state Senate districts have a formal proposal to tinker with, but there are still plenty of legal and political issues to untangle before a final map is passed.

Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, chairman of the Senate redistricting committee, released a plan to redraw the districts late Wednesday, sticking more closely to county lines after being rebuked by the Florida Supreme Court this summer for violating prohibitions against gerrymandering.

In Central Florida, the map includes major alterations to districts in Orange and Osceola counties.

District 14 moves from a squiggly district snaking from central Orange County through Osceola and into Polk County to a district encompassing all of Osceola County and southern Orange County, with State Road 528 bordering the district on the north.

District 13, which now stretches from downtown Orlando east to the coast and into Brevard County, would instead be contained in Orange County, bordered by State Road 528 on the south, I-4 on the west and the county borders to the north and east.

The Senate, however, has some sticky issues to work out before it can pass a final map.

Galvano’s proposal was released after a six-hour meeting of his committee, where members squabbled over which of them would have to face voters in 2016.

That question is still unresolved and could ultimately be decided by the courts, although Galvano wants the Legislature to decide the matter.

“The goal is to have a legislative product,” Galvano said.

Under the Florida Constitution, the state’s 40 senators serve staggered four-year terms, with only 20 seats up for election in a given election cycle. But in redistricting years when district lines change, all members are on the ballot.

Although 2016 isn’t a normal redistricting year, Florida lawmakers are in a special session to redraw Senate districts after Republican Senate leaders admitted the maps they passed in 2012 violated the constitution.

Now lawmakers must redraw the districts. Next year, only senators with odd-numbered districts are scheduled to be on the ballot. That makes the way the redrawn districts are numbered a big deal for sitting senators.

In a memo to senators, Galvano said he’ll randomly renumber the districts today.

Those that can offer a legal opinion to help decide the matter have been silent. A spokeswoman for the Department of State, which runs elections, said the department doesn’t have an interpretation of the issue, and a spokesman for Attorney General Pam Bondi said no one has asked her for an opinion.

The fight over the issue is key because it could decide the partisan makeup of the Senate, where Republicans currently enjoy a 26-14 advantage. Democrats turn out in higher numbers in presidential-election years.