Senate’s Miami-Dade remap could kill plan
Clemens says lastminute changes shield incumbents.
TALLAHASSEE — Redrawn district boundaries that cost Palm Beach County a state Senate seat were positioned Tuesday for final approval, but changes made in Miami-Dade County could undermine the plan in courts.
The Senate advanced late-hour changes that rework three Hispanic-majority districts — bolstering their already heavy minority populations while removing the risk that three incumbent senators could be forced to run for the same seat.
“I think we just made it unconstitutional with that last amendment,” said Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth. “You can’t draw a map with the intent to benefit an incumbent. Everyone knows that.”
Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, pushed the Miami-Dade revisions, arguing that the plan narrowly approved last week by the Senate Redistricting Committee had fractured the county’s tradition of having three Hispanic-heavy seats anchored in Hialeah, Little Havana and West Kendall.
He insisted that the boundary changes he proposed had nothing to do with his home being tucked into the same district as Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, and Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, under the earlier map.
The changes set for a vote today in the Senate put Diaz de la Portilla in a different district from the other two lawmakers. But he said that was not what motivated him.
“The key here is we’ve got three Hispanic seats in Miami-Dade County for almost 30 years now,” Diaz de la Portilla said. “The map that was before us that needed to be amended did not do that.”
Those were the only changes made Tuesday in the plan, which moves Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, whose district currently includes the Jupiter-Tequesta area, out of Palm Beach County and into a district composed of Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties.
Negron is positioned to become Senate president following next year’s elections but his rival for the powerful post, Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, has echoed some of the same concerns as Democrats about the proposed boundaries.
If the map is approved today by senators, it still must go next week to the House, which has been wary of proposals drawn by lawmakers — as opposed to legislative staff, who are considered more shielded from political influence.
Senate Redistricting Committee Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, defended Tuesday’s plan, saying it was largely staff-drawn, “but for the changes in Miami-Dade.”
“I feel we’re in a good position,” he said.
Under terms of a settlement between the Senate and a voters’ coalition, senators have admit- ted that current boundaries set in 2012 were drawn to help incumbents and the ruling Republican Party, in violation of voter-approved constitutional standards.
The plan making it out of the Legislature will first be reviewed by a trial court and later the Florida Supreme Court, according to the settlement.
In Palm Beach County, the map approved Friday pairs the homes of Sens. Joe Abruzzo, D-Wellington, and Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, in the same south county district, which also reaches into Broward County. Abruzzo, though, has said he plans to move residences — avoiding the possibility the two would have to challenge each other.
Clemens, the county’s third senator under the map before lawmakers, is in line to become Democratic leader following the 2018 elections.
Like Clemens, Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami, warned that the MiamiDade changes can be seen as helping incumbents and thus could undermine the latest attempt at map-making.
Two earlier attempts by the Legislature to draw congressional boundaries were ruled unconstitutional by courts and a third effort in August failed when the House feared the Senate was again attempting to protect incumbents.
“We’re heading down the same path,” Braynon warned.