The Florida House today passed congressional, state House and state Senate maps that lay out how it wants voting districts to be drawn for the next decade.
A three-judge panel today denied an appeal filed by Reps. Corrine Brown and Mario Diaz-Balart and the Florida House in their quest to have one of Florida’s two Fair Districts amendments thrown out.
During a vote in a state House redistricting committee, a coalition of advocacy groups has declined defending the maps they recently submitted. Leaders called the move “disappointing” and a “political and legal stunt.”
The redistricting maps approved by the Florida Senate on Tuesday “do not meet the criteria set forth by the Fair Districts amendments,” writes state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, in a new column explaining her decision to buck the party line and vote against the maps.
The Florida Senate voted 34-6 yesterday to approve new congressional and state Senate district lines; opponents of the chamber’s maps were quick to argue that the new redistricting plans “do not comply” with the Fair Districts requirements approved by voters in 2010.
In an exclusive interview with The Florida Independent, a former campaign staffer for congressional candidate Mike Yost say that the Jacksonville-based Republican squandered campaign funds on personal expenses, refused to listen to his campaign managers and still owes ex-staffers large sums of money.
Secretary of State Kurt Browning has decided to step down from his position at the end of February.
The same day the Florida Legislature meets to kick off its 2012 session, lawyers for Reps. Corrine Brown and Mario Diaz-Balart and the state House will again argue their case against one of the two Fair Districts amendments approved by Florida voters in November 2010.
The Miami Herald today published an “open letter” from Broward County GOP chairman Richard DeNapoli to the Florida Legislature’s redistricting committees. In it, DeNapoli sharply criticizes state lawmakers’ proposals for how Rep. Allen West’s district should be redrawn, saying they doesn’t live up to the Fair Districts standards approved by Florida voters in November 2010.
In an email sent out to supporters, Rep. Corrine Brown’s 2012 challenger Mike Yost writes that he will continue to fight against the state Legislature’s proposals for how to redraw congressional districts, saying lawmakers have “let us down” by keeping Brown’s mostly unchanged.
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