Florida House rejects Gov. DeSantis in rare clash on political redistricting

TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Ron DeSantis’ demand that a Jacksonville-to-Tallahassee congressional district be eliminated was ignored Friday by a House panel, which in its proposed boundaries maintains the seat held by Black Democratic congressman Al Lawson since 2016.

But DeSantis stepped-up his fight against fellow Republican leaders in the Legislature, dispatching a national expert on redistricting who warned that keeping the Lawson district will threaten the legality of the congressional plan.

DeSantis insists the district dominated by Black voters amounts to racial gerrymandering. And attorney Robert Popper, with the conservative activist foundation Judicial Watch, agreed.

“In federal law, the district’s in trouble,” said Popper, famous for having created a mathematical standard bearing his name that is used to gauge district compactness.

Under questioning from Republicans on the House congressional redistricting subcommittee, Popper acknowledged that DeSantis had asked him to provide testimony Friday, and that his hotel and flight to Tallahassee from the Washington, D.C., area was paid by the governor.

Court ruling a question

Popper echoed the governor’s contention that a 2017 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a North Carolina case found it unconstitutional to racially gerrymander a seat, except in narrow occasions that Lawson’s district does not meet, he said.

“They’re going to view this as not narrowly tailored. That’s my prediction,” Popper told the committee.

But in a rare instance of bipartisan unity in the House, Republicans and Democrats both sharply challenged Popper’s conclusion.

Rep. Christine Hunchofsky, D-Parkland, argued that state and federal law prohibits lawmakers from creating district lines that diminish the possibility of minorities to elect a representative of their choice. And sometimes, those districts that help achieve that goal are not compact.

“Is compactness more important than having an equal opportunity to representation in our districts?” Hunchovsky asked.

Popper sidestepped. “As important, is a difficult thing,” he said.

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Lake Placid Republican Kaylee Tuck, vice-chair of the committee, also bore in. “Do you agree that protecting minority voting interest from diminishment is a compelling state interest?” Tuck asked.

Popper responded that “it can be, if it’s accomplished with a narrowly tailored remedy.” He added that the Tallahassee-to-Jacksonville district “is a problem.”

GOP wants more seats in Congress

With Republicans nationally eager to gain seats this fall to regain control of Congress, DeSantis has become the first Florida governor in at least many decades to weigh in with a redistricting map.

Through general counsel Ryan Newman, he has proposed two plans that would cut in half the state’s four congressional districts with Black populations large enough for those voters to elect a candidate of their choice.

Lawson was at the state Capitol on Thursday and struck back at DeSantis for his efforts to erase a district that is 46% Black and spans many North Florida counties that were home to pre-Civil War plantations and later, decades of Black voter suppression.

“For the governor who is supposed to be representing everyone in the state of Florida, going in the direction he’s going, it shows he just doesn’t care,” Lawson said.

More: Democrats stand with Al Lawson in feud with DeSantis over 'wickedness' in redistricting

DeSantis’ first proposal also would create 18 districts considered likely to elect Republicans, with 10 districts Democratic-leaning. The other map would make it a 20-8 Republican divide in the state’s congressional delegation.

Republicans currently hold 16 of the state’s 27 congressional seats, with the extra seat being created this year because of population growth revealed in the latest U.S. Census.

The House plan advanced Friday in a 14-7 vote by the subcommittee, which broke mostly on party lines, would give DeSantis the 18 Republican-leaning districts he initially recommended.

Democrats and League of Women Voters criticize

Democrats and the League of Women Voters of Florida also criticized the plan for changing the Orlando-area district held by Black Democrat Val Demings since 2016 to where it may reduce the possibility of Black voters to elect a favored candidate.

These critics said they were more supportive of the approach taken by the state Senate, which keep in place the four Black-oriented districts and four congressional districts where Hispanic voters have elected their preferred candidates.

The House and Senate are expected to reach agreement on a final map before the Legislature’s scheduled March 11 close. DeSantis, though, has a powerful weapon if he does not get his way, since he is authorized to veto whatever lawmakers draw and demand another attempt.

DeSantis has said he will not sign into law any plan that has an "unconstitutional gerrymander in it."

Redistricting a decade ago led to three years of costly court fights before the state Supreme Court ultimately draw the congressional district boundaries now in place in 2015. DeSantis and his office didn’t immediately respond to Friday’s action by the House.

But Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island, chair of the House congressional panel, defended the proposal his side has now put in play. He also pushed back against the warnings directed from the governor.

“I want to assuage any doubt that may be in front of you today, “ Sirois said. “This is a legally sound map. It is a constitutionally compliant map.”

John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: House Republicans break with DeSantis on congressional map plan