House OKs congressional redistricting plan (Florida)

http://www.news4jax.com/politics/house-oks-congressional-redistricting-plan/34784780 ^ | Aug 18, 2015 | Kent Justice and Brandon Larrabee

[Ray76]

A plan to redraw Florida's 27 congressional districts overwhelmingly passed the state House on Tuesday, inching closer to a potential faceoff with the Senate.

The map approved would require major changes to several districts, including U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown's 5th Congressional District.

Brown has filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the state court's decision to redraw the districts. Brown said it's not about her, but about black voters being able to elect someone to represent them.

[Ray76]

Brown's lawsuit - http://floridapolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/complaint1.pdf

Brown's 5th District - 2012-2014

Brown's 5th District - after 2014 court ruling

Brown's 5th District - Proposed

Related:
The case also il­lus­trates the ten­sion between Vot­ing Rights Act re­quire­ments meant to pro­tect minor­it­ies’ elect­or­al in­flu­ence and ger­ry­man­der­ing laws that pre­vent minor­it­ies from be­ing packed in­to a single dis­trict. In Brown’s dis­trict, which snakes from Jack­son­ville to Gaines­ville to Or­lando, state law­makers told they court they thought they needed to main­tain at least a 50 per­cent ma­jor­ity of Afric­an Amer­ic­an voters to com­ply with a Vot­ing Rights Act re­quire­ment that cer­tain dis­tricts have enough minor­it­ies for them to elect the can­did­ate of their choice.

Source: http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/2015/07/09/Florida-Supreme-Court-Throws-Out-Congressional-Map-Orders-Battleground-Districts-Redrawn

All so that a "black" may preside over a "minority access district". This is a demeaning racist requirement.

Florida League of Women Voters, Common Cause Florida, and National Council of La Raza have also been objecting to every proposed redistricting.

Here is an analysis of the political implications: http://floridapolitics.com/archives/186391-in-wake-of-historic-redistricting-decision-here-are-maps-maps-maps-detailing-the-possible-changes

[Ray76]

“Today, I filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking relief against the continued use of any congressional redistricting plan that dilutes the voting strength of African-Americans,” Brown said.

“District 5 in Florida and minority access districts across the nation cannot, and will not be eliminated, particularly after the hard-fought civil rights gains we have made during the last 50 years. As a people, African-Americans have fought too hard to get to where we are now, and we certainly are not taking any steps backwards,” Brown said.

Brown’s current district, referred to in the filing as a “minority access district,” was intended to enfranchise African-Americans along the St. Johns River; its “contours trace the historic settlement” of African-Americans along the waterway. Its “distinct population with a shared history” settled where they did, the filing continues, because of red-lining and restrictive covenants that restricted their settlement elsewhere.

The Jacksonville-to-Orlando configuration, which the Florida Supreme Court directly objects to, was almost unanimously agreed to by the executive and legislative branches of Florida’s government in 1996, and, Brown contends, “has received bipartisan support ever since.”

The filing contends that the east-west configuration dilutes the minority vote, and contravenes the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by denying/abridging African-American suffrage in what is called “intentional discrimination.”

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/188172-corrine-delivers-a-federal-lawsuit

[FlingWingFlyer]

Barry sent one of his goon squads to Arizona to “redistrict” our state because we’re all “rasis” here. After all the gerrymandering was complete and one of his judges prevented Arizonans from stopping it, we ended up with a bunch of his ‘RAT goons representing Arizonans in Congress. What a load. Polticians! They all should be in jail.

[edh]

“Brown said it’s not about her, but about black voters being able to elect someone to represent them.”

Why do they lie? A better response for this moron would be “My masters in the Democratic Party are getting sick of me. I’ve been a good party member and did what I could to fuel the fires of racism. However, it seems that the Democratic Party has decided to move on and exploit Hispanic people. The Democratic Party is going to remind them that they are weak and are nothing unless they vote Democrat. As a result, I am no longer needed. I request that the state obey its Federal masters and draw me a district where I can continue to exploit black people, skim Federal dollars so that I can retire a multimillionaire having only worked as a Representative, and continue to remind blacks that racism pays well so long as you don’t let it die.”

A frigging computer could draw new districts in about 3.7ms. These fiefdoms have got to go.

[John S Mosby]

The E-W re-draw will make certain Brown loses.
Very few blacks in that draw and no fine tuned machinery in place from multiple terms to “grease” the results. Has to start all over. Very odd dems are engineering this, unless it is for something else.

[rstrahan]

Tis will ultimately go the SCOTUS. Too many courts involved. Rep Brown gets elected because few in her district know anything about her except she is African American and the district is gerrymandered that way.

[MSF BU]

I am wondering if there will be any change in the district Allen West represented.

[originalbuckeye]

A computer drawn set of Districts wouldn't allow for the ‘consideration of minority representatives’.....so, Affirmative Action for Congress. There is a law that basically says the Districts must be gerrymandered to allow minorities to be elected.....so minorities have representation. But, when I look at the minorities in Congress, most are overrepresented if you compare their percentages to their percentage of Americans. I would LOVE IT if every state was required to go with computer generated Districts, allowing only for an equal population in each District.

[originalbuckeye]

Unfortunately, the people of Arizona voted to allow for a Commission, consisting of 2 Democrats, 2 Republicans and 1 ‘Independent’ to create the Districts. And sadly, the one who was appointed as the ‘Independent’ lied (of course, she was a Democrat). So, the 3 Democrats got together behind closed doors, illegally of course as they were only supposed to meet as a complete committee and always in open meetings. They gerrymandered the Districts to favor Democrats in a state with a Republican Governor, a Republican States Attorney, a Republican Secretary of State and 2 Republican Senators. We got 5 Dem Representatives and 4 Republican Representatives after the redistricting. In a Red state. Gov Brewer sued to change the redistricting and the judge on the case ruled against her. Right now we have 5 Republican Representatives, and 4 Dems (not to mention the Congress’ first openly and proudly bisexual Representative, Kirsten Sinema, who was elected in a newly gerrymandered District that had previously been a safe Republican District).......the ‘Committee to redistrict’ should be abandoned completely. Leave it to the State legislature!

[edh]

“I would LOVE IT if every state was required to go with computer generated Districts, allowing only for an equal population in each District.”

Yeah, me too. I’d also like to see the number of Reps. expanded to something like 4x what we have now (w/o the insane salaries/benefits of course) ... in fact, the more, the merrier. The constitution calls out for something like 1 rep per 30,000 people or something along those lines. The swamp needs diluted. It’d also break that two party stranglehold.

That 435 ceiling has caused about as much damage as the direct election of senators.