UPDATE: House blocks DeSantis on vaccines and AI; will vote on gerrymandering Wednesday
Bringing this morning's post up to date with the latest legislative actions in Tallahassee
UPDATE:
Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez blew up Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plans to weaken vaccine mandates for school children and to create new guardrails on artificial intelligence as the Legislature convened today.
Which leaves one remaining topic for the special session—gerrymandering the state’s congressional districts to favor the G.O.P even more so than they do already (more on that in this morning’s report, below). A vote on the map the governor has presented to the legislature (above) will take place tomorrow.
“Our work here will be finished, and all of you will be free to return home tomorrow afternoon,” Perez told House members.
And why did the House decide to kill DeSantis’ other pet issues?
“There were no bills filed on these policies prior to the start of this special session; consequently, we will not be taking up those issues,” Perez said.
As noted by the Florida Phoenix:
This is only the latest break between DeSantis and Perez, two powerhouse Florida Republicans. The two have feuded since Perez took over the lower chamber last year, insisting on asserting the House’s independence from the executive branch.
For most of the previous six years, the House mostly gave the governor anything he asked for.
This morning’s post:
By J.C. Bruce
No sooner had Gov. Ron DeSantis released his proposal to further gerrymander the state’s congressional districts than Republicans and Democrats alike began saying he just shot himself in the foot.
Florida’s constitution forbids drawing congressional districts for the purpose of favoring one political party over another.
But in announcing the new map that the state Legislature will consider starting today, DeSantis:
Didn’t present it to legislators first, but, instead, showboated his way onto Fox News to brag about how he was adding four new Republican seats to the state’s congressional map.
Then he flashed that map, all marked up in 24 red districts and a miserly 4 blue districts, just to underscore the point of how he planned to screw the Democratic Party.
As one Republican consultant—who has been involved in past redistricting cycles—told NBC News:
“This is wild. I don’t know how you can argue a red and blue map released from the governor’s office doesn’t show some form of partisan interest.”
Democratic state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith said that early release alone could be enough to show there was partisan intent from the governor’s office. As he posted on social media:
“The fact that the Governor shared his illegally-rigged Congressional map with @FoxNews before sharing it with state senators voting on them TOMORROW shows how partisan and illegitimate this process is.”
DeSantis, as has been written about extensively in this space, is slavishly obeying President Donald Trump’s call to rig the midterm elections in favor of Republicans so he won’t lose his G.O.P. majority in Congress.
Trump knows perfectly well that the minute Democrats take control of the House, one of the first items of business will be his impeachment.
DeSantis is more than happy to join the ranks of other Republican governors who have kissed Trump’s ring. In DeSantis’ case, he’s out of the job at the end of the year, so currying favor with Trump is an obvious and pathetic stab at political relevancy. And maybe a paycheck.
Florida is already one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the nation with, as noted, the vast majority of congressional districts drawn to favor Republicans—20 out of 28—even though the G.O.P voter registration in the state is not nearly that proportionally dominant.
Here’s the math:
Republicans certainly do have a big edge over Democrats in terms of party registration. Setting aside voters with no party affiliation and voters belonging to minor parties, the divide is:
Republicans: 58 percent
Democrats: 42 percent
But the way the state is currently gerrymandered, Republicans have an unfairly disproportionate advantage in terms of congressional districts that lean red:
Republicans (with 20 seats): 71 percent
Democrats (with 8 seats): 29 percent
If DeSantis’ new map is approved during the special legislative session that starts today, the imbalance that he claims his new map would create would be:
Republicans (with 24 seats): 86 percent
Democrats (with 4 seats):14 percent
How any court could look at that and not see partisanship is beyond imagination.
The new DeSantis map specifically targets the districts held by four Democrats: Reps. Kathy Castor, Lois Frankel, Darren Soto and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Democrats’ heads are, as you would expect, exploding. These reactions, as reported by Politico:
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried called it “wild” that DeSantis was instructing the Legislature to ignore the Constitution. She maintained that Republicans were “playing with fire” because some safe Republican seats have been reconfigured in order to try to flip a handful of Democratic seats.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a post on X, also blasted the effort and said the new map violates both the state’s redistricting standards as well as the 14th Amendment. “See you in court,” he said.
State House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said the map was “cynical swamp-like behavior” that was designed to help DeSantis if he runs for president again in 2028.
“It’s entirely for himself and his political future,” said the Tampa Democrat.
That’s what they think. How about you?
J.C. Bruce is the founder of Tropic Press. He is an award-winning journalist and author. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and his native Florida.
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The term "dummymander" was never more appropriate.
While I support the AI regulations, the gerrymandering by the Right and the Left is abhorrent. Let’s hope the House doesn’t cave to DeSantis on that one tomorrow.