Editorial: Florida officials incorrectly taking steps to preserve power, maintain status quo

• Editorial board
• TCPalm
• Posted June 29, 2010 at 1 a.m

Those wily Florida lawmakers will do almost anything to retain political power.

Witness their latest ploy: to quash Fair Districts amendments 5 and 6.

These two citizen-sponsored proposals would bring greater fairness and equity to the geographical boundaries of Florida’s legislative and congressional districts — boundaries that typically are redrawn to favor the incumbent or party in power.

Consider, for example, the ballot summary of Amendment 6, which states, in part: “Congressional districts or districting plans may not be drawn to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party. ... Districts must be contiguous. Unless otherwise required, districts must be compact, as equal in population as feasible, and where feasible must make use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries.”

Who could argue with this commonsense approach to redistricting?

Nobody but a public official seeking re-election.

The bipartisan group Fair Districts Florida conducted a petition drive to put Amendments 5 and 6 on the November ballot. The 2010 Legislature countered with a redistricting amendment of its own: Amendment 7. On its face, the proposal would appear to promote more equitable district boundaries by asserting “the state shall take into consideration the ability of racial and language minorities to participate in the political process and elect candidates of their choice, and communities of common interest other than political parties may be respected and promoted.”

Here’s the rub, though, with Amendment 7: “Consideration” of these issues falls far short of the more specific guidelines enumerated in Amendments 5 and 6.

If Amendment 7 is approved by voters, it essentially would maintain the status quo and invalidate Amendments 5 and 6 if one or both is approved.

Florida’s elected officials didn’t stop with an amendment of their own. Two of them — U.S. Reps. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami — filed a lawsuit to remove Amendment 6 from the ballot. Brown is in her ninth term in Congress, Diaz-Balart in his fourth. The Legislature subsequently joined the suit.

Anything, it seems, to preserve one’s chances to win re-election.

Florida needs to adopt constitutional Amendments 5 and 6, which would reduce the egregious, self-preserving practices of GOP and Democratic legislatures to gerrymander districts and keep themselves in power. Getting to this point, however, won’t be easy.

To be clear: If you support fair, equitable voting districts, vote “yes” on Amendments 5 and 6, and “no” on what has been dubbed the “poison pill” — Amendment 7.

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