After all the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth over the Virginia redistricting voter being “undemocratic” and “disenfranchising” rural voters, get a load of what Ron Desantis has up his sleeve:
Florida bans lawmakers from intentionally creating congressional seats to give their party an advantage. But Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly has launched a three-tiered power play to evade the ban — and create more GOP-friendly seats — in November.[…]
DeSantis rejected lawmakers’ calls to have an open process and draw the maps during the regular January lawmaking session. Instead, he’s embarked on a plan to have his office redraw Florida’s map, rush the plan through the legislature — and try to run out the clock on Democratic court challenges as the state gears up for the Nov. 3 elections. DeSantis’ clock-management strategy is rooted in three factors:
- The “Purcell Principle” — Named after a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court case, this generally limits lower courts from overturning election laws too close to an election to avoid voter confusion.
- Critics have long complained that Purcell rewards lawmakers who manipulate the clock with late-breaking redistricting changes.
2. The Apex Doctrine and executive privilege — Because his employees are drafting the maps, DeSantis’ team is expected to argue in court that executive privilege shields them. His office argued that in a 2022 redistricting court challenge.
- In that case, top DeSantis officials involved in drafting those maps also fought to avoid depositions under the Apex Doctrine, which forces a plaintiff to first exhaust efforts to examine low-level employees before targeting high-level ones. That burns court time.
3. Secrecy — DeSantis’ office is drafting the maps in such secrecy that plaintiffs could have trouble finding whom to depose and what records to look for. That would cause more delays.
- In 2022, DeSantis became the first Florida governor in recent history to submit his own congressional maps that were drafted out of the public eye. Normally, the maps are drawn by legislators, providing a record that court challengers could use draw from to prove intent.
- DeSantis’ process is so clandestine that Florida legislators who are to vote on the new maps Tuesday hadn’t seen them as of Thursday night.
It’s pointless to call out GOP hypocrisy since they are completely shameless but this is so bad you have to almost admire their chutzpah. They really don’t give a damn about any kind of integrity anymore.
There’s another reason why they’ve been delaying doing this. It’s because they’re already about as gerrymandered as you can get with safe seats. If they do this they may regret it:
There’s a risk in creating more Republican seats in Florida, which requires breaking up Democratic districts or diluting them. That can make surrounding GOP-held seats vulnerable as they get more Democratic voters.
- And as gas prices climb and Trump’s poll numbers fall, Republicans could lose once-safe seats as Democrats and independents are added to a district.
- “It’s yin-and-yang: To make blue seats more purple, you have to make red seats more purple,” said one Florida legislative Republican.
Nevertheless, national Republicans who aren’t familiar with the vagaries of Florida’s political geography hope DeSantis will somehow carve out about four new GOP-leaning seats.
Go for it Ron.If it works you’re a hero. If not you’ll go out of office in a blaze of glory (hopefully set back so much that you won’t even have the nerve to run for president in 28. )