Redistricting maps get year-end changes
Dec 30, 2011
The following article was published in The Florida Current on December 30, 2011:
Redistricting maps get year-end changes
By Travis Pillow
The Senate Reapportionment Committee on Friday released a set of proposed tweaks to its redistricting proposal, suggesting that big alterations to either of its proposed Senate and Congressional maps will have to come from individual members.
Committee chairman Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said there is probably “nothing earth-shattering” in either of the proposed committee substitutes, but that the new measures include input from people, including supervisors of elections, who offered suggestions bringing the boundaries more in line with existing political divisions. In most cases, the racial, ethnic and partisan compositions of the districts would change by less than one percent, if at all.
One of the most significant shifts occurs in Southwest Florida on the congressional map, where District 13 would pick up a portion of coastal Charlotte County, leaving the neighboring District 12 landlocked.
Individual members still have a week to file amendments to the committee’s proposed changes under Gaetz’s 48-hour rule, which stipulates that they file amendments at least two days before the panel’s Jan. 11 meeting.
Also Friday, the House rolled out its proposed redistricting measures, include five proposals for the state House, seven for Congress, and one from the Senate that replicates the proposal introduced in the upper chamber.
The Senate’s current proposals, and the proposed changes released Friday, are below.
Note: Maps are compiled based on files released by the Senate and voter registration data kept by the House using the MyDistrictBuilder software.
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