Florida voters have it rough. After overwhelmingly approving a constitutional amendment last November that would transform the process of state and congressional redistricting to make it more fair, Floridians are facing a stiff fight from state lawmakers not yet ready to give up their authority to gerrymander districts to suit their political needs.
As Scott Maxwell, a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, puts it, members of the state legislature desperate to “keep themselves and their buddies in office” have ” decided to sue us, using our money.”
Some background. Amendments 5 and 6 on the statewide Florida ballot in November of 2010 were billed as the “Fair Districts” amendments because they were designed to radically alter the means of drawing state and congressional districts in Florida, taking power away from the incumbent party in the state legislature and putting guidelines in place to make districts, well, more “fair.” No more gerrymandering and no more wildly drawn districts existing solely to protect incumbents and freeze out the opposition party.
Both amendments passed, with Amendment 6, the amendment bringing the most important changes, getting 63 percent of the vote.
Outraged by this display of democracy and panicked over the thought of losing considerable authority to slice and dice districts as they pleased, newly elected Gov. Rick Scott refused to implement the provisions of the “Fair district” amendments and the Republican-controlled Florida House decided to sue in order to block the laws. Tallahassee lawmakers opposed to redistricting reform said they believed their “constitutional authority has been impeded.” Literally, the Florida state legislature has “decided to sue us, using our money.”
And it is a lot of money. As Maxwell describes in the video you can watch below, the Florida House has approved a legal war chest of $30 million to fight Fair Districts, and the Senate has allotted another $9 million. that is nearly $40 million in taxpayer money to be used by Florida lawmakers to sue you guessed it, Florida taxpayers and voters. And about a million dollars of the total put away by the House has already been paid to House Speaker Dean Cannon’s former law firm.
The situation, as Scott Maxwell puts it in a video feature for the Orlando Sentinel, is “major malarkey.”
(Watch below or click here).
Scott and his thug pals are treading on democracy. Not only are they suing taxpayers to preserve their gerrymandering they are also taking away the right to vote. I’d say this is a state emergency and we need a new election long before 2014. We’ll be in chains by then.
Redistricting is part of the B.S. that needs to STOP in this country. It’s part of the scheme to rig an election. Let the people vote and decide who the best person is. Period!
The problem is Rick Scott. Ol’ dracula is pushing his agenda on the people of Florida, where over half of voters last year didn’t even vote for him. He is pulling the strings in Tally to fight fair redistricting and waste millions suing the taxpayers of Florida. Ricky’s gotta go!
I don’t know how much more clearly it can be shown that the people are no longer running the country.
Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas. I spent most of last year in Florida and saw all of the commercials and warnings about Rick Scott. Floridians can’t complain that they didn’t know he was a crook. They knew what they were voting for and now they have to live with it. Shame on those who didn’t like Scott but didn’t bother to vote.