(John Ransom, Headline USA) Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has embraced redistricting maps in Florida that could add four GOP seats to the state’s congressional representation this year.
Redistricting update & very bad news:
Florida legislators are reconsidering Ron DeSantis’s proposal with no other map in consideration. This map will cause Republicans to pick up 4 seats and they removed a black-plurality district.
Blatant gerrymandering. #DemVoice1 pic.twitter.com/LbX1i8Xnr0
— ✨🌻ᗅᗫᒪᗅᓿ🌻✨ (@AdlaisWorld) April 14, 2022
The move would effectively counter gerrymandering efforts in New York, where a Democrat-led legislature and governor have brazenly sought to erase four GOP-safe seats from their maps, even after having lost a seat because many of its citizens fled to Florida.
DeSantis sent the legislation creating the maps to the Florida legislature, which is controlled by the GOP, and which has previously indicated they will support whatever DeSantis proposes in redistricting said Politico.
But the path to approval almost certainly includes court challenges from the Democrats, who have been led nationally by Eric Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee and funded by billionaire Swiss oligarch Hansjorg Wyss.
“It is appalling, but not surprising, that the Republican Legislature has abdicated its constitutional duty to draft and pass congressional maps to the governor,” said Florida Democrat Party Chairman Manny Diaz in a statement according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“As proven by the proposed map released today, Gov. DeSantis is hell-bent on eliminating congressional seats where Florida’s minority communities have the ability to elect representatives of their choice and he is imposing his own partisan political preferences on Florida’s congressional map,” Diaz added.
Invoking the specter of race suggests that the left-wing activists may attempt a federal overrule of the maps. The Supreme Court previously ruled that racial gerrymandering potentially violated the Civil Rights Act but that partisan gerrymandering was a state issue.
In parallel cases this year, however, including one in Alabama, the court has refused to get involved in cases that occur when the primary season is already underway.
A DeSantis spokesman defended the map saying that it eliminates a “racially-gerrymandered” district which DeSantis said violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, according to Jacksonville News 4.
Another Democrat Party lawyer also promised a lawsuit over the maps.
“If this map is enacted, Florida will be sued,” tweeted Democrat elections lawyer Marc Elias, who has seen the lawsuits as a perfect opportunity to pad the coffers of his new law firm.
If this map is enacted, Florida will be sued. https://t.co/BZdDWK8sZs
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) April 13, 2022
Elias’s last high-profile lawsuit in Florida was a failed attempt to force a recount on DeSantis’s own 2018 election—along with that of GOP Sen. Rick Scott. It was a rare defeat for the activist litigator, known for finding ways to reverse the outcomes of GOP victories after the election has ended.
But the ex-Perkins Coie attorney and architect of the notorious Steele Dossier for the Hillary Clinton campaign may have his own troubles emerging from John Durham’s ongoing special counsel investigation, in which he may prove to be a key character of interest.
Some in the GOP have criticize leaders for not being more aggressive when it comes to redistricting, saying that leaders in the states with GOP majorities have mostly played it safe, while the Democrats have pressed their advantage in places like New York, according to Politico.
“If you look at what goes on in Illinois, those guys cut the hearts out of two Republicans,” said Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb.
In all fairness, one of the Republican seats lost in the Illinois map-drawing was that of traitorous RINO Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who opted not to run again after seeing he would be pitted in a more competitive district where a primary was imminent.
Bacon’s district, in the area around Omaha, also grew more competitive this year—albeit under Republican-drawn maps.
“It seems to me the Democrats appear to be more ruthless in this redistricting effort,” he noted.
But not in Florida.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
