The Florida Legislature is sending a revised Senate redistricting map back to the state Supreme Court. The House on Tuesday gave the map final approval on a 61-47 vote that went largely along party lines.
The Florida Supreme court rejected the first Senate map, saying it "was rife with objective indicators of improper intent" that violated the new Fair Districts standards approved by voters.
Political consultant and author of saintpetersblog.com, Peter Schorsch, has been watching the Senate redraw its map. He says that it doesn't look like the Senate has completely followed the Supreme Court's map suggestions.
The court cited eight districts that needed to be redrawn. But by redrawing those districts, Schorsch says, the Senate got involved in a trim a little here, chop a little there game with the remaining districts that threw everything back out of whack.
"It reminded me of that "Seinfeld" episode where Elaine takes a little piece of the pie off of one end so it looks more even. Well, then you have to do it on the other side and you ended up with a very uneven process. By changing the boundary lines on 8 seats, they had to change the boundary lines on 24 seats, which now puts them back to where they were before they submitted the first plan."
Schorsch puts the odds of this new map passing Supreme Court review at 50-50. If The Supreme Court rejects this second map, it can redraw the map itself without consulting the Senate at all.
