As most people are probably NOT aware, the City of Orlando, Orange County and the School Board are in the midst of rigging the elections for the next ten years. This process is legal and is mandated. But it does not need to produce the usual outcomes if more people pay attention.
A lot of people are aware that new Congressional Districts will get carved by the legislature next year and that they will last for a decade. Lost in the noise is the fact that all local governments are doing the same thing, carving the districts where both incumbents and challengers will run in the ten years ahead. Each of the governments has set up “advisory committees” to listen to the people and “advise” the actual elected bodies on where the lines should fall. And the “advice” is coming in. Readers will not be surprised to know that the “advisors” (appointed by the very people they are advising) are trying to help the incumbents rig their elections for the coming decade by protecting and arranging the Districts so they can keep their favorite voters and remove possible challengers. So the politicians are arranging things to help themselves right now at the expense of the public, for a decade.
Orange County and Orlando have changed hugely in the last two decades. Seismic shifts in the location of homes and massive new developments have, literally, “changed everything”. But the old powers do not want to give up power and so there is terrible foot dragging by entrenched interests which could trap us all in weird representation of the past as districts are carved for the future. Redistricting is supposed to create a fresh opportunity for a fresh look. But that is not happening.
Last week, the Orange County “advisory” group rejected many hours of minority community testimony and voted to deny Hispanic citizens and Black citizens the minority Districts they wanted. And at the City of Orlando, earlier in the week, the “advisors” voted to sharply diminish the number of Black voters in one City Council District and pack them into another, in a probable violation of voting rights acts.
Consider some facts of the current process for the City of Orlando, the School Board and the County:
– All of the redistricting “advisory” boards were appointed in a closed process by the incumbents.
– Incumbents (in the back room or publicly) are actively pressuring these “advisory boards” for continuation of the status quo, arguing that too much change would “disturb” constituents.
– Some “advisory board” members argue that it is pointless to resist as the incumbents will have the final vote on new plans anyway.
– Public input is limited and structured to occur after decisions are made.
– In some cases, the advisors argue that the law imposes requirements to protect the interests of incumbents.
– Distorted and gerrymandered districts are still legal at the local level.
– Huge communities of new residents (Hispanics, for example) have few incumbents or political power, so they are going to be ignored for another decade.
– Massive new communities will apparently be sacrificed in plans to attend to older areas with old political clout.
Illustrative of the shallow effort at real outreach to newcomers is the fact that there was no county public hearing for the county’s fastest growing areas east of 436 or south of the 520. Incumbent School Board members have been making long speeches to their advisory committee while the public gets limited time. City of Orlando decisions filled with discussion of the desires of incumbents. Always, all the Boards are reminded of the need to find maps “acceptable to the incumbents” which translates into how they want their electorate to look for the years ahead.
At the County meeting last week, Commissioner Jennifer Thompson closed a fairly contentious meeting in which Hispanic and Black desires were ignored. She said, “We must remember this is all about relationships.” Inadvertently, she was reminding both the public and the “advisors” that the relationships of our elected officials with each other always trump concern for the public interest.
This, once-a-decade process is looking backwards, and only public attention can change that. Call your representatives locally and demand that they listen to the public and stop the rigging.
By Doug Head
