Redistricting: Minorities Demand Fair Voting Compliance

Lawmakers who took their traveling redistricting show to Orlando on Wednesday got a strong introduction to the racial politics that could shape the battles over Congressional and legislative districts in Central Florida.

At a pair of raucous and sometimes contentious hearings at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre in downtown Orlando, the House and Senate panels charged with overseeing the once-a-decade redistricting process heard pleas from both the black community and the growing Latino community on how the new districts should look.

From Latinos, who made up much of Central Florida’s population growth since the 2000 Census, the request was for a district that would be heavily influenced by Hispanic voters as an acknowledgment of the influx of non-Cuban Latinos. Blacks asked for a district that would continue in the mold of the seat held by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., who won her seat in a heavily black district after changes forced by the Voting Rights Act.

LatinoJustice PRLDEF, an organization that has been working with Latino community leaders in the area on redistricting, presented a map of a Central Florida district that would be 46.2 percent Hispanic and 12.3 percent black. It would run from Haines City to Union Park.

“While the proposal is not a majority district, it is a strong, Hispanic plurality district where Hispanic voters will have a clear say in influencing the eventual candidate,” said Juan Caragena, president and general counsel of LatinoJustice, in a prepared statement.

But black residents urged lawmakers not to unwind Brown’s district, particularly in light of the new Fair Districts standards, which are aimed at curbing partisan gerrymandering and forcing lawmakers to draw compact districts. While Brown’s winding district has drawn attention in the past for its wandering path from Jacksonville to Orlando, the authors of the Fair Districts proposal approved by voters last November say it would not require lawmakers to dismantle the 3rd District.

“By changing the policy and framing that are already provided in Article 3 of the Florida constitution, we are definitely diluting the collective strength of African-Americans in our government process,” said the Rev. Robert Spooney, president of the African-American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida. “Don’t allow Florida’s redistricting to destroy the minority vote.”

Alex Holmes McKay, a former staffer for a California congresswoman who recently moved to Florida, said it was important for black voters to preserve the district and its long-serving representative.

“We cannot afford to lose knowledgeable and seasoned leadership in these very difficult times for this key constituency in Orlando,” she said.

Playing off of complaints that the committee hasn’t produced a map, former NAACP head Benjamin Chavis said: “There is a map. The current map. That’s where you should start. … Any change to the current map should build on the progress, not retrogress on the progress.”

Leaders of the Latino community stressed that they don’t want a battle with the black community. According to LatinoJustice, its map would take just 3 percent of Brown’s current voters. And Brown’s district is likely to change in any case, given that its population is now too small to support a district.

“What we don’t want is to be placed … in a position of minority vs minority,” said former Republican state Rep. Tony Suarez. “We would like to see that there is a district that represents an African-American community and a district that represents a Hispanic community.”

Senate Reapportionment Committee Chairman Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said the boom in Central Florida’s population means it would likely gain one and possibly both of Florida’s new congressional seats. But he wouldn’t make any guarantees on the ethnic composition of new districts.

“We can’t create a seat just because there is a community of interest that wants it,” Gaetz said. “There has to be demographic equity. It’s certainly possible that a seat could be created that would be Latino primarily or African-American primary, but it will be a matter of arithmetic as to whether or not a Latino seat and an African-American seat could be created.”

But Peter Lee lashed out at the discussions, saying he was disgusted with the focus on the racial dimensions of redistricting.  “For those of you who want to make this about identity politics, you should be ashamed of yourselves,” he said. Lee’s wife, East Side Tea Party director Kelli McNair-Lee, also lambasted the consideration of race and said other factors were more important.  “I don’t want it to be a racial thing,” she said. “I want it to be a contiguous area thing.”

By Brandon Larrabee