Florida Senate to have draft redistricting maps this week, but won’t hold public hearings
Nov 9, 2021
Miami Herald
State Sen. Ray Rodrigues, chair of the Florida Senate Committee on Reapportionment announced Monday that the committee will have staff-drawn draft maps of its congressional and state Senate redistricting plans available on its web site starting Wednesday as part of its first step in completing the must-pass bill during the legislative session that begins Jan. 11. Drawn behind the scenes by the committee’s staff just over two months after the U.S. Census released the data on which to draw them, the maps are supposed to follow the leadership-driven guidelines set by the committee with little discussion at its Oct. 18 meeting.
The maps will be reviewed next week by the Senate redistricting committees during the special session on vaccine mandates, and, while this appears to give the Senate a head start over the House, it demonstrates the top-down nature of the redistricting process as GOP leaders attempt to avoid the legal challenges that resulted in courts throwing out their maps a decade ago.
Miami Herald