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Senate Maps Carve Out New Escambia, Santa Rosa Districts

The chairman of the Senate Reapportionment Committee unveiled a new proposal for his chamber’s legislative districts Saturday in an effort to answer criticisms from the Florida Supreme Court, which rejected the original plan last week.

The plan creates a new District 1 for Escambia and Santa Rosa counties that also includes a portion of northern Okaloosa County — and Baker, the home of Sen. Greg Evers.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said the new maps would meet the rules laid out in the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts Amendments approved by voters in a 2010 referendum.

“The districts were redrawn, along with any affected districts, in accordance with constitutional standards as defined by the Supreme Court,” Gaetz wrote in a memo accompanying the release.

The Supreme Court threw out the plan because of problems in eight districts, though Gaetz’s plan would also shift other lines to offset population changes in districts struck down by the ruling. All Senate districts are supposed to have relatively equal populations under both the Fair Districts standards and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The previously-drawn Panhandle districts of Gaetz and Evers were struck down for being drawn horizontally instead of vertically. The new map would align the two districts more vertically, but would keep Gaetz, the Senate president-designate, and Evers from a faceoff by splitting Okaloosa County in half horizontally along I-10, with the exception of aligning Crestview with the more southern District 3.

Under the plan unveiled by Gaetz on Saturday, 25 of the Senate districts would have been won by Gov. Rick Scott in the 2010 election; Alex Sink, his Democratic opponent, would have carried 15. The original map had a 26-14 edge for Republicans, who currently hold a 28-12 advantage in the upper chamber.

Gaetz also said that the numbering system for Florida districts — thrown out because it would have given many of the chamber’s members up to 10 years in office instead of the constitutionally-mandated eight — would be determined by a pair of public, random drawings.

The Florida Democratic Party, which argued against the maps at the Supreme Court, blasted the new plan.

“The map Sen. Don Gaetz has proposed brings us no closer to complying with the court’s ruling and is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt by the GOP Senate leadership to stall the implementation of Fair Districts and cling to their gerrymandered power,” said Chairman Rod Smith in a statement issued by the party. “Not only have they thwarted the will of 63-percent of Florida voters, they are now thumbing their nose at Florida’s Supreme Court.”

Gaetz said lawmakers should offer any amendments to the plan by noon Monday; the Senate Reapportionment Committee is set to meet Tuesday.

The News Service Florida contributed to this report.