State lawmakers are having a tough time at mapmaking.

The legislature is currently in its third special session, trying to redraw State Senate district maps they admitted they had drawn to the advantage of their party/certain candidates, which isn't technically legal anymore. They've already redrawn the state's Congressional maps, as the State Supreme Court ordered. Special sessions are only supposed to happen either when there's an emergency or the legislature has an oops, say, I dunno, not passing a budget, which is the one thing they have to do every year, because NObama!

The Senate passed a map Wednesday that many — even some Senate Republicans — fear was drawn to favor certain candidates, namely in South Florida. It now has to go to the House, where there's already skepticism over whether it will pass.

We watched Wednesday's Senate hearing at which the map was passed remotely via The Florida Channel, and, boy, were there fireworks.

During debate on the maps, Democratic lawmakers urged their colleagues to vote down the map, which they say was drawn in ways that deliberately serve political ends (i.e. Miami as referenced above), a clear violation of a state constitutional amendment voters passed in 2010.

“The Fair Districts Amendments opened the door to all Floridians by leveling the playing field between voters and politicians,” said State Senator Arthenia Joyner, a Democrat from Tampa. “This map shuts that door again.”

Joyner was referring to a 2010 voter-approved constitutional amendment that essentially outlawed gerrymandering, which, surprise, the legislature ignored when it redrew the districts in 2012.

The coalition of voting groups that sued over the 2012 maps (which is why lawmakers are up in Tallahassee for special session in the first place) sent a letter Tuesday night, ahead of the vote, to express their concerns. From the News Service of Florida:

Attorney David King wrote in a letter to lawmakers late Tuesday that the plan raises incumbent-protection concerns that "cannot be ignored, particularly when senators have already criticized the base map selection process as one designed to avoid pairing incumbents."

State Senator Jack Latvala, a Clearwater Republican known for his outspokenness, also called out members of his party and said, essentially, that passing the maps would doom the process and lead the court to accept a map the plaintiffs favored — not his preference, nor that of any Republican in the room.

“We need to ask ourselves, is the vote we're taking today a vote to uphold the constitution of the state of Florida?" he said. "And if you think it is, if you think you're doing what the constitution expects us to do, then you vote for this plan.”
“I feel personally like I've got to do what is right. I have to live with my conscience.”

He brought up how expensive it's been for the legislature to defend itself in the redistricting lawsuits, some $11 million, as well as returning to Tallahassee at irregular times to draw maps as a result of the suit, and urged his GOP colleagues to reconsider.

“It's not about being popular. I didn't get elected to the Florida Senate to make money or to climb the ladder, or as many of you would agree, to make friends. I got elected to the Florida Senate to do what I thought was the right thing to do. And I don't think the right thing to do is to vote for this map.”

The other Republican Senators to vote against the map were Charlie Dean of Inverness, Nancy Detert of Venice and Greg Evers of Baker, according to the News Service of Florida.

After the vote took place, former Senate President Don Gaetz, a Panhandle Republican who oversaw the redistricting process in 2012, took aim at Latvala, whom he blamed for playing politics with the map back then in his quest for supporters of his candidacy for Senate President. He called for a "crust of civility" in the chamber, which typically has much more amicable and bipartisan discussions than its counterpart, the State House.

“Sen. Latvala said Don Gaetz is the cause of the special session. You decide," Gaetz said. 

He apologized for not putting people under oath during redistricting hearings before calling Latvala a bully.

“I'm sorry for my mistakes," Gaetz said. "Senator Latvala should be sorry for his. I take no satisfaction from this exchange. I did not seek it. But when a bully throws a sucker punch, you hit back and never give in.”

Latvala didn't respond at the meeting, but before it was adjourned, Sen. D. Alan Hays, an Umatilla Republican, stuck up for him.

“I think it is beneath the dignity of this institution,” Hays said, to call another Senator a bully during debate.

Latvala did take to Twitter afterward to hit back at Gaetz, though.

This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2015.