There's a lot to decipher in the FL Senate staff's newly drafted maps of state congressional and legislative districts. And that's before you figure in the impact of Amendments 5 & 6, which require the legislature to craft the districts in a compact and politically neutral fashion — as well as the federal Voting Rights Act, which says that redistricting can't dilute minority voting strength.
But one thing is obvious, looking at the drafted map for Florida's 11th Congressional District, currently held by Democrat Kathy Castor. It doesn't make sense in any fashion.
At the redistricting meeting held in late August in Tampa, Republican and Democratic voters alike told a committee of state lawmakers that they wanted the district not to travel across the body of water known as Tampa Bay, as has been the case for the past decade.
CD-11 was changed last in 2002, and currently contains much of Hillsborough County, then takes a slice of South St. Pete and dips into and around Bradenton in Manatee County. Although not as gerrymandered as say, CD-3, (Democrat Corrine Brown's seat that includes portions of Alachua, Clay, Duval, Lake, Marion, Orange, Putnam, Seminole, and Volusia counties), it is obviously drawn with politics at play.
It doesn't look like the newly drawn map for CD-3 will be an improvement in disgruntled voters' eyes ; it now extends to downtown St. Petersburg.
This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2011.
