Last December, CL published a story on what we dubbed at the time one of the "loneliest jobs in the world." That being a House Democrat in Tallahassee.
Currently there are only 44 such creatures in Florida, compared to 76 Republicans.
But hope is on the way, many Democrats believe, if only the Legislative Districts could be drawn up more fairly, which is why we have Amendments 5 (and 6) from the FairDistrictsFlorida folks (Amendment 5 relates to the state Legislature, Amendment 6 to Congressional Districts).
Advocates of these measures argue that since there are more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state, the districts have been unfairly gerrymandered and result – as in many states – in essentially being an incumbent protection program, in which most of the districts are carved up in a way that is overwhelmingly in favor of one political party or another. That's why it's not just the majority Republicans in the state who object to the law, but also entrenched Democrats in some districts who fear it could prove fatal to extending their political career.
We wrote about those amendments in our story last year, and have always taken to heart the words of Sarasota House Representative Keith Fitzgerald, who said that even if those measures were to pass, he didn't see them making that huge of a difference in the representation in Tallahassee.
We wrote last December:
But even if Fair District Florida were to be successful, Sarasota Representative Keith Fitzgerald isn't convinced that would completely restore balance in the legislature. Fitzgerald, who is also a professor of political science at New College, says the problem with Democrats is that they're concentrated geographically. In many cases, he says, some of the party's natural constituencies, such as highly educated people or low-income citizens, tend to live close together.
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2010.