Special elections, punishment needed in redistricting scandal
Scott Maxwell
Taking Names
1:57 p.m. EDT, July 19, 2014
If you caught your child throwing rocks at other kids, you'd reprimand him.
If he threw rocks again, you might ground him.
If he threw rocks yet again, would you hand him a fresh bag of rocks?
Only if you were an idiot.
Well, Florida legislators think you're an idiot.
Pictures: Orange County Jail mug shots
That is why — after being caught breaking the law and gerrymandering political districts — they are asking for permission to draw them again.
Don't be an idiot.
And I mean that with all due respect to hizzoner, Judge Terry Lewis — the guy who will decide what do to with Florida's blatantly gerrymandered districts.
Florida legislators already hoped Judge Lewis would be an idiot once.
They were sorely disappointed.
Lewis' ruling was the equivalent of bare-bottom spanking for the entire gang of Republican rock-throwers.
Lewis used phrases such as "cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men."
He said some of the operatives involved "made a mockery of the Legislature's proclaimed open and transparent process." And he said the entire case "goes to the very foundation of our representative democracy."
Basically, Lewis said what anyone with one good eye already knew: that the zigzagging, racially unbalanced congressional districts were a politically rigged farce.
The ruling was particularly amusing because GOP legislators had taken the stand with dramatically feigned indignation about how their honor and dignity were on the line.
They went so far as to say the only way the judge could rule against them was to accuse the entire legislative leadership team of being a bunch of liars — that "every single witness, including two speakers of the House ... lied under oath …."
Um, OK, the judge essentially said with his ruling that you're all a bunch of liars.
The judge ruled that legislators had politically manipulated the process.
For instance, they took Democrat Corrine Brown's district and crammed every black face they could find inside it.
Brown happily played the stooge because she got a district so Democratic and black that she was all but guaranteed re-election. But it pleased the Republicans even more, because it meant all of the surrounding districts were whiter and more conservative.
Brown got her one Democratic district.
Republicans, including Dan Webster and John Mica, got three.
And voters got hosed.
That last part is important — because a whopping 63 percent of Floridians voted for Fair Districts, mandating in the state constitution that legislators had to stop drawing districts for political reasons.
Yet that's just what Judge Lewis said they did.
It must be fixed. Here's a two-part plan:
1) Keep legislators far away from these maps. They have proved themselves unworthy of trust. The judge should either draw new districts himself — or perhaps impanel a bipartisan commission to do so. (That was actually the original Fair Districts proposal of the late GOP patriarch Thom Rumberger, who knew the legislative-controlled system was sick beyond repair.)
2) Call for special elections. I agree that it would be chaotic to redraw the districts for this fall's elections. After all, the primaries are next month. But these seats and districts should not be allowed to stand. The judge has ruled them unconstitutional. So it makes no sense to reward bad behavior. The upcoming elections should be temporary until special ones in properly drawn districts can be held next year.
This system is sick. And so am I — of politicians breaking the rules and getting away with it.
In this country, you can steal a loaf of bread and go to jail. But if you're a politician who violates the Constitution — something you swore to uphold — you get a leadership position.
Why? Because the ethics laws are weak.
And why is that? Because the rule-breaking legislators write them. (Also because, in this case, the judge didn't finger a specific legislator — rather saying their collective process was improper.)
This state needs stiffer ethics penalties.
But for now, we need to make sure the result of these improper actions don't stand — and that the voters' will is carried out.
Otherwise, you just reward the rock-throwers.
smaxwell@tribune.com or 407-420-6141
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