US House Redistricting: Florida

[Brittain33]

Also, one of the two new districts added in 2002 was a Hispanic district in South Florida (the other being a district near Orlando), so it wouldn't make sense to add a new district in the same place this time.

[Brittain33]

Dade has lots of non-Cuban Hispanics... lots of South Americans especially... and is where I meant. (And yeah, the Hispanics at Orlando are mostly Portorican IIRC. Lots of Mexicans too.)

The main problem you might run into is differentials in citizenship rates between Cuban-Americans and others, followed by whether non-Cubans live in distinct neighborhoods from Cubans or not. Right now all of Miami-Dade not in Meek's old district is represented by Cuban-American reps so you'd have to dislodge one of them with redistricting existing seats, which may not work, given how easily the one Diaz-Balart shifted from one district to another. Interestingly, the Census indicates there are about 400,000 Hispanics in Broward County who aren't included in any of JohnnyLongtorso's Miami-Dade districts. I remember hearing that Weston was nicknamed "Westonzuela," and also that Pembroke Pines has a large Latino population, but none of that necessarily excludes Cubans.

[Brittain33]

That's a really interesting map, I didn't think it was possible but you've proven it is. However, I would say that the yellow district puts Ros-Lehtinen at risk of losing to a Democrat.

[Brittain33]

Thing is the mass in the Everglades is also majority black.

Yeah, but aren't there like 10 people living there?

Looks like 15,000 in Belle Glade, mostly agricultural workers.

[Brittain33]

Also, it's like they knew some areas would be litigated and revised so they may as well just use a broad brush in Microsoft Paint.

[Brittain33]

Alcee Hastings lives in Pembroke Pines and is drawn out of his district.

[Brittain33]

John Mica for instance is placed out of his district.

His tendril to Winter Park was lost and Daniel Webster gained a tendril to Winter Park.

[Brittain33]

There's no way the 3rd will be tossed if the legislature won't do it, I'm afraid.

Can you elaborate as to why not? I thought it wasn't VRA protected, and without that, it surely violates Fair Districts.

[Brittain33]

There is road connectivity between Tampa and St Petersburg; Tampa and Bradenton; and St Petersburg and Bradenton.  

If I'm reading the map correctly, you have to take different routes northbound and southbound to establish connectivity between the southern portion and the rest of the district. The gerrymandered finger heading south to scoop up Dem voters gets very narrow and the state senate's maps shows the boundary separating northbound and southbound lanes on the few roads in the connector.

Similarly, you can go north from Bradenton and stay within the district, but going south, the other lane of the highway is in a different district. So if you start in Bradenton and head north, the district is contiguous by road and such, but not the other direction.

[Brittain33]

The House released several potential maps. No big surprises. Brown's district is the same, West is still in trouble. Many have a district combining Osceola with half of Polk, I'm not sure if that's a vote sink.

One difference is that unlike the Senate map, all House maps drop the ridiculous spur into Bradenton that was only road-contiguous in one direction at a time.

[Brittain33]

Florida always does those crappy PDFs. It's the same design they used 10 years ago!

[Brittain33]

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/debbie-wasserman-schultz-nan-rich-rod-smith-tried-gerrymander-blamed-gop-doing-same



Florida Democrats were scheming to concoct some vicious gerrymanders.

Reminds me of the horrendous Dem counterproposal to the Republican gerrymander of Pa.

http://www.politicspa.com/dems-release-their-own-congressional-map/30151/