Approximately 150 protesters gathered outside the Florida Capitol Tuesday as the House of Representatives convened inside, chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, rigged maps have got to go.”
The gathering of protesters countered the Florida House’s quick floor session on the first day of a special session called to debate congressional redistricting. (The Senate convened later in the day.)
Genesis Robinson of Equal Ground pointed to the voter makeup of the state — 5.5 million registered Republicans of 13.4 million total voters, more than 3 million voters with no party affiliation, and about 4 million are registered Democrats.
“To give 85% of our seats to a party that doesn’t even have at least 50% of the vote in Florida is a problem. Where I come from that’s called cheating,” Robinson said.
“And let me be clear, the Fair Districts Amendments are not optional, they’re not suggestions, they are edicts by the voters of this state, telling our lawmakers how to draw our maps,” Robinson said, referencing the 2010 constitutional amendments approved by voters, each with more than 62% support.
Rev. Reginald Gundy, a Baptist pastor in Jacksonville, offering a comment he said would “probably shake up the world,” cast a curse on leaders pushing for redistricting, asking the crowd to join him in prayer.
Gundy said the U.S. Constitution “was never intended for us to be we the people, it was about old, white men who decided that they wanted to control America and everybody in it.”
“We come to the Florida Constitution, which says that we should have fair districts for people of minorities and then they turned around and they decided they didn’t want to listen to the people,” Gundy said.
“My power, even though I appreciate you being here and you organizing and doing what you need to do, my power does not come from you,” Gundy told the crowd, pointing a finger to the heavens.
“My power and my faith come from up there. So, I declare a curse. I’m a prophetic voice, I’m not a priest, I declare a curse on everybody in this legislative body, to include the governor and the president of the United States, until they repent of what they’re doing and start doing what’s right.”
His curse extended to “every generation that comes behind them until they do like David said, ‘Create in me a clean heart and renew in me a right spirit,’ and then you can go stand before God and stop claiming that you love God when you turn around and treat people the way you treat them with this partisan mess. …
“I claim the power of God from upstairs to come down here and change this mess that’s going on,” Gundy said.
“I know all legislators are not bad. But if you didn’t do anything wrong, you don’t have to worry about the curse,” he added.
Terri Kondos of the League of Women Voters criticized the process, particularly a lack of opportunity for public input. Gov. Ron DeSantis drew his new map in secret and sent it to the Legislature on Monday.
“This is not transparency. This is not public engagement. This is a process designed to be completed before the public can even engage,” Kondos said.
“The League of Women Voters believes that district maps should be drawn in the open with robust public voter participation at the appropriate time in a post-Census cycle. What is happening here fails every one of those tests,” Kondos said.
The special session is scheduled through the end of the week.
–Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
Deborah Coffey says
Law suits and massive Blue Wave coming….
DaleL says
Because of the Fair Districts Amendment, the Florida Constitution reads:
Article III
SECTION 20. Standards for establishing congressional district boundaries.—In establishing congressional district boundaries:
(a) No apportionment plan or district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent; and districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice; and districts shall consist of contiguous territory.
(b) Unless compliance with the standards in this subsection conflicts with the standards in subsection 1(a) or with federal law, districts shall be as nearly equal in population as is practicable; districts shall be compact; and districts shall, where feasible, utilize existing political and geographical boundaries.
I cannot understand how the redistricting, that the Republicans will undoubtedly pass, can be legal. Is it instead a blatant attempt to placate the Orange One? Is it a “See we were loyal and did what we could, but those darn courts shot it down.” effort?
More and more, it seems the criminals in our midst, the ones who will ignore our highest state law, are Republicans, not illegal immigrants.
Laurel says
I believe it’s the radical right, not Republican citizens, who are very okay with cheating, and Republican citizens are starting to understand this on a deep level. It’s the politicians who are leading this scam to keep their own butts in power. There’s a lot of corruption involved, and We the People are the victims, if we let it continue.
Deborah Coffey says
We will know what Republican citizens are made of after the voting happens. If they decide that THEY, not the legislators they voted for, want to choose their own candidates, then they first need to get rid of the legislators they voted for who are all doing this cheating.
What Else Is New says
Ronny is no longer presidential material, so he is scrambling to make Florida in his racist, fascist image. His SAVE Act is his voter suppression offering. Redistricting tops it off with Supreme Court blessings. Next, perhaps he’ll decide ballots must be cast in person with his goons monitoring voters.
Al says
150 people show up in a state that has 22 million residents, I’m impressed with the turn out. The area was filled with blue hair and nose rings, how charming. Of course they combined intelligence of the group could only come up with hey, hey, ho, ho how imaginative. I guess what do you want and when do you want it was above the mindset of this group.