FlaglerLive | March 22, 2016
A federal judge has struck down county commission districts in a rural North Florida county — a potentially precedent-setting decision that could play into a challenge of the state’s congressional lines.
FlaglerLive | December 2, 2015
The congressional district the Supreme Court approves keeps Flagler County whole, shedding Putnam and moving it south to take in more of Volusia County, which will help Democrats slightly.
FlaglerLive | November 10, 2015
A key Florida Supreme Court justice sounded skeptical Tuesday about the Legislature’s proposal for a contested South Florida district in a battle over the map for the state’s congressional delegation.
FlaglerLive | November 6, 2015
This time, instead of blaming each other, GOP leaders blamed a pair of voter-approved constitutional amendments that ban political gerrymandering in legislative and congressional redistricting.
FlaglerLive | October 31, 2015
Rep. Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, said in a memo to House members that his proposal for the 40 state Senate districts was inspired in part by a plan floated by the League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause Florida.
FlaglerLive | October 28, 2015
Even Senate supporters of the map say they aren’t sure whether House leaders will accept the proposal before a redistricting special session ends next week.
FlaglerLive | August 25, 2015
A Leon County judge will ask the Florida Supreme Court how to move forward with a redistricting lawsuit after the Legislature failed to draw new congressional lines in a special session that collapsed last week. Circuit Judge Terry Lewis told lawyers for the House and Senate at a conference Tuesday that he wants to hear […]
FlaglerLive | August 21, 2015
The end of the session without agreement on the shape of Florida’s 27 congressional districts likely means the final decision will be made by the courts, though some lawmakers held out slim hopes for a resolution in the coming days that could avoid such an outcome.
FlaglerLive | August 20, 2015
The 6th Congressional District would be redrawn southward, losing most of St. Johns County and all of Putnam, and taking on all of Volusia and a segment of Lake, thus pushing the district more to the center than it’s been.
FlaglerLive | August 17, 2015
The House and Senate seemed unconcerned about whether they could reconcile their differences before the scheduled conclusion of the special session on Friday. They all but ruled out forming a joint House-Senate conference committee to hammer out a compromise.
FlaglerLive | August 13, 2015
The shift may be reflective of the weakness of the region’s legislative delegation: neither Sen. Travis Hutson nor Paul Renner, rookies both, has pull in his respective house, neither has bargaining chips to deal with.
FlaglerLive | August 12, 2015
Changes to a proposed map of Florida’s 27 congressional districts emerged Wednesday, a day before key hearings in the House and Senate about how to comply with a court order finding the current map violates the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” requirements.
FlaglerLive | August 12, 2015
Sen. Travis Hutson opposes changes to the congressional district that include Flagler because they would split St. Johns, Hutson’s base, while taking in all of Volusia.
FlaglerLive | August 10, 2015
Senators scolded the Florida Supreme Court for trampling on their First Amendment rights as lawmakers began a special session Monday aimed at redrawing congressional districts the court said were gerrymandered to help the Republican Party.
FlaglerLive | August 7, 2015
Brown is hoping to intervene in the lawsuit and get judges to order the Legislature not to reorient the district, which currently ambles from Jacksonville to Orlando.
FlaglerLive | August 5, 2015
The change suggests that the district would tilt left somewhat, compared to its current makeup, which could favor Democrats. A special session of the Legislature will decide the final boundaries in accordance with a Supreme Court Order.
FlaglerLive | July 9, 2015
The court ruled the congressional map was corrupted by the efforts of Republican political consultants, violating an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment voters approved in 2010. The Legislature must draw new districts within 100 days.
FlaglerLive | December 21, 2014
Lawyers for the Legislature told the Florida Supreme Court in a brief filed late Friday that part of a state ban on political gerrymandering violates the U.S. Constitution.
FlaglerLive | November 13, 2014
The documents were requested by voting-rights organizations challenging the state’s congressional districts as Republican political consultant Pat Bainter refused to disclose them. Several media organizations also filed a “friend of the court” brief arguing for the documents’ release.
FlaglerLive | October 5, 2014
With Gov. Rick Scott, the entire Cabinet and many of the state’s 160 lawmakers out on the stump campaigning for re-election, the news about government in Florida has largely moved elsewhere.
FlaglerLive | September 8, 2014
The case on redistricting State Senate boundaries is continuing, and could eventually lead to new districts for the 40-member upper chamber, which, like the state House, is currently dominated by Republicans.
FlaglerLive | August 12, 2014
Flagler County was unaffected, but District 6 had previously included most of Putnam County. It now includes only the southeastern quadrant of Putnam. The changes are not likely to change the ideological make-up of the district, which tilts Republican.
FlaglerLive | August 2, 2014
Circuit Judge Terry Lewis also the state and local elections supervisors to come up with a new voting schedule for any districts–likely to include Flagler’s–that lawmakers would have to redraw in the wake of his ruling last month that the current congressional map violates the Florida Constitution.
FlaglerLive | July 24, 2014
So far, the Legislature has declined to appeal Lewis’ ruling, and the state’s attorneys say lawmakers will redraw the map in time for the 2016 elections. But lawyers for the voting-rights groups and voters who sued to overturn the map under the Constitution’s anti-gerrymandering standards say that’s too late.
FlaglerLive | July 11, 2014
District 5 wraps itself around much of the western flank of District 6, which includes all of Flagler County. If District 5 is re-drawn, it would likely affect District 6, which is currently represented by Republican Ron DeSantis.
FlaglerLive | May 29, 2014
Pat Bainter on Wednesday asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to issue an emergency stay blocking an order by the Florida Supreme Court less than 24 hours earlier that granted permission for the documents to be used in an ongoing trial challenging the constitutionality of the congressional map approved by the Florida Legislature in 2012.
FlaglerLive | July 11, 2013
The 5-2 ruling, which fell along common ideological lines on the court, allows a coalition of voting-rights groups to continue trying to prove that the Senate maps drawn in 2012 violate the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” standards added to the Florida Constitution two years earlier.
FlaglerLive | December 23, 2012
A million more Americans voted for Democrats seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives than Republicans. That advantage did not result in control of the chamber. Redistricting and secret money were key to the disparity.
FlaglerLive | April 30, 2012
The approval from the federal government adds to the Florida Supreme Court’s approval of a Senate map on Friday, while a Leon County judge declined to set aside the state’s new congressional maps, saying opponents of the plans had not proven that the Legislature violated new anti-gerrymandering standards in the once-a-decade redistricting process.
FlaglerLive | March 17, 2012
The chairman of the Senate Reapportionment Committee unveiled a new proposal for legislative districts Saturday to answer criticisms from the Florida Supreme Court. The plan creates a much more cohesive district for Flagler.
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