Independent Redistricting is all of a sudden a big issue

This election cycle, The Independent Redistricting ballot initiative which is a worthy project to ensure citizen democracy is getting lots of attention both politically and in the statewide press. But why, now when this initiative has been pushed for each of the last four election cycles? In 1998, the constitutional revision commission rejected the initiative by one vote. In 2000, 2002 and 2004 the initiative failed to get the necessary signatures to make the ballot. Each time a ballot drive has begun on this issues it has met hostility from Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers who see Legislative control of Redistricting as a way to protect incumbents.

It is very ironic that the same Democrats (with a few heroic exceptions like Rep. Tim Ryan of Dania Beach and Rep Anne Gannon of Delray Beach) have now embraced the issue that they were so eager to see die in the past election cycles. Perhaps it is because the very same incumbents that are now term limited before 2012 were trying to protect themselves in past cycles by cutting deals with the GOP majority?

Regardless of which party is in power, district lines should be drawn in the public interest. Whether the GOP or Democrats control the process, the last two redistricting processes (1992 and 2002) have proven neither party can control itself and act in public interest when drawing these lines. Florida’s legislative and congressional districts look like something out a Salvador Dali painting rather than a logical map. Politicians of both parties have abused their power and the public trust by drawing districts that maximize partisan and personal advantage over maintaining communities of interest and logical geographic divisions. This Constitutional amendment must succeed if Florida is to have a responsible citizen oriented government.