Florida’s newly drawn political boundaries jumped critical hurdles this week that will now allow candidates to gear up campaigns knowing they are spending hard earned campaign contributions on actual approved districts. Separate court rulings found mapmakers adhered to requirements of the Fair Districts Amendment and satisfied Justice Department requirements regarding voter access and now put [...]

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday approved the Legislature’s plans for new congressional, House and Senate districts Monday, paving the way for the state to begin using the maps in preparation for the November elections, reports the News Service of Florida. However, the preclearance does not halt a challenge to the state congressional districts [...]

The only silver lining Florida Democrats found in the election results of 2010, with Republicans sweeping all of the statewide elections while expanding their majorities in the Legislature, was the passage of Amendments 5 & 6, the so-called Fair Districts amendments. Many Democrats believed the changes brought about by the Fair Districts amendments would weaken [...]

The Florida Supreme Court upheld a second draft of new maps for state Senate districts in a splintered decision Friday, clearing one of the remaining barriers for the plan to go into effect for this fall’s elections, reports Brandon Larrabee of the News Service of Florida. The court’s ruling, which came after the justices voided [...]

I’m not a media critic, I just play one on this blog. Still, can someone explain to me how Mary Ellen Klas can report this story on Tuesday about a failed deal between Democrats and Republicans over redistricting two days after Kenric Ward reports this story on Saturday about a failed deal between Democrats and Republicans [...]

While much of the high profile legislation awaiting a decision by Gov. Rick Scott has cleared the decks, two big ones are out there and will come in for action this week. Scott has until Saturday, April 21, to sign both the budget and the bill freeing the Lakeland campus of the University of South [...]

With the new Senate maps expected to easily pass the House next week, lawmakers in the upper chamber and potential candidates for those seats are beginning to evaluate their electoral futures, reports Brandon Larrabee of the News Service of Florida. For a few, the decisions are where and whether to run for another term. And [...]

In 2010, Floridians voted by a 63% margin to reform redistricting in the state constitution. Previously, politicians in the Legislature had consistently gerrymandered district lines to favor one political party over another and to make legislative districts safe for incumbents. Amendments 5 & 6 require that lines be drawn contiguous and compact, and they should [...]

The chairman of the Senate Reapportionment Committee unveiled a new proposal for his chamber’s legislative districts Saturday in an effort to answer criticisms from the Florida Supreme Court, which rejected the original plan last week, reports Brandon Larrabee of the News Service of Florida Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said the new maps would meet the [...]

The Florida Senate on Saturday released its first attempt at fixing its rejected Senate redistricting map with this proposal. Here is what Tampa Bay’s districts would look like under the new plan: As you can easily ascertain, the Senate Reapportionment Committee DID NOT (as some, such as Barry Edwards, speculated) redraw the maps in a way [...]