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Showing posts with label FL-20. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FL-20. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Some preliminary thoughts about #Broward's 2021 #redistricting process. Final map gets voted on at what's likely to be a very spirited December 7th meeting, where some political careers may well be snuffed out


Some preliminary thoughts about #Broward's 2021 #redistricting process. Final map gets voted on at what's likely to be a very spirited December 7th meeting, where some political careers may well be snuffed out

Even as I was writing my first draft of this post this afternoon, I got word that an additional Broward County redistricting meeting has been scheduled for Saturday October 30, 2021 at 10AM, but it's... virtual. 🙄 Zut alors!

It's the last "public" meeting to comment before the last 4 draft maps are presented to the Broward County Commission for their thumbs up or down, scheduled for December 7th.

20210927_201323.jpg

My experience in the past is that the Sun Sentinel's Lisa Huriash is usually a fair-minded reporter, with a good sense of perspective re how simple or complicated an issue might be and what's necessary to present an accurate account of what's really at stake.
But here, on the issue of Broward reconfiguring its nine Commission districts, noticeably, she has failed badly. 

Also not mentioned is that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be naming two interim Broward County Commissioners next month, as Barbara Sharief and Dale Holness had to resign in order to run in the #FL20 primary election that takes place two weeks from today, on November 2nd.

An election with nearly a dozen candidates where the winner will likely be someone who has failed to get 75%+ of the overall Democratic voters. Most of you longtime readers of the blog know that I hold both of these two Broward Commissioners in very low regard for their serial unethical machinations, serial poor judgment, and propensity for telling self-serving lies and half-truths, and general desire to play #IdentityPolitics at the worst possible times.
You never have to ask whether they are doing something for political reasons: they ARE.

Sharief's District 8 seat is up next November while the Holness' District 9 seat runs thru 2024, so my educated guess is that both seats will be on the ballot in just over a year, one for a full-term, and one to fill out the final two years.
You should start seeing articles next week about who DeSantis might choose and why.

Migration changes face of Broward, bringing new ideas and fresh flavors
By Lisa J. Huriash
October 11, 2021 

There were and are some very obvious and important facts and relationships that, at a minimum, should have been disclosed to readers there, but which, for whatever reason, weren't.

That includes connecting-the-dots on some of the people she quotes who I know with certainty have glaring conflicts of interests as it affects the public and public policy, including on the matter of redistricting, but Huriash stays quiet as a church mouse, which is why I have included the piece by Red 
Broward blogger Tom Lauder that accurately connects-the-dots that Huriash chooses to ignore,

If you can't access the Sun Sentinel article, let me know and I'll try to send a copy to you.

And yes, the Sept. 27 meeting I reference below is the one that was held at the Hollywood Library that I sent some of you an email about last month, before it took place, because there was no info about it anywhere in Hollywood, not even at the library itself, so the librarians knew nothing about it just two days beforehand.
Which is clearly not a good sign of the county's level of engagement on this.

Click screen grab below to enlarge!


























By the way, before the public meeting was held, there was a preview meeting held by the FIU redistricting consultants that was largely composed of area local elected officials, so they'd have a better handle on what the process is supposed to be and the issues involved in creating districts that are roughly equal population-wise, though they're allowed to have up to a 10% variance.
I saw many familiar faces coming out of the room before I and a handful of other Broward citizens went in for the public meeting.


Above, the evening's moderator, FIU professor Dario Moreno, the county's lead consultant on redistricting.

Above, District 6 Broward Commissioner Beam Furr, an official Friend of the Blog. As per usual, we spoke for a bit on some local matters before the meeting started.






Broward Commissioner Steve Geller in center



Because facts matter, and are worth recalling: At least three members of the county commission in the past 20 years not lived in their districts – Ben Graber, Lois Wexler and Stacy Ritter. 

"The law requires your legal residence to be in the district, while apparently your physical body can sleep somewhere else." -Buddy Nevins at Broward Beat, Dec. 4, 2011
https://www.browardbeat.com/state-rep-marty-kiars-future-in-limbo-because-of-redistricting/


Broward Beat
Gerrymander! County Commission Carves Out A Seat For State Rep. Marty Kiar
BY BUDDY NEVINS
December 16, 2011

State Rep. Marty Kiar of Davie is “extremely likely” to run for the Broward County Commission after commissioners on Tuesday gerrymandered District 1 to include Kiar’s home.

The opportunity for Kiar suddenly surfaced late Tuesday when commissioners suddenly placed a tiny sliver of northwest Davie in District 1.  That section just happens to include Kiar’s home.

Districting boundary lines are not drawn by accident at the county commission. Somebody wants Kiar in the race, either the Commissioners Lieberman and Stacy Ritter who redrew the district or those behind the scenes…or both.

Read the rest of the post at
https://www.browardbeat.com/marty-kiar-extremely-likely-to-run-for-county-commission/


A reminder: After resisting getting a Facebook account for... well, years, because I could not be bothered with one with everything else I was already doing, I finally gave in last month and created a new platform for myself at https://www.facebook.com/DavidSmith0215/,
mostly so that I could finally read and comment on what i saw at the Hollywood Residents - Speak Up group page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023412084491625/ which I urge you to join if you are a Hollywood resident not already reading it.

Don't agree with everything there, of course, but it's a much better informed group that a random group of residents, and includes almost daily posts by people I know and trust who want this city to be MUCH-BETTER than it is and has been in recent years. Just like me.

Typically, I comment on both my page and the group page a few times a week, but I'm trying to allow a few days in-between posts, plus, I usually try to mention things that I don't necessarily mention in my popular group emails, here on my blog, or at the very repetitive and often innocuous Hollywood Nextdoor page, so consider checking me out there as well.

Also, if you add my current phone number to your contact list and use WhatsApp, you can even see my occasional commentary on things important and otherwise via the STATUS page, so consider that, too.



https://www.broward.org/Redistricting/Pages/default.aspx

Some other Florida redistricting stories worth catching up on:

Miami Herald
Miami-Dade has - a new redistricting map: Let the fights begin over voting boundaries
Douglas Hanks; Staff Writer
October 3, 2021
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article254682422.html


Understanding the Florida Legislature redistricting effort with former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida, Peggy Quince.
From WEDU-TV, PBS Tampa: Florida This Week, taped Sept. 24, 2021

Florida lawmakers look to avoid running afoul of courts when redrawing districts
'My promise to you is … we will do this right,' one lawmaker said
John Kennedy, Capital Bureau
USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA

POLITICO Florida Playbook: The GOP’s redistricting promises
Tuesday, Sept. 21, 7:02 AM
BY GARY FINEOUT
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/florida-playbook/2021/09/21/the-gops-redistricting-promises-494407

Florida Trend
Senate kicks off redistricting process
Jim Turner | News Service of Florida | 9/21/2021
https://www.floridatrend.com/article/32208/senate-kicks-off-redistricting-process

South Florida Sun Sentinel 

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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Drawn-and-quartered for political purposes not our own: A Hallandale Beach perspective on Brandon Larrabee's post, "Documents describe political consultants’ efforts in redistricting" in Florida in 2010; Yes, efforts to keep cities like Hallandale Beach divided to keep some FL politicians' political careers viable

Drawn-and-quartered for political purposes not our own: A Hallandale Beach perspective on Brandon Larrabee's post, "Documents describe political consultants’ efforts in redistricting" in Florida in 2010; Yes, efforts to keep cities like Hallandale Beach divided to keep some FL politicians' political careers viable

Palm Beach Post
Documents describe political consultants’ efforts in redistricting
By Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Posted: 1:51 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013
TALLAHASSEE — As Florida lawmakers, politicos and voters held a public discussion about the once-a-decade redistricting process in 2011 and 2012, Republican consultants were quietly and busily drawing maps that they later said were produced largely because of their interest in the process.
Meanwhile, GOP operatives were discussing redistricting with officials in Washington and one consultant was writing to another about an offer of help from “friends with deep pockets.”
Read the rest of the post at
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/documents-describe-political-consultants-efforts-i/nZsy7/


The City of Hallandale Beach, in southeast Broward County, on the north side of the Miami-Dade County line, is hemmed in by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and I-95 on the west, is 4.2 square miles and has just under 39,00 residents, including myself. 

It is the poster child of a city that ought to be compact and contiguous, not broken up for political spare parts -and yet it is.
Again.

In order to satisfy base political and ethnic needs of politicians from outside the immediate area that have nothing at all to do with the letter and spirit of the Fair Districts legislation that I and many millions of other Florida voters passed, or giving this city's residents a degree of power that approximates their location and size, it is sliced and diced every which way.

Until last year's election, this city of under five square miles was represented by two U.S. Congresspersons, two state Representatives, two Broward County Commissioners and one state Senator.
Seven people instead of four.

Some people, uninformed people, say that's actually great for the city and means that its residents get more representation that way.

 A great theory, but in practice, the reality was and is that Hallandale Beach residents are always merely a fraction in a political equation in how a bill becomes a law, and the first to be ignored and the first to be thrown overboard 

 For the simplest and most-expedient reason of all -we were and are always deemed less important than some other larger city or area within the district because we have been intentionally drawn-and-quartered to appease other interests that are deemed more important than us having the meaningful representation we're entitled to. 
Just saying...
This is my 18th blog post here on redistricting. 
Prior posts on this subject can be seen here:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=redistricting

For a great example of gerrymandering outside of HB but nearby, see the map of Rep. Alcee Hastings FL-20 district in Lake Worth, which at one point is just slightly wider than the area taken up by one high school's complex -Lake Worth High's.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/FL

Brandon Larrabee @BylineBrandon  https://twitter.com/BylineBrandon

News Service of Florida newsserviceflorida.com

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Where are all the South Florida reporters? As of 9:48 p.m., the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel are STILL completely ignoring Debbie Wasserman Schultz income tax/hypocrisy story. She'll always be their Little Debbie who can do no wrong! Drudge Report publicizes stories while Herald & Sun-Sentinel say "What story?" They are NOT watchdogs, they are lapdogs!



Where are all the South Florida reporters? As of 9:48 p.m., the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel are STILL completely ignoring Debbie Wasserman Schultz income tax/hypocrisy story.  She'll always be their 'Little Debbie" who can do no wrong! Drudge Report publicizes stories while Herald & Sun-Sentinel say "What story?" They are not watchdogs, they are lapdogs!

Both newspapers slide further into irrelevancy, as if there was any way they could slide deeper, further alienating their declining number of loyal readers by their clear lack of focus and attention to detail, as they snooze the summer away.
I was actually going to mention this story yesterday afternoon, but got side-tracked.

The Weekly Standard
Blog
Dem. Chair Invested in Swiss Banks, Foreign Drug Companies, and the State Bank of India 
BY DANIEL HALPER
11:55 AM, JUL 10, 2012
Disclosure forms reveal that Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Florida, previously held funds with investments in Swiss banks, foreign drug companies, and the state bank of India. This revelation comes mere days after the Democratic chair attacked presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for holding money in Swiss bank accounts in the past.
Read the rest of the story at"

Real Clear Politics
Wasserman Schultz: "It Would Be Nice If We Had A Candidate for President Who Was Committed To America"
What we can expect is that the South Florida news media that has treated DWS with kid gloves for years as I've previously and frequently noted here, and done almost no original reporting on her, merely accepting what she says as fact, will probably NOT report on this until they have her side of the story, a situation they wouldn't do with more than a few other people.
We all know that if this were Allen West, they'd already have the fire-breathing editorials in print!

The two largest newspapers in South Florida and Miami's TV stations don't want to get on her bad list, so we can expect that they will tread very, very lightly with her on this.
Should we expect her press people to generate another banal story planted in the news media soon about cancer?
Don't be surprised.

See for yourself what a search for any news about this high-profile Democratic Party spokesperson gets you- nothing about her own refusal to release her most recent income tax form or her investments overseas..

All day today I wondered if this would get some mention before I was half-way thru a post on it during a commercial break during USA Network's White Collar.
Nope.
As of 9:47 p.m. there is nothing on the Herald or Sun-Sentinel's websites.

Surprise, this is where you live, folks, the tropical boondocks!

154 results for "debbie wasserman schultz"

91 search results for "Debbie Wasserman Schultz"
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

No Fair Districts here: Surprise! NAACP's proposed 2012 map keeps HB & Hollywood divided: Blacks given to Frederica Wilson, Jews to DWS; told ya!


Above, my screen grab of FL-17 Rep. Frederica Wilson appearing on WPLG-TV/Channel 10's "This Week in South Florida," July 21, 2011, with host Michael Putney. Wilson was only Florida House member to vote YES to increase the U.S. debt limit.

Fair Districts here: Surprise! NAACP's proposed 2012 map keeps Hallandale Beach & Hollywood divided: Blacks given to Frederica Wilson, Jews to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz; told ya!

The Central Florida Political Pulse blog of the Orlando Sentinel, which has been doing an infinitely better job of covering the Florida 2012 redistricting issue than any South Florida newspaper or blog, had the unhappy news yesterday that we were anticipating -despite their previous lip-service, the Florida NAACP was and is the object of the ruling status quo society.

They have zero interest in having this state actually have legislative districts that encourage competitive elections that are based on ideas and public policies.

Here's a question for the NACCP.
Florida is the fourth-largest state in the United States.
Yet the state's Black Democratic politicians are currently so unappealing and ineffective and so lacking in common sense on the issues that most concern Floridians, that in my opinion, not a single one could be elected state-wide.
Not one.

Even while Republican Jennifer Carroll, mother of Dolphin defensive back Nolan Carroll, was elected Lt. Governor as part of Rick Scott's ticket last November.

Compare that to California, Texas, or NY, the three states larger than Florida.
Each one has had African-American Democratic candidates successfully earn the nomination for governor or U.S. Senate based on primary campaigns dealing with ideas and the state's future, and DIDN'T have state Democratic elected officials abandon them and bail in droves like Florida's White Democrats did to Kendrick Meek last year in his third-place U.S. Senate race against Marco Rubio and Gov. Charlie Crist, supporting Crist.

In Florida, though, like a caricature of a cartoon, most of the Black Dems who are best-known to the public throughout the state are known more for negative things than their particular legislative accomplishments or in-depth knowledge of a subject of public policy importance, and the troubling thing is that most reporters and Democratic voters don't seem to care how this looks. Perception becomes reality.
Instead, they just shrug their shoulders.

That means that to the extent they are known at all, they're known and usually reported upon in the state's MSM because of their fashion sense, continuing questions about whether they are STILL breaking state rules on residency, and their unwillingness to engage in a public discussion of ideas other than ones of their own choosing: Frederica Wilson, Joe Gibbons, Corrine Brown.
And there's more where that comes from, like princely State Senator Gary Siplin of Orlando, who, judging from his history, seems to prefer that Florida legislators have as much leeway and as little adult supervision as possible.

See for yourself:
Central Florida Political Pulse blog
Siplin blasts ethics bill, defends Sansom, and Senate committee shoots it down
posted by aaron deslatte on March, 29 2011 5:30 PM
Palm Beach Post
Florida ethics panel drops $200,000 in fines owed by 168 officials after time limit passes
By John Kennedy, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 4:57 p.m. Friday, June 17, 2011

There's your dose of reality, Florida and Florida reporters.
Breaking News! Not!

Rep. Corrine Brown, FL-3, is someone who is literally her own worst enemy, often placing a verbal noose around her own neck, again-and-again, to defend the indefensible: "Look at the South. Nothing has changed.''
Really?

The evidence to the contrary of that is all around us, starting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but then how do you argue with somone who has made clear for so long that facts have little to do with what she says or does?

See where that quote comes from at the bottom of this post, and see the back story on this perpetually embarrassing woman in the June 12th, 2010 Buzz blog post in the St. Pete Times by Adam C. Smith titled, Corrine Brown and Mr. Gerry Mandering,

To take a look at Rep. Brown's current joke of a congressional district -CD- the Jacksonville-to-Orlando 200-mile absurdity which was highlighted here on my blog and in print ads and TV commercials last year, which helped lead to overwhelming public support among Florida voters for Amendments 5 & 6 last November, see http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=FL&district=3

To see a great video on Corrine Brown's embarrassing CD, see my post of October 25, 2010, titled, New TV ad from FairDistrictsFlorida.org; FL-17 and Corrine Brown's FL-3 are embarrassing embodiment of what unchecked gerrymandering gets you:

Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell spelled it all out very nicely in his Taking Names column of November 8th, saying about her,

If Florida ever stops gerrymandering, Brown's Democrat-loaded district is toast.

There's no way her snake-like district, which covers 200 miles and stretches from Jacksonville to Gainesville and then down to Sanford and Orlando, could survive.


Orlando Sentinel
Corrine Brown, secret interests fight your vote
November 08, 2011
Scott Maxwell, TAKING NAMES

And locally, congrats Hallandale Beach, Liberty City, Overtown and Hollywood!
Like it or not, it's been decided that you voters in FL-17 have an awful lot in common and that you've drawn the short straw and won't be having an actual congressional campaign next year.

Your representative has already been selected for you: globetrotting, do-nothing Frederica Wilson and her far-flung and over-the-top hats.
The woman whom, as I've previously written here, repeatedly said she supported Obama's ill-conceived jobs bill, but who never quite ever managed to find the time to formally sign-up to be a House sponsor herself, behavior that matched FL-20's DWS.
Nope, she was always too busy.
What a hypocrite!

And who locally is laughing about the NAACP's congressional maps?
Residents of Aventura, the Miami-Dade County city south of me by a few blocks, as the NAACP takes the position that Aventura will continue be repped by someone in Washington from Broward County who lives northwest of me, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, while here in the part of Hallandale Beach west of U.S.-1, we get to continue to be represented by someone from Miami-Dade whose district is based far SE from here in Liberty City, Overtown and Opa-Locka.
So whatever happened to the important notion of "compactness'?

Yes, the NAACP will do anything to keep the frequently-absent Frederica Wilson in office, even if it violates the intent and spirit of the two state constitutional Amendments that were overwhelmingly passed last year.
Surprise!

And if that means Wilson never has to have a competitive general election and can take her job for granted...
Right, it's not THEIR problem.

As for FL State House Rep. Joe Gibbons, well as everyone who comes to this blog knows by now, that former HB city commissioner represents a district here in SE Broward County, but it's not where his own wife and children live.

I know, I know, you really thought "home is where the heart is," right?
Not in his case.

Gibbons is an old-fashioned political opportunist and carpet-bagger, and as has been mentioned here numerous times, with the links to articles and post to prove it, Gibbons even tried to claim a Homestead exemption for his so so-called HB home, but the city rejected it because he failed the residency requirements most basic rule -he didn't live there.

Yet what has happened to him?
What has Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz done to show that nobody is above the law, even the low threshold that the Florida Legislature maintains for itself?
Nothing.

When did the august editorial boards of the Miami Herald or South Florida Sun-Sentinel ever write anything about it?
They never have.

When you consider who is on their Editorial Board, it's little wonder -not exactly mental giants!

Some of the folks above are the same people responsible for the endorsement of Anthony A. Sanders for HB City Commission in 2008, despite his disconnectedness from the larger community, a fact which is just as self-evident three years later.
Was it because he was Black and they were suffering pangs of Liberal White Guilt that earned him the nod, when facts seem not to have mattered to the editorial board?

Not that the Herald has ever written a single thing about any of Sanders' actions involving ethics, or the city rushing to purchase his home for more than it was worth, but then renting it out for a dollar a month with no plausible explanation for what the property is intended to be used for. That's still the case.
So why did the city buy it?
No explanation and the Herald doesn't ask.

Meanwhile, his completely unsatisfactory performance as commissioner now enters its fourth year.

Yes, there's your freedom of the press in the year 2011 in South Florida -sleepwalking.

And he talks about running for Congress?
From what state?

And I would know since I've had a Google Alert for Joe Gibbons for years.

Last year I finally subscribed to the Central Florida Political Pulse via my Blogger Reading List, after formally having them Bookmarked for years, since it allows me to receive their posts within seconds of them being posted online, which is fantastic.

NAACP redistricting maps have familiar look
Redistricting NAACP plan with comparison to the current Congressional districts in Central Florida
By Aaron Deslatte, Tallahassee Bureau Chief
10:47 p.m. EST, November 20, 2011

TALLAHASSEE — Republican lawmakers say voters who last year endorsed the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts constitutional reforms may be in for a rude awakening when the first drafts of congressional and legislative maps are released in the coming weeks.

Something akin to: Meet the new maps, same as the old maps.
Read the rest of the article at:


-----
Roll Call
Democrats Betting Big on Florida Redistricting
New Fair Districts Law Will Prevent Major GOP Gerrymander, but Huge Gains Are Not Likely
By Joshua Miller, Roll Call Staff
Nov. 8, 2011, Midnight

-----

WTVY-TV News (Dothan, Alabama) video: Fla. Redistricting Process Getting Heated. Posted: 9:18 PM Nov 21, 2011, Reporter: Troy Kinsey. Updated: 9:21 PM Nov 21, 2011,

-----
Meanwhile, at Steve Schale's blog...
Story Lines - Florida Congressional Redistricting
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2011 AT 5:54PM

As we near the unveiling of the first official Congressional redistricting maps, here are some of the interesting story lines to keep an eye out for. This list isn't meant to be exhaustive, but more the things that I am watching out for as the reapportionment and redistricting process begins in earnest in early December.
Read the rest of his post at:

-----
Here's a question: Why is it that all this time after former City of Miami City Manager Tony Crapp, Jr. resigned, that we still don't know for whom -or what group- in the redistricting battle he's working on behalf of?

-----

*Reminder: Broward County Commission will vote on their own redistricting maps in three weeks on December 13th. More on that as the date approaches.

-----

Miami Herald http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/20/1834230/congressional-vets-align-with.html

Congressional vets align with business groups to challenge redistricting proposals

By Mary Ellen Klas, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

September 20, 2010

As the high stakes battle over drawing political boundaries goes to the November ballot, two veteran Florida congressmen joined with business groups Monday to launch a campaign to defeat the proposals that would upend the way their districts are drawn.

Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown of Jacksonville and Republican Rep. Mario Diaz Balart of Miami, both elected to Congress in 1992, said they will work to defeat Amendments 5 and 6 because they believe the standards will lead to less minority representation, not more.

"These amendments will have the effect of bleaching the state of Florida as it was before 1992 when minorities did not have the ability to elect candidates of their choice,'' said Diaz Balart.

"It's unworkable. It will have a devastating effect on minorities across the state.''

The amendments, pushed by Fair Districts Florida, create new standards that would make it harder for legislators to gerrymander political districts. Proponents say the standards will strengthen the rights of minorities under the 1965 Voting Rights Act by chiseling them into the constitution, not weakening them.

"Rep.'s Diaz Balart and Brown are sadly mistaken about Amendments 5 & 6,'' said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. "These constitutional amendments are the most important changes that voters can make right now that will strengthen minority voting rights and protect the right of minorities to elect representatives of their choice.''

The anti-amendment effort, known as the Protect Your Vote campaign, has enlisted the help of former Secretary of State Kurt Browning and the public relations firm of Ron Sachs Communications.

The committee is ready to raise and spend "at least $4 [million] maybe more'' to defeat Amendments 5 and 6, Browning said, and will place ads on television. Associated Industries of Florida and the Florida Chamber of Commerce have lined up in support.

Browning warned the amendments would effectively "give the courts more influence in that process, which is unnecessary.''

Brown and Diaz Balart had hoped that a legislative counter measure would also be on the ballot, but the Florida Supreme Court threw it out two weeks ago. They have also filed their own lawsuit seeking to keep the measure off the ballot, but have lost at every stop.

Florida's once-a-decade redistricting process has been riddled with court fights since 1992, when the court-drawn districts ushered in maps that concentrated minority voters into minority-majority districts. Since then, the state has had three black members and three Hispanics elected to Congress.

That year, the new maps resulted in diluting Democratic congressional districts and the Florida Legislature. It also gradually allowed Republicans to control to the Legislature and assume the majority in Florida's congressional delegation by the mid-1990s.

Supporters of the Fair Districts campaign argue that the amendment will impose new standards that will allow for more geographically compact districts, increase competition for elected office and ensure that minorities are represented when districts are redrawn.

The group has raised $4.2 million to collect enough signatures to get on the ballot and defend the legal challenges. Much of the group's money came from trial lawyers, teachers, unions and out-of-state advocacy organizations.

The amendments are also supported by the NAACP and all but two of Florida's legislative black caucus members, who argued that in the two decades since the 1992 court-drawn districts, minorities have been elected from districts that aren't concentrated and that Florida voters are now more color-blind.

But Brown said Monday she disagrees. "Look at the South. Nothing has changed,'' she said. "You can't take politics out of politics.'' Brad Ashwell of Florida Public Interest Research Group called Brown and Diaz Balart's opposition a self-serving attempt to scare minority voters.

"It's inherently political,'' Ashwell said. ``Reforming the redistricting process is an aggressive assault on whatever party is in power. It's going to radically affect their ability to retain their power. What we want is more competitive elections, more accountability.''

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