Arguing that “neither political party holds a monopoly on gerrymandering,” lawyers for the Florida House on Thursday asked the Florida Supreme Court to allow them to ask the redistricting challengers questions about the Democrat-leaning firms that drew their proposed congressional map. “Without apparent shame, Plaintiffs have presented to the trial court alternative maps that were drawn, reviewed, discussed, modified, and approved in a closed process, in complete darkness, by national political operatives,” the House lawyers wrote in the motion. “The fact that Plaintiffs’ maps, despite their origins, are pending before the trial court for a possible recommendation to this Court should dismay and disturb all Floridians.”
The plaintiffs, a group of Democrat-leaning voters known as the Romo plaintiffs, responded with their own motion objecting to the suggestion. They filed a proposed map this week with Leon Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis showing an alternative to the House and Senate maps drawn by the GOP-led Legislature. Lewis will decide among the maps which best reflects the guidelines as set out by the Supreme Court when it invalidated Florida’s congressional map because of “improper partisan intent.” The House has submitted one map, the Senate two and the plaintiffs four.
But with an Oct. 17 deadline looming to review and recommend the best map, the court did not allow for discovery, making it impossible for either side to question the other about who drew the map and whether it was drawn to benefit a political party or incumbent.
Full Article: House redistricting lawyers want to grill Democrat map drawers | Tampa Bay Times.
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