Rick Scott To The Citizens Of Florida-- "Sue Me If You Don't Like It"

Florida was an absolute electoral disaster zone last November. I don't care at all that two ultra-conservative corporate shills, Allen Boyd and Suzanne Kosmas were defeated in their reelection bids-- they mostly voted with Republicans anyway-- but it was painful to see moderate Ron Klein lose to political sociopath Allen West and much worse to see the House's most forthright progressive leader, Alan Grayson, defeated by corporately-financed, far right religious fanatic Daniel Webster. And that was only the beginning. Right-wing Republicans swept every statewide race, the most hideous being Rick Scott's narrow 49-48% victory over Alex Sink and teabagger Marco Rubio's 49% win for the U.S. Senate. Rubio drew 2,645,743 votes and Scott took nearly as many, 2,619,335. But you know what beat them both-- by a landslide? The Fair District Amendments. Amendment 5 (for state districts) had 3,155,149 votes (62.59%) and Amendment 6 (for congressional districts) had 3,153,199 votes (62.93%).

Republican politicians in Tallahassee are adamantly opposed to these anti-gerrymandering efforts, of course, and the new governor is determined to thwart the will of the voters. The nonpartisan Florida League of Women voters is already suing him. The other day I got an e-mail from Jackie Lee, Executive Director of FairDistricts Now, which I'd like to share:

So what happened to the FairDistricts Amendments? Politicians are doing everything they can to stop them from going into effect-- that’s what. Clearly these politicians want to be able to continue drawing districts for their own political advantage-- even though voters said overwhelmingly (63%) they want to stop political gerrymandering. I am writing to let you know about the formation of FairDistricts Now and to ask you to be a part of our new effort to compel Tallahassee politicians to fully comply with the redistricting rules YOU established through YOUR hard work, contributions and votes! 

It is clear that the powerful politicians are very unhappy with your vote for Amendments 5 and 6. In the middle of the night on November 3rd -- before the last votes were even counted-– two Members of Congress went to court to try to get the amendments thrown out! Then, Speaker Dean Cannon and the Florida House of Representatives decided to use YOUR taxpayer dollars to join in that suit. 

Governor Rick Scott joined the fray by delaying the implementation of the FairDistricts amendments. As required by federal law, former Governor Crist submitted the amendments to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval. Within two days of taking office, Governor Scott withdrew that request. 

Clearly these politicians want to be able to continue drawing districts for their own political advantage-- even though a supermajority told them to stop this selfish practice.

But supporters of the FairDistricts Amendments are fighting back!

The Florida NAACP, ACLU, Democracia and a number of individual voters stepped up to defend the amendments in the case brought by the politicians. Then the Florida League of Women Voters and others filed suit against Governor Scott to compel him to stop playing politics with the Florida Constitution and resubmit the amendments to the Justice Department for approval. 

Yesterday, as Florida’s census data was delivered to the Governor and Legislature, members of our coalition wrote to Governor Scott urging him once again to re-submit the amendments. Click here to see the press release on our new website, www.FairDistrictsNow.org

The confusion over district boundaries has been holding not some, but most potential Democratic candidates back from declaring. It's reasonable to want to know which district you live in before announcing you're running. The Florida legislature has already passed a law that claims-- unconstitutionally-- that if the redistricting isn't completed in time for 2012's election (clearly the intention of Rick Scott and the GOP) then the two new congressional races will be fought on an at-large basis. This is clearly absurd in a giant state like Florida with a population of nearly 20 million people. Each congressman is supposed to represent something like 700,000 residents starting in 2012, not 20 million (or even 10 million). In the most recent statewide races Rubio spent $21,638,315, Charlie Crist spent $13,608,676 and Kendrick Meek spent $9,241,564. Florida is one of the most expensive states to run a statewide campaign-- although it's nothing for the Koch Brothers. And that's Rick Scott's plan-- to make it impossible for Democrats to compete financially for the two seats, the law and the voters be damned.