Redistricting Crisis Likely Averted For Miami Gardens, But Wilson's District Could Be Stripped Of Key Black Neighborhoods

Miami FL

26 January, 2022

3:39 PM

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By Johania Charles, Miami Times Staff Writer Jan 25, 2022 Advocacy groups and Black leaders wait anxiously for a once-in-a-decade redrawing of three Florida legislature district maps, driven by results from the 2020 U.S. Census, that will define this year's mid-term elections. The potential murky future of South Florida's congressional districts is raising the most concern following an unconventional move by the governor to be involved in the redistricting process by submitting his own proposal. That proposal would slash the number of Black voting districts in half, impacting districts 5 and 10. A map outlining Senate plan 8060, adopted from an amendment proposed by Sen. Shevrin Jones, keeps all of Miami Gardens in one district. (/FloridaRedistricting.gov) Thwarting Gov. Ron DeSantis' move, state senators approved map plan 8060 in a 31-4 vote last Thursday. It was one of four draft maps proposed by the Florida Senate Committee on Reapportionment, which offers less drastic changes than what DeSantis has proposed and adds an additional congressional district to Florida's already existing 27 seats. Prior to the passing of 8060, the Senate leaned toward a map that would have split Miami Gardens into two districts, creating concern over the attempt to dilute representation in the state's largest majority-Black city. District 35 Sen. Shevrin Jones requested the amendment that led to 8060, which keeps Miami Gardens within Congressional District 24. Though 8060 was presented at last week's committee meeting as a victory for constituents compared to DeSantis' map, especially those in the Black community, activists assure that it's not a win and remain cautious. State Sen. Shevrin Jones, District 35, gives a thumbs up to other senators after they approved his amendment to avoid splitting Miami Gardens, Florida's majority-Black city, into two congressional districts. (Via Meta) "I do appreciate Sen. Jones for offering the amendment to keep Miami Gardens whole and in clearing up some of the messiness of that initial presentation," said Dwight Bullard, senior political advisor for Florida Rising and president of the South Dade NAACP. "But I'm still a little disheartened." Florida House of Representatives members still have yet to vote on their own proposed congressional map that differs from the Senate map, though its redistricting committee is set to meet Wednesday to discuss House districts. Both chambers must agree and approve a congressional map to be presented to the governor, where it is then approved or vetoed. Before going into effect for the 2022 election cycle, it will undergo a court review. Ray Rodrigues, chair of the Senate's reapportionment committee and Republican senate member, expressed confidence in the fairness of map 8060 prior to Thursday's vote. "The metrics all show that this map is an improvement over the one that we have today," he told senators. "The work that our [committee] staff did should not be overlooked. They did in 60 days what had previously been done in six months … We have drawn a map with pure intent that has followed directives of the court." Those in opposition were dissatisfied with the map's inability to create more representation through minority access seats, primarily for Hispanic voters, to match regional population growth. Sens. Victor Torres, Audrey Gibson, Janet Cruz and Gary Farmer cast the dissenting votes. According to Florida's redistricting site, the resident population in the state grew from 18,801,310 to 21,538,187 in the last decade. Each congressional district saw an average population increase of more than 72,000 people. Bullard, who served one term as a Florida state senator in 2012, said he is appalled by what the process has looked like so far. "It's almost like a game of good cop, bad cop," he explained. "Gov. DeSantis presents a very problematic and disturbing map and then Senate Republicans come along and say 'We're going to show bipartisanship by changing the map to uphold the will of the people.' That's political gamesmanship that I'm not appreciative of, neither should people applaud it." He told The Miami Times that he would not be surprised to find out that lawmakers are designing maps in favor of Florida's Republican Party at the expense of the Black vote. Bullard says that advocacy organizations like the ones he belongs to will not stand for it, but wait for a final map and keep a close eye on DeSantis to determine if legal action is merited. "This is a map that majority have agreed upon but the governor vetoing it is not outside the realm of possibility," he added. "[DeSantis] has shown himself to be quite partisan so it would not surprise me if he vetoed the map and tried to challenge the legislature to come up with a map that's closer to the initial one he proposed." "We can't prioritize compactness – which is a term that [Senators] are using now – over representation," said Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the late Alcee Hastings' successor and first Haitian American woman elected to Congress. "Especially from a population that has been systematically discriminated against, oppressed and suppressed when it comes to voting." Cherfilus-McCormick says she is working with local advocacy groups to ensure that voting rights are considered in the final map produced after the legislative session ending on March 11. "We don't have any kind of real certainties right now since this is still preliminary," she said. "But we do know that the governor has made it very clear that he wants to have influence. We don't yet know exactly what [District 20] will have access to or where we're going to be when it comes to the maps. Ultimately, we're waiting to see what the final product is to know how we should govern ourselves after that." District 24 Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson, though relieved her district will maintain Miami Gardens, says she is devastated by the proposed changes. Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson (Via Meta) Should plan 8060 go into effect, her district would lose key landmarks like Miami Dade College's North and Wolfson campuses; Booker T. Washington Senior High School; public parks such as Reeves, Gibson and Athalie Range; parts of Allapattah, Wynwood, historic Overtown and the Lyric Theater; and major parts of Opa-locka. It would stretch into Miami Beach, Sunny Isles, North Bay Village parts of Miramar and Aventura, areas formerly represented by District 27 Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar. Salazar would be the new representative for a majority of the locations moving out of Wilson's district, including Overtown. "This was a big surprise; all of the landmark institutions that I have championed for so long and had proposals for the current budget and the 2023 budget would be gone," said Wilson. "It's devastating to me and it will be devastating to those institutions and to those particular entities." Wilson says she's been shocked by this year's redistricting process so far. "Never in the history of drawing maps have we not had public hearings across the state of Florida with input from stakeholders," she said, recalling her time in the state legislature when a hearing was held at Miami Central Senior High School. "And second, we've never had a governor submit a plan, and not only did he submit his own plan but he submitted it with a threat attached to it almost as if to say, 'If you don't accept my plan, I am going to veto yours.' Who does that?" Similar to Cherfilus-McCormick and Bullard, Wilson says she is counting on the national and local chapters of the NAACP, PowerU, The Urban League and the Divine Nine to initiate lawsuits if things take a turn for the worse when it comes to upholding voting rights. "We're seeing the rise of voter suppression bills nationally and there's been state movements for more stringent laws making it more difficult for people to vote," said Cherfilus-McCormick, drawing a connection between proposed maps and a surge in anti-voting rights legislation since the 2020 elections. "When you look at the cumulative effect of everything going on, you have a national refusing to allow the protection of votes, states that are pushing to limit accessibility to voting and maps that are being developed that diminish the voices of minorities. All these things are a deadly recipe for our country's democracy." Still, Black lawmakers are hoping for the best from this year's legislative session and are betting on advocacy groups to defend their Black constituents. The silver lining of plan 8060 though, says Wilson, is that it preserves the four existing Black voting districts and allows her to still represent Miami Gardens, where South Florida's only HBCU, Florida Memorial University, is located. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.