Despite Republican nervousness that an attempt to squeeze more GOP congressional seats out of Florida in the current political environment could backfire, Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing ahead to do exactly that.
“He has created such a mess,” said Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried, pointing out that Florida voters in 2010 inserted into the state Constitution a prohibition against political gerrymandering. “The members of Congress don’t want it. The legislators don’t want to waste time. They will be in depositions all summer.”
DeSantis’ office did not respond to HuffPost’s queries about the coming special session, which was supposed to begin Monday but was pushed back a week to April 28. He is doing so even though the purported rationale for the session — an anticipated U.S. Supreme Court ruling voiding a Voting Rights Act provision that has been used to design majority-Black districts, including in Florida — will almost certainly not be delivered until after the session concludes on May 1.
Friday was the last scheduled day for high court opinions until mid-May. Only a single decision was handed down, and it was not the Louisiana case that DeSantis believes will allow him to redraw Florida’s already aggressively gerrymandered map that gives Republicans a 20-8 advantage over Democrats.
