GOP continues to fight tooth and nail for its gerrymandered district maps, despite ruling by Florida Supreme Court firmly against its Congressional district gerrymandering ... by gimleteye

  Op-sc14-1905_league of Women Voters_july09

The fight for Fair Districts in Florida is a titanic political battle in which the Florida GOP is desperate to violate the will of the people.

It is well established by election results that Florida is trending Democrat (ie. statewide presidential votes) but that gerrymandered districts -- in other words, districts drawn to favor one political party over the other -- have turned the state into a de facto fortress of the GOP.

For the Miami Herald, Pat Mazzei writes, "The court’s 5-2 decision landed as a political bombshell 16 months before an election in the country’s largest swing state. Two of the districts directly affected already have nationally watched competitive races. Yet it’s too early to know exactly how everything will play out, especially considering how the state Democratic Party has struggled to seize past opportunities. Much will depend on the Republican-controlled Florida House and Senate, which are responsible for creating the new boundaries. The court wants eight of the state’s 27 congressional districts redrawn in 100 days, though more districts will almost certainly be affected. What gives Democrats hope is that the eight targeted districts are in the state’s most populated — read: most liberal — areas: Three are based in Miami-Dade County and two in Broward and Palm Beach; two lie in the Tampa Bay area, and one stretches from Jacksonville to Orlando."

The link, to the Washington Post, is the "best explanation of redistricting that you will ever see". Agree.