TALLAHASSEE – In the first month of Florida lawmakers taking initial steps toward redrawing congressional and legislative boundaries, Democrats and allied groups have already lost early political skirmishes.
And ruling Republicans haven’t even proposed a map yet – which potentially could spell even more trouble for the state’s outnumbered Democratic lawmakers.
So far, Democrats failed to gain support for repeated calls to hold some kind of public hearings before maps are crafted. A decade ago, Republican leaders devoted four months to more than two dozen such hearings – but now say a pandemic-related time crunch makes a road show impossible.
