Thanks to carefully drawn lines, not a single congressional or legislative incumbent lost a re-election bid in 2004.
This maintained the forced lop-sided 7 Democratic to 18 Republican District split in Florida, a state which has more registered Democrats than Republicans!!!!
the controlling party did more than just gift-wrap Feeney a congressional district that year(2002).
It also stuffed so many Democrats into Brown's district that there were enough Republican voters left over to give GOP candidates the advantage in all of the others. Even though Democrats outnumbered Republicans overall in Central Florida, Republicans outnumbered Democrats in five of the six Central Florida districts.
A comment to Scott Maxwell's article says:
I grimace every time I see John Mica listed as "John Mica - R-Winter Park." The way the district lines are drwan, he actually represents maybe 400 out of Winter Park's 28,000 residents. It's disgusting, right along with his toupee, and his, "You don't want to get on the wrong side of John Mica" bullying for anyone with a different opinion than his. Everybody says the American political system is the world's best, but sometimes you really have to wonder.
Everyone wants to claim they represent Winter Park, and four Representatives actually can!
Winter Park, which is a little more than 3 square miles, is represented by 4 members of congress.(District 3,7,8 and 24).
In fact Mica's home used to be in District 8, Alan Grayson's district!
Here are some district trivia about John Mica, as another commenter remarks:
Remember when Bill McCollum was the Representative of District 8? It was a long standing joke because Mica (District 7) lives in Winter Park which at the time was not in his district yet when he was ever quoted in the news, it would say “Rep. Winter Park” and Bill McCollum who did represent Winter Park/Greater Metro Orlando would say “Rep. Longwood,” which was in Mica’s district.
Scott Maxwell has it right when he says:
They've turned this state into a psychopath's jigsaw puzzle, with misshapen legislative and congressional districts that split communities in two and can be longer than 100 miles and yet as narrow as a few hundred yards.
It's all designed to stifle competition and stack the deck before you even get to the polls.
Want proof that our current districts are distorted and contorted? Well, consider the following about these U.S. House members:
•Republican John Mica lives more than 130 miles from many of the residents he represents. Much of the congressman's district is actually in Flagler and St. Johns counties. In fact, just about the only part of Orange County included in Mica's district is the swath of land around his Winter Park home.
Are we ready to change business as usual? Efforts are underway to work for Fair Districts instead of how it was done in the past:
"It happens in dark rooms at night with the computers," said Thom Rumberger, a Tallahassee attorney and Republican Party patriarch who was once part of the system he now wants to reform. "Both sides do it. That's why I'm trying to make this an issue of fairness rather than partisanship."
That's also why Rumberger is leading a bipartisan coalition that wants to give voters the chance to vote on fair-districting as a constitutional amendment next year.
The premise of the amendment: Florida's political districts must be compact, using geographic boundaries that can't be stretched far and wide for political purposes. And if legislators ignore residents' wishes and try to do themselves political favors, they could end up in court.
As Scott Maxwell says,...."This common-sense approach to democracy is way overdue."
Go to http://www.fairdistrictsflorida.org.
