NAACP wants veto of redrawn Miami voting map. Mayor Francis Suarez undecided
Days after Miami commissioners changed district boundaries in several city neighborhoods, the Miami-Dade Branch of the NAACP called on Mayor Francis Suarez to veto the redistricting legislation.
The mayor’s office on Wednesday said Suarez has not made a decision on whether he will reject the voting map, which was adopted by the commission on Thursday by a 3-2 vote that immediately changed district boundaries in the city, according to the city attorney’s office. Suarez has 10 days from that vote to issue a veto, or the new maps remain in effect. A veto override would require four of the five commissioners.
Opponents of the redistricting plan advocated to keep Coconut Grove, which has for decades been in District 2, as one cohesive neighborhood in the same district. Those residents opposed moving more than 100 Black households in the historical Black West Grove out of that district and into a majority-Hispanic district. That move, opponents said, would dilute the Black community’s political power.
Among other changes in the northern swath of Coconut Grove, downtown, Allapattah and Little Havana, commissioners on Thursday approved a map that moved the West Grove area north of Bird Road, currently in Commissioner Ken Russell’s District 2, into Manolo Reyes’ District 4. Every decade after the U.S. Census, the commission considers redrawing the city’s voting map to take into account shifts in population and evenly distribute political power.
In a letter sent to Suarez this week, NAACP Miami-Dade Branch President Daniella Pierre urged the mayor to reject the new map.
“As a civil rights organization, we have a duty to protect our democracy and prevent unfair redistricting plans that pose a threat to equal representation under the law,” Pierre wrote. “In our collective effort to do so, we challenge state statutes, policies and local procedures that go against traditional redistricting principles and obligations under the Voting Rights Act.”
Consultants hired by the city to lead the redistricting effort, attorney Miguel De Grandy and partner Steve Cody, have maintained that their proposals comply with voting laws.
Suarez’s communications director, Soledad Cedro, told the Miami Herald the mayor is “considering everything as he analyzes the situation.”
“At this point, he’s still making up his mind” about whether he wants to veto or not, she said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Pierre said she had not received a response from Suarez.
As he mulls this decision, the mayor is also trying to convince four of five commissioners to support a project he has championed since he came into office — the redevelopment of Melreese golf course into a commercial and soccer stadium complex to host home games for Major League Soccer franchise Inter Miami. A key vote on that proposal, which has been delayed several times, is scheduled for April 28.
Other politicians in Florida have recently made headlines over redistricting disputes. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday vetoed a bill on congressional redistricting maps and called state lawmakers back to a special session in April to redraw the voting map.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 5:56 PM.
