Florida lawmakers rejected DeSantis’ unfair redistricting map. Find the backbone to do it again | Editorial

Gov. Ron DeSantis, hellbent on owning Florida’s congressional redistricting maps, vetoed those drawn up in a relatively fair Republican-led process and called a special session in April.

Call it another one of his “my way or the highway” moments.

Even though the governor took the unprecedented step of insisting on his own map — one that wiped out two traditional Black-majority districts and increased Republican seats from 16 to 18 — his party’s legislators pushed back.

Tuesday, DeSantis vetoed their map, as promised. And that’s a shame. The only thing he’s pushing in his own design is political gain at the expense of minority voting power. It’s been his MO before. He was sued for failing to call special elections in majority-Black districts when three state lawmakers resigned from the Legislature to run for the late African-American Rep. Alcee Hastings’ congressional seat in South Florida. The ripple effect, of course, was a delay in getting the winner seated in the Legislature.

There’s also the off chance that other issues could be addressed during the special session.

“I would love to have property insurance, I would love to have data privacy, I would love to have constitutional carry,” DeSantis said.

“Constitutional carry?” The last thing the armed state of Florida needs is a law that lets legal gun owners carry handguns openly or concealed on their person without a permit. Sounds like the only urgency here is DeSantis’ re-election fight — or a bargaining chip.

However, the governor is right about property insurance. That one got left on the table during the session, even though homeowners are being crushed by double-digit increases.

And how about high-rise condo safety? “Only” 98 people died in the tragic condo collapse in Surfside last June. How many people needed to perish for lawmakers to pass substantive safety reforms, including requiring condo associations to have financial reserves on hand? The special session could be a chance for them to redeem themselves and truly serve their constituents.

Lawmakers should be returning to Tallahassee for a do-over on these issues, not to redraw congressional maps because the governor doesn’t like them.

In addition to revisiting their irresponsible lapses, we urge lawmakers to stand firm against diluting Black voting power in the search for compromise and a map that will thwart legal challenge. As for the governor, we know it’s useless, but we urge him to compromise — period.

This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 3:53 PM.