FL Dem Corrine Brown joins GOP to stop voter's choice for redistricting.

[madfloridian]

This angers me. The Fair Districts group worked so hard and long to get the amendment on the ballot last year to fix the gerrymandering here....and it was passed by the voters.

For her to join the GOP in trying to stop it from going into practice is not a good choice.

From the St. Pete Times blog The Buzz:

Is U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown a Defender of minority voters or self-serving incumbent?

Here is a picture of her greatly gerrymandered district.

Brown became one of three history-making African-Americans elected to Congress from Florida in 1992 and has relied on the district's concentration of black voters to keep her in office.

She hails it as a triumph for equality.

But others have come to view the bizarrely shaped 3rd District as a glaring exhibit of everything wrong with redistricting, the once-a-decade redrawing of legislative and congressional voting lines to match population changes.

Not Brown. She's teamed back up with Republicans and is suing to keep the Fair Districts constitutional amendment from going into effect.

Here is more about how she is trying to overcome the decision of the voters.

Democrat U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown again aligns with GOP in Florida redistricting battle


U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, center, reacts at a rally outside a Tallahassee courthouse where a hearing on her district was under way. Judges ruled in 1996 that the 3rd District was illegally drawn, with one comparing it to something from “a Rorschach ink blot.”

WASHINGTON — Florida's 3rd Congressional District looks like someone crushed a giant bug in the Ocala National Forest, splattering north to Jacksonville and south to Orlando.

It's a finely tuned mess that U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown helped create nearly 20 years ago by forming an unlikely alliance with Republicans in a bitter fight driven by racial tension.

Brown became one of three history-making African-Americans elected to Congress from Florida in 1992 and has relied on the district's concentration of black voters to keep her in office.

She hails it as a triumph for equality.

But others have come to view the bizarrely shaped 3rd District as a glaring exhibit of everything wrong with redistricting, the once-a-decade redrawing of legislative and congressional voting lines to match population changes.

This is the attitude that voters' ballot initiatives don't count, and that they can easily be overturned.

Fair Districts has worked hard and so have many of us who have worked with them to get this far with the initiative, and now they are planning on overturning it.

Corrine Brown has some deciding to do about which side she will choose.

[OHdem10]

1. I am being sincere here, but I remember some years back

not just in Fla but several states esp. in South,
Districts were drawn to try to African Americans
an opportunity to have their own representation.

Will there be further similar circumstances in other
states. I saw where the Cong. Black Caucus is having
some problems with La's proposed redistricting?

[Angry Dragon]

2. They are just saying that they do not care what the people want

[Orlandodem]

3. Brown does not understand that Republicans are using her so they can gerrymander.

They put ALL black voters into her district and leave white Republicans as the majority in other surrounding districts. Corrine Brown is all about Corrine Brown. She is one of the biggest idiots in Congress.

[madfloridian]

4. According to Google maps, that is about 144 miles long.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=jacksonville,+fl&daddr=pine+hills,+fl&geocode=FRjVzgEdnQgi-ynrr87xFrfliDHix_yWOH3NxA%3BFdPBswEdox4l-ynx8uWS1XnniDGUB3Vvv6UNgA&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=29.565905,-81.368425&sspn=2.341103,3.532104&ie=UTF8&ll=29.444381,-81.370239&spn=2.343867,3.532104&z=8

[immoderate]

5. Here is District 20 -- Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

I don't think she is worried about being reelected. She is in Weston, but there is a lot of money along the coast. Can't imagine they won't break that up. Hard to imagine a district that is both richer and more liberal.

--imm

[madfloridian]

7. I swear that is as bad as or worse than District 3.

:wow:

[immoderate]

8. I wonder if there is a coefficient of gerrymandering...

That is, a way of comparing how gerrymandered a district is. Maybe a ratio of the area of the district to the minimal rectangle that contains the district. I used to teach math. I would have like to have put that problem to the class.

It would have worked nicely at one school I worked at which emphasized integrating curricula and had a theme of social action. They don't make them like that anymore. :(

--imm

[DonCoquixote]

6. Once again

The Florida democrats reveal why they are the best friend the GOP has.