Weekly Roundup: third time no charm for lawmakers

By DARA KAM
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, November 6, 2015…… There is no joy in Mudville --- mighty Casey has struck out.

Florida lawmakers quit the Capitol this week without completing their assignment, proving that the third time isn't the charm, at least as far as Sunshine State politics is concerned.

Unlike the poetic protagonist's denouement, the failure of the two chambers to agree on a new Senate map came as no surprise to anyone who's been paying the slightest attention to the goings-on in Tallahassee this year.

But, shortly before the Senate killed the leadership-backed plan with a vote that wasn't even close, two longtime foes delivered some astonishing news that, for many, overshadowed the yawn-inducing end to another failed special session.

After three brutal years, Republican Sen. Jack Latvala finally gave up the ghost Thursday, ceding the future gavel to his onetime nemesis, Joe Negron. Latvala will take over as the chamber's budget chief after the 2016 elections, while Negron will stand at the podium as president.

What the rapprochement will bring to a fractured Senate --- perhaps even more sharply at odds with its House counterpart --- remains to be seen.

SAME AS IT EVER WAS

For the third time this year, the clock ran out on a legislative session without lawmakers sealing the deal.

But, unlike the previous sessions where the House and Senate couldn't strike an accord about the budget and a congressional map, leaders in the two chambers were united in pointing the finger at someone else for their failure to pass a Senate redistricting plan.

Instead of blaming each other, GOP leaders blamed a pair of voter-approved constitutional amendments that ban political gerrymandering in legislative and congressional redistricting. Lawmakers argued that the "Fair Districts" amendments had become an almost unworkable maze of sometimes contradictory standards that ignored the need to draw together communities with common interests.

On a 23-16 vote late Thursday afternoon, the Senate killed the House version of a proposed Senate the map (SJR 2-C) and, with it, any hope that the Legislature would decide the lines. Nine Senate Republicans bucked their party's leadership and joined all 14 Democrats in opposing the plan.

"Having been living intimately in this world, I have concluded that the amendments to our Constitution pulled the soul out of map drawing, pulled the soul out of districts," said Senate Reapportionment Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton.

In brief remarks to his colleagues at the close of the session, House Speaker Steve Crisafulli also suggested that the authors of the amendments had used a noble goal to create gridlock.

"This has certainly been a difficult time, and I truly believe there are those who have set out to do everything they can to produce chaos and confusion and truly make this impossible to succeed and make us have a hard time succeeding in this effort," Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said.

But David King, an attorney for the League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause, which have led redistricting legal battles against the Legislature, had a different take.

"The Legislature has fought the Fair Districts Amendments from the moment they were introduced," King said. "By blaming the amendments, rather than themselves, they are simply perpetuating their opposition to the will of the people and engaging in the very conduct that Florida voters clearly wanted to eliminate from our state."

The redistricting issue will go to Leon County Circuit Judge George Reynolds, who likely will consider proposed maps from the Legislature and the voting-rights organizations, with Reynolds ultimately recommending a plan to the Florida Supreme Court.

LATVALA, NEGRON BURY THE HATCHET

The bitter intra-party battle over who will take over the chamber after Senate President Andy Gardiner's term ends next November quietly drew to a close Thursday when Latvala ceded the race to Negron.

The struggle has shaded the Senate's politics --- and policies --- for more than three years, affecting previous GOP leaders' priorities and resulting in bad blood between Republicans who control the chamber. As recently as last week, it played a part in a verbal throw-down between the sharp-tongued Latvala and the equally acerbic Sen. Don Gaetz, a former Senate president and close Negron ally.

In exchange for Latvala giving up his quest to become president after the 2016 elections, Negron agreed to let the more-moderate Latvala serve as the powerful chairman of the Senate's budget committee.

Standing beside Negron after a tense floor debate Thursday over the failed Senate redistricting plan, Latvala told reporters he withdrew after realizing that the rancor over the race had reached "a boiling point" characterized by some of his colleagues as a "low point" for the chamber as an institution.

"As someone who has made a lot of my life here, that really disturbed me greatly," Latvala, a veteran political consultant from Clearwater, said. "…It just dawned on me that I, for one, have not been paying as much attention to policy issues here in the Senate as I should have been. I've been totally consumed in the political side of being in the Senate but not in the policy side. That's what people sent us here to do. It just occurred to me that we needed to start focusing on what the people sent us here to do, trying to solve some of the problems."

Negron, who held a narrow lead in the race, praised Latvala for "bringing this to a conclusion in a way that's honorable."

Negron said he is "optimistic" that Latvala's concession would help Republicans unite.

"I think it's important that as a caucus and as a Senate that we're able to come together to work on common initiatives that we all support," Negron, a lawyer from Stuart, said. "There will be differences from time to time on policy items, but our goal always was that the caucus family would come together."

STORY OF THE WEEK: Florida's GOP-dominated Legislature failed to approve a new Senate redistricting plan, leaving a preliminary decision about the map to a Tallahassee judge.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "It's like a load is lifted off my shoulders." Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, after his decision to withdraw from the race against Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, to become Senate president late next year.