A federal court turned aside Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown’s legal fight to keep her current district intact, setting the stage for a campaign that will range from Tallahassee to Jacksonville.
A three-judge panel based in Tallahassee unanimously ruled against Brown on Monday, saying she could not prove that a new east-west configuration of her district would dilute the ability of African-American voters to elect a candidate of their choice in 2016 or beyond.
Brown’s current district, which was found by the Florida Supreme Court to violate the state Constitution, ambles from Jacksonville in the north to Orlando in the south.
“Although the victory percentages may drop slightly from those in the north-south configuration, the evidence demonstrates that black-preferred candidates should generally continue to win east-west District 5 with about 60 percent of the vote,” said the opinion, signed by judges Robin Rosenbaum, Robert Hinkle and Mark Walker. “And a win is a win, regardless of the margin of victory.”
Brown has insisted an African-American Democrat can’t win the reconfigured seat, even though President Barack Obama carried the revamped district by more than 28 points in 2012.
The new district covers more than 200 miles across the top of the state, going from Jacksonville to Gadsden County and carving up Tallahassee.
The ruling is also a blow to Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, whose District 2 will become decidedly more Republican in the wake of the changes to Brown’s neighboring district.
Brown’s Jacksonville-to-Orlando district emerged from a previous redistricting battle more than 20 years ago. A federal court drew districts to increase the power of African-American voters, who had previously been marginalized by the state’s congressional maps.
But in 2010, voters approved the “Fair Districts” amendments to the Florida Constitution in an effort to thwart partisan gerrymandering by state lawmakers.
After the north-south alignment for Brown’s district was left unchanged by the Legislature in 2012, voting-rights organizations contended in a lawsuit that the sprawling district was meant to keep African-American voters who favor Democrats out of GOP-friendly districts in Northeast and Central Florida.
In a landmark ruling in July, the Florida Supreme Court struck down Brown’s district and seven others, saying they were drawn by the Republican-dominated Legislature in an effort to help the GOP.