Terri Susan Fine, Ph.D.
Content Specialist
Florida Joint Center for Citizenship
Why Does Florida Matter in 2012?
 Three factors garner attention in any presidential
election
 Primary Calendar
 Redistricting
 Electoral College
 Campaign Finance
The Primary Calendar
 Why so many primaries?
 Candidate selection must be fair and open
 Why does the primary calendar matter?
 “The Big Mo”
 What happened to Florida in 2008?
Redistricting
 The U.S. Constitution requires that a census be
conducted every 10 years
 Baker v. Carr (1962) requires that legislative districts
be reasonably equal in size
 “One person, one vote”
 The number of districts has not changed since 1911
 Each state is guaranteed at least one district and two
Senators
Redistricting in Florida
 Major population changes since 2000
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Florida’s population increased by 17.6% (to 18.8
million)
Hispanics are now 22.5% of the population
Hispanics are now the state’s largest minority
group
Districts previously engineered to elect minorities
have become too small
Redistricting in Florida (continued)
• Of the five congressional districts that have grown the
least since 2000, three elect the state's only AfricanAmerican members of Congress.
• Two of the five slowest-growing state Senate districts
are majority African-American.
• Out of the 30 slowest-growing House districts, onethird "minority-majority" seats.
The Politics of Redistricting
 What is “racial gerrymandering”?
 The original “gerrymander”
 Voting Rights Act (1965)
Preclearance provision (Section 5)
 Voting Rights Act Amendments (1982)
 “Vote dilution”
 Thornburgh v. Gingles (1986)

Fair Districts in Florida
 Voters have mandated that lawmakers take politics and
self-interest out of the equation.
 In 2010, Florida voters adopted the "Fair Districts"
constitutional amendments requiring that congressional
and legislative districts be drawn more compactly,
following existing city and county boundaries where
feasible — and without the intent to help incumbents or
political parties.
 Supporters said the aim was to stop the decades-old
practice of gerrymandering political boundaries to prop up
the party in power.
Who is Drawing the District Lines?
 State legislatures draw both state and federal districts
 Republicans outnumber Democrats 81 to 39 in the
Florida House
 Republicans outnumber Democrats 28 to 12 in the
Senate
 Registered Democrats outnumber GOP voters.
Electoral College—Florida’s role will be enhanced in
2012
 Florida is a winner-take-all state
 Electoral College will likely remain the same size
 Florida has more than 10% of the Electoral Votes
needed to win the presidency
 This will impact campaign strategy and the
attention that Florida receives
Campaign Finance
 The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act was enacted in
2002
 Eliminated “soft money”—unregulated monies
between the state and national political parties
Thank You