A two-week trial examining whether Florida’s Republican-led Legislature redrew congressional boundaries in 2012 to help the party maintain power ended Wednesday much as it began – with a final witness detailing the intricate process of line-drawing.
Jason Poreda, a former state House redistricting committee staffer, was the last of a parade of legislative employees, Republican consultants, political experts and leaders of the Florida Legislature to testify in the landmark case.
Like most Republican allies, Poreda said the once-a-decade process of map-drawing was conducted properly. The goal was not to assure that the GOP kept its majority in the 27-member Florida congressional delegation, Poreda testified.
“We were drawing maps without political intent,” Poreda said, adding, “That was our guiding principle, throughout.”
But David King, attorney for the Florida League of Women Voters and Common Cause, which along with several Democratic voters, said thousands of pages of evidence and testimony in the trial show the boundaries should be ruled unconstitutional.
“We’re confident that we’ve met whatever standard the court is going to hold us to in this case with our evidence,” King said.
Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis asked attorneys for both sides submit closing arguments in the case in writing next week, along with a recommended decision. He is likely to issue a ruling by the end of the month, when he is slated to shift from civil to criminal court.
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