New email raises more questions about whether redistricting laws were co-opted by Florida Republicans
Hundreds of pages of documents ordered made public by the Florida Supreme Court in the state’s redistricting fight now include an email congratulations to a top Tallahassee consultant from a national Republican Party official.
Tom Hofeller, a Republican National Committee consultant who also works for the party’s congressional campaign committee, sent an April 2012 email to Rich Heffley, a Florida GOP consultant praising his work on redrawing state Senate district boundaries.
“Congratulations on guiding the Senate through the thicket,” Hofeller wrote in the document released Monday by justices.
Heffley responded, “Thanks. Big win.”
The email goes on to underscore the advantage the new Senate map maintained for the Republican Party over the Democratic Party.
But Heffley’s role “guiding the Senate” violated the Florida Constitution, according to the state’s League of Women Voters and other groups suing the Legislature over its redrawing of political boundaries two years ago.
Voter-approved amendments to the constitution prohibit district lines from being drawn that help or hurt incumbents or political parties. The Legislature’s initial attempt at casting congressional boundaries was thrown out by a court, forcing lawmakers into a special session last summer to redraw boundaries.
An appeal of the latest version of the congressional map is scheduled to go before justices March 4, the day after the 2015 Legislature reconvenes.
Voters groups told the court in new filings that the Heffley email and “atta-boy” he received for work on the Senate map — which opponents also plan to challenge — supports their case that “the same collusion occurred with the congressional redistricting plan.”
Along with the Heffley email, justices last month ordered unsealed more than 500 pages of documents, email and other data from Republican consultant Pat Bainter and his company, Data Targeting, Inc.
Bainter fought to keep those records away from public viewing in last summer’s redistricting trial.
