BIPARTISAN LEGISLATIVE REDISTRICTING GROUP GAINS GROUND, SUPPORT

After former Education Commissioner and University of South Florida president Betty Castor ended her failed quest for the U.S. Senate, she went head first into another huge endeavor: Forming a group to support a bipartisan committee which would redistrict legislative and congressional seats. Out of this has come the Committee for Fair Elections, and it has gained support among partisans on both sides of the aisle. Among those who have become involved, according to the Orlando Sentinel's Scott Maxwell, are fellow Democrat and former U.S. Senator Bob Graham, as well as Republican attorney and former judge Thom Rumberger and former GOP State Comptroller Bob Milligan.

And if a young person can figure it out...

Maxwell also mentions that at last year's Boys State mock legislature, a Winter Park High School student created a bill to do just this, and got enough attention he was invited to lunch with Jeb! The young man said he pitched the idea to the governor, and while Junior Bush was "gracious and laudatory"...

"Basically," Cordova recalled, "the way he put it was: The Democrats got greedy 10 years ago. And this is the result."

To say you can take politics completely out of forming legislative districts is being incredibly naive, but this idea is great because it takes the work out of the hands of those legislators who hold a vested interest in keeping the status quo. The Committee for Fair Elections deserves our support.