A special legislative session to fix Florida’s flawed congressional district lines ended in chaos Friday as senators staged a walkout and the House rejected Senate requests to extend the session into a third week.
Lawmakers ended the session on time but with no agreement on a new map. As a result, legislators have turned over the job of redrawing the 27 districts to a trial judge, who can choose a House or Senate map, solicit other options or create his own to comply with a Florida Supreme Court decision ordering lawmakers to fix eight districts that it said were illegally gerrymandered.
“That should make everybody nervous,” said Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando.
It’s the third session this year that has ended amid open feuding between Republicans and it creates political uncertainty heading into the 2016 elections. The latest hostility, prompted by Senate demands to reshape congressional lines in Tampa’s suburbs, threatens to disrupt an October special session to redraw Senate district lines across the state.