Redisrtricting in Florida, Rep. Allen West Affected

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/rep-allen-west-to-seek-reelection-in-new-district/2012/01/31/gIQAuiPvfQ_blog.html

Rep. Allen West to seek reelection in new district

By Aaron Blake, Updated: Tuesday, January 31, 5:18 PM

Tea party firebrand Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) announced Tuesday that he will switch districts and run for reelection in Florida’s new 18th district.

West’s 22nd district, which was already Democratic-leaning, got even tougher under a new GOP redistricting plan released last week. The new district would have gone about 57 percent for President Obama in the 2008 presidential race.

But Rep. Tom Rooney’s (R-Fla.) decision earlier Tuesday to run in the open and Republican-leaning 17th district rather than the swing 18th freed West up to make the switch to the neighboring district, which is just north of his current district, which spans from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale.

“Congressman Rooney is a statesman and has been an honorable public servant to the constituents of Florida’s 16th Congressional district,” West said, referring to Rooney’s current district, which is re-numbered from 16 to 18 under the new plan. “It is my goal to continue the success Congressman Rooney has had in Florida’s 16th Congressional district in the newly proposed 18th district. I welcome the challenges and excitement that lie ahead.”

West brings a vaunted fundraising operation to the new district, which is based in Port St. Lucie and contains about a quarter of his old district. But it remains to be seen whether his outspoken conservatism might cost him independent votes. Democrats will surely target the seat.

West’s departure from the 22nd district means Democrats will be favored to pick up a seat there.

© The Washington Post Company

Allen West to run in Palm Beach-Treasure Coast district, Rooney to move west, Hasner could exit Senate race

by George Bennett | January 31st, 2012

Facing a tough reelection fight in a district that has been redrawn with a Democratic tilt, U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, announced today that he will instead seek reelection in a more Republican-leaning district to the north where U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, now lives.

Rooney announced in the last hour that he will run in a newly created rural District 17 that extends from western Martin and St. Lucie counties to Charlotte County on Florida’s west coast and north into parts of Hillsborough and Polk counties.

With West’s current Palm Beach-Broward congressional District 22 without a Republican incumbent, sources close to GOP Senate candidate Adam Hasner said there are discussions going on about Boca Raton resident Hasner dropping his U.S. Senate bid to run in West’s district.

West’s current District 22 is nearly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, but a plan approved by the Florida Senate and up for a vote in the state House would give Democrats a 9-point registration advantage.

The new District 18 where West will run has a 38-to-37.3 Republican edge and includes some northern Palm Beach County voters that West represents now. The new District 17 where Rooney will run has a 40.7-to-37.7 percent Republican advantage.

Two Democrats — former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel and businessman Patrick Murphy — are running in West’s current District 22.

West didn’t acknowledge his Democratic foes or the GOP’s registration disadvantage in District 22. But, he said, “As a 22-year United States Army veteran who commanded troops in combat, one should never underestimate my ability to be a strategic thinker.”

Shakeup: Adam Hasner to run for West's CD seat; Mack could walk in U.S. Senate primary

Miami Herald  -  

The dominoes are falling.

U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hasner will likely leave the race and run for Allen West's soon-to-be-vacated Congressional seat, a source tells us. West's seat looks a lot like Hasner's old legislative Delray Beach-based district.

Hasner's move makes sense on more levels than that. Rep. Connie Mack, of Fort Myers, is cruising in the U.S. Senate race, leading in the polls and, soon, fundraising. Hasner could have handled that.

But Hasner's campaign was dealt a death blow, of sorts, bythe presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, who stumped in the final days across Florida with Mack. Mack picked up precious TV time and the aura of the favored.

Meanwhile, to avoid a bloody primary, leadership in the U.S. House asked Hasner to run for West's seat. But first, West had to announce he'd leave his seat and run for Tom Rooney's seat. And before that happened, Rooney had to announce he'd leave his district and run for a new district.

Connie Mack still has to run in a primary, though, and former Sen. George LeMieux is sticking with it. At least for now.

All of the shifting has been sparked in large part by the Constitutional requirement to redraw congressional districts every 10 years after the U.S. Census. A new state constitutional requirement forbids state legislators, who must redraw the maps, from favoring or disfavoring an incumbent or political party.

Translation: It's a recipe for a lawsuit.

So now the question is: What happens to this Republican congressional musical-chairs game if Democrats sue and win the right to have new maps?