Credit: flsenate.gov

In an effort to carve up fairer congressional districts, the GOP-dominated Florida Senate on Monday offered renderings that would create a new Hispanic-heavy district in Central Florida, while The Villages could be the heart of the state’s second new district.

Florida Democrats were not pleased.

Meanwhile, a number of sitting members of Congress, such as Allen West, R-Plantation, and Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, could find they have many new constituents from across the aisle to focus on. Their district lines have been shifted to include, or exclude, political strongholds.

Still, political experts say it's too early to surmise what the Senate map, if approved in its current form, could mean for Florida's congressional delegation.

The Senate Reapportionment Committee released drafts of its once-a-decade proposed congressional and state Senate redistricting maps Monday.

The committee is expected to decide Dec. 6 if the changes outlined, roughly following the voter-approved Fair Districts amendments, should be proposed in a bill that would go before the full Senate in January.

“Months ahead of past redistricting schedules and after the most open, transparent and interactive process in Florida history, the Senate committee has produced a product which is fair, sensible and faithful to the law,” committee chairman Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, stated in a release.

See the Senate proposal here.

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith was quick to contend that the Senate map thwarts the “will of the 63 percent of Florida voters” who supported the Fair Districts amendments in 2010.

“Today, Florida Republicans have taken a state -- which experts have long considered one of the most malapportioned states in the country -- and worsened it,” Smith stated in a release. “From virtually eliminating the seat currently held by the Democratic Senate leader, to avoiding placing a single Republican incumbent at risk, it is clear the Florida GOP are working overtime to protect their interest ahead of the interest of the people they serve.”

The changes shift the Panhandle districts slightly west, compact District 5 and District 16 to just the east coast, yet maintain the wildly gerrymandered District 3, held by Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville.

Brown and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, sued to block the voter-approved redistricting effort, contending that the new redistricting guidelines imposed by voters violate the U.S. Constitution's requirement that boundaries be drawn by state Legislature.

While some congressmen, like West, could lose areas of Republican strength, political experts say it's too early to gauge the overall potential fallout.

Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida political science professor and political analyst who had her students submit redistricted maps to the Legislature as a course exercise this semester, voiced displeasure with the Senate's proposal.  She noted that the satistics accompanying the release failed to include a breakdown of voter registration in the new districts.

"I have spent most of my time on the congressional map ... but suffice it to say that many citizens who are interested in the maps will be frustrated because there is no data that allow any assessment of whether partisan neutrality or incumbent protection prongs of Amendment 5 have been met," MacManus said.

According to a release from the Senate, the bills “contain districts providing voting opportunities for racial and language minorities" in areas of fast-growing population in and around Orlando.