Gerrymandering Targeted TAMPA (WUSF) - One maxim of politics is the party that's in power gets to redraw political boundaries. And with the 2010 census coming up next year, it gives a chance for the party in power to stay in power. But a group is pushing for a constitutional amendment that would force lawmakers to rein in those snake-like districts. It would make them more compact and use existing city and county lines. Former state Education Commissioner Betty Castor is promoting the concept with Fair Districts Florida.

"It is virtually impossible to defeat a sitting member of the Legislature. And this is the primary reason why," she said.

Castor told a meeting of the League of Women Voters of Hillsborough County and the Tampa Kiwanis Club that they now they have to pay county elections supervisors to validate them. One concern, however, is whether the move would reduce minority representation. © Copyright 2012, WUSF