State Rep. Janet Adkins thought she was speaking privately to fellow Republican activists when she talked about the new east-west configuration of U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown’s district and whether the number of inmates residing within its boundaries could affect the outcome of an election.
Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, said Brown opposes the newly drawn Congressional District 5 because she is worried about the number of prisoners counted in the black voting age population. She went on to say that is a way to ensure Brown is not re-elected.
“It’s a perfect storm,” Adkins told the North Florida Republican caucus last month during the closed-doors meeting. “You’re now reducing the percentage of minorities in that district and you’ve drawn it in such a fashion that perhaps a majority, or maybe not a majority, but a number of them will live in the prisons, thereby not being able to vote.”
The comments were among 16 minutes of audio leaked to POLITICO, taken from the caucus meeting held during the Republican Party of Florida’s quarterly meeting in August. The recording is of Adkins talking about the redistricting process, special sessions and Brown’s legal challenge to her newly drawn district.
Adkins hoped to keep her statements secret, even confirming that there were no reporters in the room before she started discussing “inside ballgame.”
Adkins did not return phone calls from the Times-Union about the comments she made but emailed a statement of apology.
“My comments regarding the proposed realignment of congressional district five (as recommended by the Florida Supreme Court) were an attempt to explain some of issues that came up in debate during the redistricting special session,” Adkins wrote. “I apologize if my statements offended anyone. Because congressional redistricting is a pending legal issue, I will not comment on this matter any further.”
Brown has filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the legality of the new district, which stretches from Jacksonville to Tallahassee. She has questioned whether a black candidate can be elected in the new east-west district and specifically raised the issue that prisoners are counted among the black voting age population.
Brown’s office said she had no comment Wednesday about Adkins’ comments.
State Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, unsuccessfully tried to amend the congressional map to add more black voters to Brown’s district for these very reasons. She said Wednesday that Adkins’ comments lent credence to the arguments she made during August’s special session.
“She had a grasp that obviously if a candidate of a minority’s choice is going to be African-American, then if more African-Americans are in that district and can’t vote it’s not going to play out that way,” Gibson said.
But Republican colleagues said Adkins, who was not directly involved in the redistricting process because she doesn’t serve on that committee, mischaracterized the genesis of Brown’s east-west district.
“I’m on the committee that drew this district; the district was ordered by the Florida Supreme Court to be drawn in the manner that it was drawn,” said state Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island.
Bradley pointed out that Democrats and other voter groups who challenged the earlier congressional map first called for Brown’s district to run east-west instead of north-south. He said the Supreme Court was very specific about how Congressional District 5 should look, the new maps adhere to those directions and statistical analysis indicated the seat is still one likely to elect an African-American to Congress.
“There was no discussion whatsoever about including individuals who are incarcerated in the district as a way of gaining some sort of political advantage,” Bradley said. “That was not on the table. That was never discussed. Period.”
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli issued a statement calling Adkins’ comments inappropriate.
“(S)he was describing a district originally drawn by the Democratic plaintiffs,” Crisafulli said. “The House and Senate consistently opposed that configuration and argued that it would diminish the ability of minorities to elect candidates of their choice. The Florida Supreme Court sided with the Democratic plaintiffs, and our map drawers used the exact version of Congressional District 5 the Florida Supreme Court held up as an exemplar in its July 9th opinion.”
Data consultant Matthew Isbell has studied the proposed maps and determined that the new District 5 is still one likely to elect a minority to Congress. He based this on actual voter performance in recent elections.
“The district gave Obama 63 percent of the vote,” he said in a message to the Times-Union. “... Sixty-six percent of registered Democrats are African American. In 2012, the share of the primary was 63 percent African American. So we see a scenario where any Democratic candidate will win the general” election.
Adkins will step down from the Legislature in 2016 because of term limits. She is currently campaigning to become the next Nassau County Schools superintendent. Her main rival is fellow Republican Kathy Knight Burns, a longtime education and member of the School Board.

Tia Mitchell: (850) 933-1321