The Florida Legislature that will convene on Jan. 9 is a pitiful parody of the one that was honored in 1971 as the fourth best in the nation and the most independent of all 50 states.
That was the reasoned judgment of the Citizens Conference on State Legislatures, recognizing how Florida’s had reformed itself in the four years since the U.S. Supreme Court ordered it reapportioned to represent where the people were.
Only half in jest, Gov. Reubin Askew called it the “most independent legislature since parliament beheaded the King.”