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Weatherford denies any attempt to undermine West

Posted Feb 7, 2012 by William March

Updated Feb 7, 2012 at 01:11 PM

House redistricting Chairman Will Weatherford today denied there was any attempt in the state Legislature to undermine U.S. Rep. Allen West, as West contended in a news release last week.

“I’m a huge supporter of Allen West—he has hit conservative icon status very quickly,” said Weatherford, a Wesley Chapel Republican in line to be the next state House speaker. “There’s been no political intent in this map (of congressional districts) whatever.”

Weatherford said under the new Fair Districts constitutional amendments, the legislators legally weren’t allowed to look at the political effects of their district mapping, and didn’t.

The state House’s redistricting proposal rendered West’s current congressional district somewhat more Democratic, and West announced last week he’ll switch districts as result.

West doesn’t live in his current district—he lives in the district of his political areh-enemy, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz—and an office spokeswoman said he and his family are already looking at possible homes and schools in the Treasure Coast area, the heart of the new district where he intends to run in November.

After the district proposal became known, some conservative Republicans speculated on blog postings over the next several days that moderate or “establishment” Republicans in Tallahassee were out to get West, and the charge was picked up by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

In announcing his district switch, West repeated the accusation, but with no details as to the names of the plotters of their motives.

He said he had initially promised to stay in his district, but “a cynical, politicized redistricting process wrought with cronyisms and nefarious in intent, sought to ensure I would not be able to keep that promise.”

West didn’t say who was to blame or why legislative Republicans would want to undercut his political standing. West’s chief of staff, Jonathan Blyth, said in an interview that West’s comment was “based on what he has read and heard about the process going on it Tallahassee.”