ST. PETERSBURG, Florida -- The lines for new Congressional districts in Florida are turning into battle lines. A group of citizens and civil rights groups have filed suit against the state, claiming the new maps are gerrymandered. The districts have even prompted one candidate to shut down his campaign.
READ: Lawsuit against Congressional districts
Republican Congressional candidate Mark Sharpe went on AM 1470 Friday morning to express frustration over the new districts.
"What we're seeing right now is... the way the map has been gerrymandered, it still makes it nearly impossible to have a good, competitive race. So I've made a decision I will suspend the campaign until the courts have the opportunity to rule," Sharpe announced on-air.
VIEW: Florida's Redistricting website
With both the former and latest versions of the district covering Tampa, Sharpe says a Republican like him can't beat incumbent Democrat Kathy Castor.
Sharpe added, "I don't want to see seats that favor Democrats or Republicans."
That's the same problem several civil rights groups and citizens voiced in their lawsuit against Florida. The suit claims elected officials are attempting "to retain power to which they have grown accustomed, and reflect politicians' preference for protecting their own political futures over the expressed wishes of their constituents."
While announcing the lawsuit in Tallahassee, Scott Arceneaux with the Florida Democratic Party said, "What we've seen out of the Florida Legislature is the same partisan gerrymandering and incumbent protection that we had 10 years ago, and that was rejected by Florida voters in November 2010. It's frankly what we expected out of this Legislature. It's kind of par for the course for them and it's something we expect the Florida courts to rectify."
The lawsuit also singles out two major districts in Tampa Bay - the current 10th District in Pinellas County and the 11th District in Hillsborough County. Critics believe a voting block of Democrats surrounding downtown St. Petersburg have been intentionally lumped-in with the already Democratic district in Tampa. If found true, gerrymandering like that keeps both an incumbent Republican (Bill Young) and an incumbent Democrat (Kathy Castor) safely in office.
That has both sides riled up, as Chris Ingram fired off on-air, "Some of these districts and the way they're drawn are ridiculous. I've characterized it akin to having a 97-year-old drunk, blind man draw these districts."
Legal proceedings could drag well into the summer, even fall. That means the bottom line is that Floridians may not know which district they live in or which candidates they can vote for until right before November's election.