Reed: 'Liberal' League of Women Voters has owned GOP

• League celebrates 'history' of Hillary Clinton's nomination, but won't endorse her, president says
• League has called for universal gun background checks and limits on assault-rifle magazines

The League of Women Voters drives powerful Republicans crazy.

It keeps campaigning for things that most Floridians want, but conservative lawmakers don’t, like fairly drawn legislative districts and universal background checks for gun sales. And it keeps embarrassing Republican leadership in court.

In 2012, the league sued and stopped onerous restrictions on voter-registration drives, one of several measures cooked up in concert with GOP state headquarters to reduce minority voting, evidence showed. In 2014, it blocked a clumsy and illegal purge of alleged “non-citizens” from voter rolls. In 2015, it won a Florida Supreme Court decision to throw out Republican-drawn congressional maps and enforce the Fair Districts amendments the league campaigned to pass in 2010.

For this, the officially nonpartisan League of Women Voters gets called “liberal.” Whatever you call it, it has been a more effective check on one-party rule in Tallahassee than the elected Democratic opposition.

To learn what makes it tick, I interviewed League of Women Voters state President Pam Goodman. The full interview is now a podcast at FloridaToday.com/podcasts.

Question: Is the league a liberal interest group? 

Goodman: The mission of the League of Women Voters is to be the leading non-partisan organization that encourages civic engagement. We were formed back in 1920 on an issue: suffrage. And when women got the right to vote, the League said, now we have to register them and, just as important, educate them.

We do not endorse candidates or political parties. But we do produce forums and voter guides that give all sorts of information about the candidates. And we have a separate advocacy arm that takes positions on issues after a long, long process of study and consensus.

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Question: The league campaigned for the Fair Districts constitutional amendments, then sued to enforce them. Why?

Goodman: Florida was one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. It has been a 10-year battle, but we did come out victorious this past year.

We put the two constitutional amendments on the ballot, and they passed with 63 percent – 3.1 million voters said yes to Fair Districts. And our Legislature promised the most transparent redistricting process ever, having heard the voice of the people.

Unfortunately, at the end of that process, we saw that lawmakers were not able to follow the mandate. That's when four years of litigation began.

An outstanding Supreme Court decision called our Legislature back into session and asked them to redraw maps. The league and Common Cause also submitted maps. To make a long story short, the Supreme Court and lower courts accepted the League of Women Voters' coalition maps as the ones that most closely matched the constitutional mandate. I think, for the first time, we have fair districts.

Question: Since the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, the league has called for new gun measures. Like what?  

Goodman: This is an example of where an issue bubbles up from our grassroots. We’ve been working on gun safety – not gun control – for Florida for the past three or four years. We’ve worked the past two years on both “campus carry” and “open carry,” and have been able to beat those against the most powerful lobby in this state, the National Rifle Association.

When the Pulse shooting happened in our own back yard, we saw the federal government not being able to take any action, and we saw eight other states that had strong, sensible legislation in place that clearly do not take away Second Amendment rights. When gun owners and non-gun owners are polled, over 75 percent say sensible gun legislation is necessary.

We’re asking for two things: Universal, expanded background checks for the state of Florida; and a ban on assault weapons, specifically the type used in the Pulse shooting that includes large clips of ammunition.

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Question: I’m going to put your nonpartisanship to the test:  Hillary Clinton – first woman presidential candidate from a major party. How does the league not support Clinton?

Goodman: Interesting question. It came up at our national convention. We can’t ignore the historical fact, and we celebrate that. Beyond that, we have no position.

Question: Actually, a second female presidential candidate, Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party, could pull some votes on the left and alter the election.  So … congratulations on the 19th Amendment.

Goodman: Women are the majority of the electorate. Quietly, they have been the major force in elections for the past 20 years.

Sadly, we make up only 18 percent of elected positions, from city commissioner to president of the United States. We’ve got some picking-up to do.

Contact Reed at mreed@FloridaToday.com. Follow him online at Facebook.com/MattReedNews or on Twitter @MattReedWrites