A House committee heard experts Tuesday warn about the dangers of distracted driving — with tales of motorists changing CDs, putting on makeup, or grabbing a Smartphone to send a text message, the target for Florida legislation.

Again.

But two hours worth of testimony, which included statistical support showing that texting takes drivers’ eyes off the road — leading to inadvertent lane changes and collisions — left Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, feeling pretty good. After 10 years of inaction, Holder said this could be the year lawmakers approve a ban.

“We had really different priorities,” Holder said, looking back on at least part of the past decade, where dozens of bill limiting cell-phone use or texting while driving were introduced each year and failed.

“I think this year is certainly the year,” he added. “We’ve always recognized it’s common sense legislation. It’s a no-brainer to have a law.”

Holder concluded, “Making texting illegal while driving will save lives in Florida.”

Then-House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, blocked attempts last year to have a texting ban heard, after the measure was OK’d by the state Senate.

But Cannon left the House in November due to term limits. Supporters say his departure may help clear the way for Florida to become the nation’s 40th state to prohibit drivers from texting.

Last year,  Holder’s legislation didn’t get a hearing in the House. But Tuesday, the House Transportation and Highway Safety Subcommittee took testimony from law enforcement, traffic safety advocates, AARP, a high school student leader, and even a University of West Florida psychologist.

Each concluded that banning texting behind the wheel was worthwhile.

Chicagoan Jennifer Smith, who became a nationwide advocate for a texting ban after her mother was killed in 2008 by a distracted driver, said merely trying to warn people against the dangers of a ban was useless. Motorists will continue the practice, unless it’s made illegal, she said.

“I don’t know how much more education we can give people – and it’s still a problem,” Smith told the panel.

Steven Kass, the UWF psychologist, said texting leads people to weave into other lanes, take longer to brake, and drive more slowly than surrounding traffic. He said statistics show cell-phone use and even hands-free phoning also impair driving, although most lawmakers seem wary to extend a proposed ban that far.

“Anytime you add more than one task, performance degrades on one or more of the tasks,” Kass said.

Holder and Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, have proposed identical measures (SB 52, HB 13) that would make texting while driving a secondary offense, meaning motorists could be ticketed only if law-enforcement officials had stopped them for another reason.

A ticket could cost first-time offenders $30, plus court costs. But the bills also include exemptions allowing people to use phones to check maps, use voice-commands or listen to the radio through the phone.

Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, is sponsoring legislation (SB 74) that would make texting or using a cellphone without a hands-free device a primary offense for motorists.

Detert’s bill has already been modified to allow for texting if a motorist is stopped at a light or stuck in traffic. Holder said Tuesday he’s open to similar changes if it gets a text-ban through the full Legislature this spring.

With the Florida Supreme Court set to hear arguments this month on the Legislature’s second attempt at redrawing Senate boundaries, the state Democratic Party weighed in Tuesday with a proposal of its own.

Democrats are offering justices an alternative after concluding that what the Legislature has drawn “reveals an intent to favor incumbents and contains multiple districts that plainly and directly violate constitutional standards.”

Effectively, the Legislature’s round two includes many of the same flaws that led justices to reject its first attempt in a 5-2 decision last month, Democrats maintain. And while justices sent the rejected plan back to lawmakers to revise in a special session, a second turn-down will result in a court-drawn plan.

Democrats clearly are banking on justices seeking guidance with their map-making by reviewing alternative plans that have been put before them. 

The Democratic Party plan evenly divides the 40-member Senate along partisan lines — with a proposed 20 seats having a voting history that favors Democrats, and 20 Republican-leaning. The Legislature’s plan before justices includes a 23-17 GOP edge in voting performance, analysis shows.

While the latest legislative plan before justices also only puts two current incumbents in the same district — Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Sen. David Simmons, R-Maitland — the Democratic plan makes three likely matchups, including Gardiner against neighboring Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando.

In South Florida, Sens. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, and Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, would be paired. So, too, would be Sens. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, and Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate.

In Palm Beach County, the Democratic proposal also would add a little more political uncertainty.

The Legislature’s proposed central county seat, with a majority black-Hispanic voting population, would be changed to span the upper half of Palm Beach County, from the coastline to the Glades. Reps. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach, and former Rep.  Kevin Rader, a Delray Beach Democrat, have all been eyeing that seat.

A south county Senate district, already targeted by Rep. Joe Abruzzo, D-Wellington, looks like it stays largely intact, in the Senate plan.

Just in time for another election cycle, former Rep. Kevin Rader had a complaint filed against him dismissed Friday by the state Commission on Ethics.

Rader, a Delray Beach Democrat, was accused in 2010 of failing to disclose his partial ownership of an underwriters’ group on his state financial disclosure forms. Rader, at the time a state Senate candidate, said he owned Advanced Insurance Underwriters through another firm, Rader Insurance Inc., which he did disclose on the forms.

State ethics investigators found probable cause that Rader should have revealed his connection to Advanced Insurance. The matter emerged when Victoria Thiel, a tea party activist, filed the complaint a month before the November 2010 election Rader lost to Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers.

But Rader fought the charge. His attorney, Mark Herron, filed a legal challenge with the state’s Division of Administrative Hearings, arguing that ethics investigators misapplied the state’s disclosure law. As part of Friday’s finding, that case also will be dropped.

“In the heat of a campaign, people sometimes will file complaints without merit,” Rader said. “I’m extremely happy this has been dismissed and the commission took no action.”

Rader last month announced that he would challenge Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, in this summer’s Democratic primary.

But with Senate district boundaries still not set, Rader also acknowledged he is considering running in a proposed district in the Lake Worth-West Palm Beach area that has a majority black and Hispanic voting age population. Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, filed candidate papers this week to run in that district. Rep. Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach, also is weighing a campaign for the seat.

“It’s hard to say what’s going to happen, because know one knows what these districts are going to look like,” Rader said.

After the first redrawn Senate boundaries were rejected as unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court, the Legislature has completed its second attempt at map-making. The redrawn plan now must win approval from justices.

After two days of testimony about oddly shaped district “appendages” and increasing tension between senators, the Senate Reapportionment Committee wrapped up its work Wednesday by bringing out lottery machine cages to select random numbers for new Senate boundaries.

“Bizarre is the word,” said Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach.

Reapportionment Chairman Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, recommended the lottery-like selection process to determine odd-or-even number districts. Odd-numbered districts get four-year terms, even districts draw two-years. In throwing out the Senate’s first attempt at line-drawing, the Florida Supreme Court ruled the original numbering plan favored incumbents.

Gaetz said he was intent on finding an “incumbent neutral plan.”  Gaetz said the system he deployed was reminiscent of what he recalled being used by the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) at his girlfriend’s church during schoolyard socials when he was a teenager in North Dakota.

But the system wasn’t fully embraced.

Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Tampa, said the Senate shouldn’t be “casting lots,” for districts and later sought unsuccessfully to have the selection stopped on grounds it violated state gambling laws.  Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, condemned the lottery, saying it was wrong to bring a “quick pick” approach to settling public policy. 

Another critic, Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Jacksonville, questioned whether the green lottery balls used to determine the even numbered districts had been recently painted, making them heavier and affecting when they dropped from the cage. She was assured by Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of  Weston that the balls were green when shipped to the state from a factory.

The Senate now is positioned to debate  its latest proposed redistricting plan Thursday, with a vote scheduled for the next day. Gaetz said he will include an amendment to the plan Thursday that incorporates the new odds-and-evens numbering system that emerged from the lottery system.