Trying to fend off a challenge to a 2022 redistricting plan, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and Secretary of State Cord Byrd this week disputed that two Tampa Bay-area Senate districts were racially gerrymandered. Attorneys for Passidomo, R-Naples, and Byrd filed answers to a lawsuit that alleges the districts were gerrymandered and violate constitutional equal-protection rights. “The allegation that race was the predominant factor in the drawing of the challenged districts is denied,” Passidomo’s attorneys wrote in an answer filed Tuesday in federal court in Tampa. Read: Florida Rep. Byr…