Redistricting

Redistricting continues to be an important issue for the people of New York State, as noted by the blog of the Commission on Peace and Justice, as well as some recent editorials.

The Saratogian has the following to say:

Cuomo has waffled on redistricting. Initially he said he would insist on an independent commission to draw new boundary lines. With legislators reneging on their promise to voters to empower such a panel, Cuomo recently has reserved the right simply to veto any outcome he considers unfair. Too bad. The people of New York have no reason to trust legislators with a clear self-interest in drawing the lines to benefit themselves, much less those who have gone back on their promises.

And from the Times Union:

They’re watching you, Governor Cuomo. You, too, all you influential state legislators. The most civic-minded of New York’s citizens aren’t letting you off the hook when it comes to overcoming the same old partisan politics in redrawing state Assembly and Senate district boundaries for this fall’s elections.
Oh, they’ve compromised, these folks known as goo-goos — short for good government groups. They may even have cut the politicians too much slack, as the legislative panel known as LATFOR prepares to impose its vision for the political map of New York upon the public.
But, no, the public interest lobby isn’t giving up.
By now, legislative redistricting should be in the secure hands of an independent commission. That, if you’re keeping score, was what everyone from the governor to a huge majority of legislators campaigned on in 2010.
So now the goo-goos — organized as ReShapeNY, which consists of Citizens Union, the state League of Women Voters and the New York Public Interest Research Group — offer a reasoned, last-ditch demand.
They want the district maps that LATFOR cooks up to be vetted by the sort of knowledgeable, independent-minded citizens who would be in charge by now, if only the politicians had lived up to their word.

Have you contacted your State legislators yet to express your opinion?

Redistricting

The Times Union this week had an editorial that struck us as timely and important:

It was just a month ago that dozens of New York legislators were breezing to re-election by making campaign promises that included a vow to transform the culture of state government. These would be the last elections, they vowed, in which the boundaries of individual legislative districts would be drawn by the very assemblymen and senators representing them.

Now, they should deliver. So, too, should a lame-duck governor who has been such an outspoken advocate of redistricting reform -- urged on by a governor-elect who also ran on a platform of radically changing the ways of state government.

Governor Paterson should call the Legislature back into session at once, so that it can begin to take the necessary action to make the 2012 elections infinitely more fair. Lawmakers of both houses and both parties should vote to entrust the authority to draw legislative districts to an independent commission before lines are drawn anew in time for those elections.

Several versions of legislation to do just that have been proposed already.

To read those versions, go here.