Citizens Redistricting Committee

New York State Legislative Task Force On Demographic Research and Reapportionment

September 21, 2011

Testimony of Michael McKee, Treasurer, Tenants Political Action Committee

Historically, the process by which New York State redraws legislative and congressional districts every ten years is a prime reason why the public is more and more cynical about the State Legislature.

This process is controlled by the leaders of the majority party in each house. In the thirty years that I have observed it, the lines have been drawn to protect incumbent legislators, and occasionally to punish other incumbents.

During the last go-round, Lorraine Coyle Koppell was gerrymandered out of the 34th State Senate District, and now-Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries was removed from the 57th State Assembly District, for overtly partisan purposes. LATFOR jiggered the lines to remove their homes from those two districts, as a favor to then-Senator Guy Velella and then-Assembly Member Roger Green. These are only two examples of a process that has been fundamentally tainted.

There is an old saying: “The true business of Albany is incumbency protection.” But the preferences of incumbent legislators should be removed from this process. If there is to be any integrity in the new districts, they should ignore the residences of sitting legislators. The lines should be drawn in a rational, fair way, as if there were no incumbents and as if the districts were being established for the first time.

A larger issue is the historical use of reapportionment by the majority parties in each house to draw lines to dilute the opposition and thus keep the majority, in the case of the State Senate, or expand the majority, in the case of the State Assembly.

There is little doubt that, if the majority parties believe that they can get away with it one more time, that kind of stacking of the deck is exactly where this process, and this commission, are headed – again.

Recent articles about the possible creation of a 63rd Senate District in order to preserve the narrow Republican majority, and the possible protection by Majority

Leader Dean Skelos of the Kleiniacs who belong to the so-called Independent Democratic Caucus, are no doubt only tips of the iceberg of what is already going down behind closed doors.

The Assembly is not blame-free. Witness the gerrymandering of Bay Ridge, one of the few neighborhoods in New York City where a Republican candidate could be elected. Instead, Bay Ridge is divided up into separate Assembly districts, each one represented by a Democrat. This is similar to the usual treatment of upstate cities in the Senate, where municipal and county lines are disregarded in order to prevent the election of Democrats.

Protection of incumbents. Protection of majority control. Two things that should be disregarded, but which the leaders, and you, will no doubt try to pull off.

But things are different this time:

First, in large part thanks to the spotlight that Governor Cuomo has trained on this process, the public is more aware than in the past of the games that the majority parties will once again try to play. As you go forward, the public will be watching.

Second, Governor Cuomo has pledged to veto lines drawn for partisan purposes. We are grateful to the Governor for this principled stand.

While we favor establishment of an independent, non-partisan commission to handle reapportionment, we are more concerned about the lines themselves than who draws them. After all, an “independent” commission might quietly carry out the wishes of the majority parties while providing a veneer of integrity. It would not be the first time a “reform” ribbon was wrapped around the same old package.

We support the principles promoted by Common Cause and others:

►  Districts must be contiguous and compact.

►  Lines must respect municipal and county borders.

►  Districts in cities should respect traditional neighborhoods.

►  Communities of interest should be kept together, defined by racial, ethnic and socioeconomic data.

►  Party registration and voting patterns should be eliminated from consideration.

►  Districts should not vary from the average by more than one percent, unless a slightly higher variation is necessary to keep communities of interest together.

►  The location of residences of incumbent legislators should not be considered.

We will be watching your work with close attention in the next few months. And we will be adding our voices to the call for honest, fair reapportionment.