That’s because the test has to do with redistricting reform, which is actually a substantive and important part of Fixing Albany (which everyone claims to want to do), but which is actually too esoteric and process-based for most voters to care a great deal about.
Archive for February 20th, 2012
Andrew Cuomo has a test coming up, and he’s setting himself up for a deferral. It won’t matter much to him, politically.
An independent plan to re-draw state legislative districts would pit several incumbents against each other in the next election, including two in the North Country.
The idea is not sitting well with Assemblywomen Janet Duprey (R-Peru) and Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro).
“I don’t see how this would be good government,” Duprey said.
Read More: http://pressrepublican.com/0100_news/x1083697585/Plan-would-pit-Duprey-Sayward-against-each-other
Although the legislative task force charged with redrawing New York’s district lines hasn’t released its congressional map yet, a Democratic member of the task force (who is an unreconstructed defender of partisan redistricting) said they’re “months ahead of schedule.”
Assemblyman Jack McEneny, who represents parts of Albany, said he would have liked to see public hearings throughout the state on New York’s congressional districts, and blamed a federal judge for moving New York’s congressional primary election from September to June.
After every 10-year census, lines determining the districts in which citizens vote for local, state and congressional delegates are drawn by a process usually controlled by the party in power for each legislative body. This ensures that the party in power protects its incumbents by drawing the lines around voters registered for that party, and ensures that as many districts as possible can be drawn to protect that party’s majority.
A co-chair of the state Legislature’s redistricting committee said today the Senate and Assembly will meet to discuss their separate proposals for new congressional maps, and could vote on them as soon as next week if all goes well.
Speaking to reporters after appearing on Fred Dicker’s Talk 1300 radio show, Assemblyman John McEneny, D-Albany, said both Assembly Democrats and Senate Republicans have drawn up maps of how they’d like to see New York’s 22 congressional districts split up, but haven’t yet exchanged proposals. That will come this week, he said.
Read More: http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/156655/37/McEneny–Senate-Assembly-To-Compare-Congressional-Maps
New York is one of the only states in the entire country to not even have its Congressional lines drafted, let alone passed. On Fred Dicker’s radio show this morning, the host asked Assemblyman Jack McEneny, one of the heads of the redistricting taskforce in Albany, why they have not presented congressional lines or held hearings on them like they’ve done for the state legislative lines.
“Because traditionally, we have always done the Senate and Assembly first. Didn’t do it the last couple times either,” Mr. McEneny responded.
