Citizens Redistricting Committee

For the fourth decade in a row, the creation of New York’s congressional districts has landed in the federal courts. This time it might stay there, and that can only be for the good.

Unlike the three previous redistrictings, in which legislators compromised on their own maps at the last possible moment and forestalled implementation of the courts’ drawings, there appears to be little chance to untangle this year’s outlandish partisanship. The federal courts stepped into the process after it was clear the State Legislature’s task force, charged with drawing congressional districts based on the 2010 Census, could not produce maps both the Republican-led Senate and Democratic-led Assembly could agree on.

Read More: http://www.newsday.com/opinion/editorial-stand-firm-for-fair-districts-1.3571554

Legislative leaders, unable to agree on how to reduce New York’s Congressional delegation by two seats, submitted competing plans late Wednesday night for a federal judge to consider as she develops a redistricting plan that could be imposed by the court.

New York must reduce the size of its congressional delegation to 27 from 29 seats because of population shifts identified in the 2010 census, and the issue has taken on increasing urgency because a federal judge in an unrelated case has ordered the state to hold its congressional primary, normally scheduled in September, on June 26.

Read More: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/congressional-redistricting-plans-go-to-a-judge/

Last month, over 100 Long Island community leaders and residents packed a forum held in Brentwood in opposition to the state redistricting plan proposed by the New York Legislative Redistricting Task Force (LATFOR) for the state Senate and Assembly. Protestors claim the redistricting lines have been designed to dilute minority voting power by splitting Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Suffolk County like Brentwood, Central Islip and West Babylon into three Senate districts.

“I’m very disgusted that the people in my district are being so disenfranchised. We need to continue to fight,” said panelist Scottie Coads, the civic engagement chairwoman for the state NAACP. Joined by representatives from Common Cause New York, La Fuente and the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, the panel urged the crowd to voice their disapproval of LATFOR’s maps.

Read More: http://www.amsterdamnews.com/politics_noir/long-island-gerrymandering-attacking-the-black-and-latino-vote/article_608f6c98-63e2-11e1-b3b5-0019bb2963f4.html

A possible constitutional change to New York’s redistricting process would create a 10-member independent panel to draw the state’s political lines beginning in 2021, but would allow the Legislature to make final tweaks to the plan if the Assembly and Senate fail to pass it after two tries.

The details of the three-way negotiations between the Assembly, Senate and Gov. Andrew Cuomo were laid out by Assemblyman Jack McEneny, D-Albany, at a Wednesday evening meeting of the chamber’s Democratic conference.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Epic-redistrict-deal-in-works-3375256.php

The Times-Union’s Casey Seiler has a piece up today about the emerging details of a possible deal between Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature for a constitutional amendment to change the state’s redistricting process.

“A possible constitutional change to New York’s redistricting process would create a 10-member independent panel to draw the state’s political lines beginning in 2021, but would allow the Legislature to make final tweaks to the plan if the Assembly and Senate fail to pass it after two tries,” Seiler writes.

Read More: http://empire.wnyc.org/2012/03/details-emerge-on-possible-redistricting-amendment/

New congressional maps released late Wednesday would upend the state’s political landscape, compacting districts in the Southern Tier, and creating political jockeying that could result in more competitive races in November’s elections.

“I think there are likely to be a number of nationally watched, hot congressional races in New York,” said Steven Greenberg, a Siena College pollster.

Read More: http://www.stargazette.com/article/20120301/NEWS01/203010413/Redistricting-shuffles-New-York-s-congressional-landscape

Over the last 48 hours, New York’s media, including The Politicker, has been breathlessly providing wall-to-wall coverage of the Senate Republicans’ and Assembly Democrats’ redistricting proposals, which were finally released around midnight last night. Candidates have been reacting strongly as well. One boldly declared a path to victory in last night’s maps, while another amazingly announced his intentions to buy a house in the new district.

However, the maps everyone is reacting to are not likely to relate at all to where the ultimate lines will fall.

Read More: http://www.politicker.com/2012/03/01/hey-guys-calm-down-about-last-nights-redistricting-stuff/

Tom Reed isn’t the only one waiting on the state’s sloth-like movement toward establishing new Congressional districts for New York.

The state Assembly and Senate’s haggling over forming new districts based on 2010 census data has left potential Congressional candidates and those in office without a clear picture of the districts and the areas they may represent after the fall.

read more: http://www.eveningtribune.com/news/x132508654/New-Yorks-redistricting-holding-up-Congressional-candidates

New York’s freshman House members would face tough re-election races under separate congressional maps proposed by the Assembly and state Senate.

The Assembly plan would make it much tougher for Republican Reps. Nan Hayworth of Bedford and Ann Marie Buerkle of Onondaga Hill to win re-election, giving them new areas that lean Democratic and taking away communities that lean Republican.

Read More: http://www.lohud.com/article/20120302/NEWS05/303020050/Rep-Nan-Hayworth-faces-tougher-race-redistricting-plans

After a year of political wrangling, the New York Senate and Assembly have released their proposed Congressional lines.

“These lines are drawn by legislators to select you the voter before you ever get to select them,” said Barbara Bartoletti, the legislative director for the N.Y. League of Women Voters.

Many– including Gov. Andrew Cuomo– feared the lines may have been drawn with political motivation. And some political experts say there is some evidence to suggest that.

Read More: http://www.wcax.com/story/17060008/how-redistricting-could-impact-the-north-country

Saying that the state Legislature has “hit bottom” when it comes to redistricting, a panel of national legal experts on Tuesday urged Gov. Cuomo to use the threat of a veto to implement long-term change to the way Albany draws its political lines.

The group of experts from across the country, all of whom have studied redistricting in New York, spoke one day after a panel of judges in Brooklyn federal court began taking control of drawing the Congressional lines —which legislators have failed to do as they were supposed to.

Read More: http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/experts-to-guv-avoid-veto-on-redistricting/article_999cd14f-b764-5a48-afbc-a6a4a3be8678.html