Posts Tagged ‘Democrat & Chronicle’
With the state budget due in less than three weeks, this is perhaps the busiest time of year in Albany, second only to the closing days of the legislative session.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo must keep lawmakers from getting sucked into the budget vortex, exclusively. After all, the critically important matter of drawing new congressional and legislative district lines is still undone, and this year’s elections are just months away.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120314/OPINION04/303140013
State lawmakers took a step this week toward finalizing new district maps for the Legislature, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday he would veto them unless they agree to overhaul the line-drawing process.
Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats unveiled maps of their final proposal for new districts late Monday, after releasing a highly technical bill detailing the boundaries late the night before. The maps were posted after Democrats in the Senate released the GOP plan Monday afternoon, chastising Republicans for not making it available sooner.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120312/NEWS01/303120027
A federal magistrate judge released her proposal Tuesday for consolidating New York’s congressional districts from 29 to 27, and state lawmakers said they think it could be enough to break their redistricting impasse.
U.S. Magistrate Ro-anne Mann, who last month was appointed by a federal court to intervene in New York’s stalled redistricting negotiations, proposed a plan that closely follows the geographically compact lines suggested by Common Cause and other good-government groups.
After just a week on the job, a court appointee has completed the task of drawing new and politically palatable congressional district lines, thus providing further evidence that the redistricting process needs major overhaul.
Though new boundary lines based on the 2010 census could have been drawn last year by state lawmakers, they didn’t begin work until recent months. In fact, the legislative committee charged with drawing the congressional lines has yet to reach agreement on a plan for the state Legislature’s consideration.
Now that the redrawing of New York’s congressional districts has been put in the hands of a U.S. magistrate, chances are all but nil that the public will have any kind of say in the process.
That’s as unfortunate as it was unnecessary. And it is yet another reason why the job of redrawing the state’s political maps should not be in the hands of state lawmakers.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120229/OPINION04/302290010
In order to resolve two of the more contentious issues facing state lawmakers in 2012, the Legislature will have to pass a bill twice.
And after that, it will have to be approved by the public.
Lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo face enormous pressure from lobbyists and advocates this year to finally settle a pair of perennially fractious Capitol debates: How to reform the state’s redistricting process, and whether casino gambling should be legalized.
Written by Susan Lerner
Since the state Legislature’s task force responsible for redistricting released its proposed maps for New York’s electoral landscape, the plan has come under heavy scrutiny. From the Westchester County town of Ossining to the City of Rochester, the public has registered its outrage at the Senate and Assembly districts that split communities into awkward puzzle pieces. As they have for decades, the Democratic majority in the Assembly and the Republican majority in the Senate produced electoral lines to protect their political interests, at great cost to the public interest.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120226/OPINION02/302260007/Redistricting-Susan-Lerner
With the likelihood of an independent panel drawing redistricting lines now almost nonexistent, an alternative proffered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the best path forward.
It’s just too bad that Cuomo didn’t speak up earlier and louder. After all, he has used his clout to sway lawmakers on a slew of major issues over the past year, and as recently as last week on teacher evaluations.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120219/OPINION04/302190024
Downtown Rochester resident Carol Aragon told the panel of state lawmakers: “It’s time to stop the skulduggery.”
Robert Maurer of Mendon said: “You clearly have a conflict of interest.”
Jim Webster of Sodus, Wayne County, put it this way: “I would submit I could take five people in a room … and I could come up with a fair and equitable plan.”
The state task force charged with drawing new districts for the state Legislature met in Rochester on Wednesday and heard from about 20 speakers, nearly all of whom said the lines were deficient. The six-member task force includes four legislators and does not represent the independent panel that many lawmakers over the summer pledged to use. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also panned the maps, saying they are unacceptable.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012302150022
Rochester elected officials kicked off a public hearing this morning hosted by the state task force charged with redrawing district lines.
Assemblyman David Gantt, D-Rochester, who said the proposed Senate district lines divide communities of interest, told the panel if the lines are not changed he would see them in court.
” I implore you to change these lines,” Gantt said.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012302150024
For a state legislator, representing a region’s largest employer is usually a good thing, especially when it means being able to appear at groundbreakings and job creation announcements.
But in Monroe County, the University of Rochester, regarded as a bright spot in the local economy, has been drawn into a Senate district based 70 miles away. If proposed district lines are enacted, it will be a Buffalo-area senator who will represent the university and its medical center.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120207/NEWS01/202070309
Potential candidates for office in New York are staying on the sidelines because of the uncertainty over the shape of new districts and when state primaries would be held.
In particular, candidates considering a congressional run this year are caught in a confluence of ambiguity. New York hasn’t released new congressional districts and is deciding how to comply with a court order to hold its federal primaries on June 26.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120204/NEWS01/202040308
A state task force released new district maps today for all 213 legislative seats after a lengthy and secretive process that has been derided by good-government groups.
The maps show significant shifts in some Assembly and Senate districts in the Rochester region and the Hudson Valley.
The state is required by law to redraw district lines for the state Legislature and Congress every 10 years because on population shifts. But the process has been derided for not being independent, with the parties in power drawing lines that help them retain their majorities.
Many of the same Republican state lawmakers who hoodwinked New Yorkers into thinking they supported independent redistricting now insist that adding one more seat in the state Senate is good government. Unlikely.
This time around New Yorkers need to let GOP lawmakers know that their ploy for power is as transparent as plastic wrap. Call them and tell them so.
Frustrated with decades of protecting incumbents through redistricting, a good-government group released its own statewide maps today, which it says would provide proper representation without regard to political majorities or where a current lawmaker lives.
On the congressional side, Common Cause New York’s map eliminates one district in western New York and another in New York City, though it’s difficult to pin down exactly which districts were cut because of the significant changes the maps make. New York’s congressional delegation will be reduced from 29 to 27 in the 2012 elections, in accordance with the latest Census figures.
What’s deadly dull, and keeps New York state dysfunctional? Redistricting!
The current law lets state legislators draw their own district lines. That’s bad because legislators in safe seats have less incentive to listen to voters. They are free to listen to campaign contributors, lobbyists and party bosses instead.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20111210/OPINION02/112100304
ALBANY — A state law that requires prisoners to be counted in their hometowns when New York draws up new legislative district lines next year is having an unintended consequence: About one-third of the state’s prisoners might not be counted.
There’s no known last address for about 20,000 prisoners in New York, said Assemblyman Jack McEneny, D-Albany, a co-chairman of the state’s redistricting panel.
Read More: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20111120/NEWS01/111200339/Redistricting-prisoners-census
