Citizens Redistricting Committee

Albany is hurtling toward a massive agreement that will likely resolve the state budget, create a new pension tier, expand the state’s DNA database and perhaps most notably finally resolve the long battle over the state district lines.

Late on Sunday night, just moments before midnight the legislature introduced their final proposal for Senate and Assembly district lines and an amendment that would change the process after the next census. On Monday U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann released her final proposal for Congressional districts—a proposal that would become law if the legislature fails to agree on their on plan—something they seem fated to do.

Read more: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/Albany/20120314/204/3692

Susan Lerner, Executive Director, of Common Cause/NY, says a constitutional amendment to change the redistricting process in the future is not enough and that real reform must be made to the system this time around. Lerner has much more confidence in the courts’ ability to redraw district lines if Gov. Andrew Cuomo does go ahead with his veto threat than Citizens Union.

Here is Lerner’s full statement:

Read More: http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2012/02/24/common-cause-weighs-in/

Gov. Andrew Cuomo took to the airwaves this morning to reiterate that he will veto the current lines LATFOR has proposed. “If they send me these lines, these lines will be vetoed,” Cuomo told Fred Dicker.

Cuomo’s commitment to pushing for fairer lines has come under scrutiny over the last few days after he told The Democrat and Chronicle’s editorial board that he had basically been defeated by the legislature in the fight for independent redistricting. “I’ve done it, they just said no,” he told the Chronicle. “I just lost, is what happened. It’s not that they didn’t hear me, they just said no.”

Read More: http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2012/02/23/cuomo-on-redistricting-hot-seat/

In a series of hearings across New York City last week, lawmakers, special interest groups, community organizations and private citizens blasted Senate and Assembly redistricting proposals put out by the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR), sometimes using words like “embarrassing” and “abomination.”

Most complaints involved the Senate lines, though the Assembly lines got some attention. Hearing attendants described concerns about splitting up communities, diluting minority votes and gerrymandering districts in order to make it easier for senate Republicans to win.

Read More: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/Albany/20120211/204/3682

With the preliminary redistricting maps to be announced next week, tensions are rising in Queens, where communities are split along legislative lines and rival plans to redraw them.

Many Asian-American groups, joined by some Latinos, have pushed for State Senate and Assembly borders to be redrawn around a single, cohesive Asian community which would cut across Queens and Nassau county lines. Others, led by the group Eastern Queens United, have categorically opposed this.

Read More: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/albany/20120120/204/3671

This week a number of Assembly Democrats got a peek at what their new district lines will look like if the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment has anything to say about it. And LATFOR, with legislative leaders, has for decades had the final word on drawing district lines for the state. The process of redistricting was conducted in secret, lines were drawn to protect incumbents and maintain the senate Republicans’ majority, legislators were consulted on what would be convenient for them. The people were as far away from the process as possible.

Read More: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/eyeonalbany/20111221/204/3661/

Common Cause NY released its own district lines today, beating the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment to the punch. And just in case it wasn’t enough that they showed the legislature that a good government group without the the resources of the state behind it could draw up a set of decent maps, they also released a site where anyone can draw up fair district lines.

Read More: http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2011/12/19/common-cause-breaks-out-the-maps/

Citizens Union has issued a report detailing how it sees the current redistricting process as having undermined democracy in New York state. (Gotham Gazette is published by Citizens Union’s sister organization, Citizens Unions Foundation.) The report offers evidence that the current redistricting system has provided a safety net for incumbents — 96 percent of incumbents have been re-elected since 2002. The report’s executive summary calls for legislators to return to Albany for a special session to enact independent redistricting, so lines would be redrawn district lines without partisan influence.

Read more: http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2011/11/21/citizens-union-pushes-for-redistricting-reform/

Ten years ago, there was not a single elected official of Asian descent in the entire state of New York. But since then, Asian Americans, more than 1 million of whom now reside in the state, have made great strides in New York politics. They currently occupy one seat in the State Assembly, two seats in New York City Council and the office of New York City comptroller.

Much of this happened thanks to the rapidly growing Asian American population and their greater participation in voting. But there is another important factor: redistricting.

Read more: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/albany/20111109/204/3632

Last week City Hall News named Assemblymember John “Jack” McEneny, Democratic chair of the New York State Legislative Task Force on Reapportionment and Redistricting or LATFOR, one of the losers of the week. It gave the epithet to McEneny because of the way he conducted himself during hearings in the city as politicians and good government groups criticized the current redistricting process. Former Mayor Ed Koch, an advocate for independent redistricting insistently called McEneny an “enemy of the people.”

Read More: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/eyeonalbany/20110928/204/3612/

Over the past month the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, also known as LATFOR, has held public hearings across western and upstate New York. The task force gathers opinions from localities and citizens about how their districts should be drawn in light of new census data.

Every 10 years the same process takes place, and according to many good government groups and politicians, every 10 years districts are drawn to protect the Republican majority in the Senate and to enhance the Democratic majority in the Assembly. Minority populations are diluted in some area and concentrated in others to boost some legislators while cities are carved up, making odd shapes across the map.

Read More: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/eyeonalbany/20110810/204/3581/

The Brennan Center For Justice has sent a letter to the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) a letter informing them that they are breaking the law by not counting prisoners in the communities where they were arrested instead of where they are incarcerated–and encouraging them to start.

Read more: http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2011/07/27/brennan-center-warns-latfor/