Posts Tagged ‘Huffington Post’
Editorial boards across New York have called upon Governor Cuomo to veto the gerrymandered districts likely to be adopted by the state legislature. At stake during redistricting are the political fortunes of the parties and their incumbents, often at the expense of sensible representation for communities.
The prospect of a veto is possible because Governor Cuomo ran on a platform that included reforming the arcane process of redistricting. But calls for a veto at this stage miss the real point of redistricting reform. A veto provides only short-term instant gratification to a long-term structural problem that will rear its ugly head repeatedly every decade. Relying on future governors to play veto whack-a-mole is not a viable reform strategy.
Do you think there’s a celebrity somewhere who’d be interested in taking on redistricting?
I know it’s quite a lift. But if there was ever a good cause that needed some glamour, this is it. The redistricting reformers have Ed Koch, but one 88-year-old ex-mayor doesn’t seem sufficient to attract mass appeal.
At issue are the new maps of districts for the state legislature, which the existing legislature has drawn to make sure the status quo stays status.
Still with me? Wow, thanks.
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-collins/lady-gaga-needed-to-stop-_b_1262826.html
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JAN
New York Redistricting: Governor Cuomo Vows To Veto Current Drafts By Legislature (Huffington Post)
Despite 2010 campaign promises that they’d turn over the redistricting process to an independent commission, New York state legislators are drafting maps of their own in Albany. Previous redistricting has bolstered re-election rates for incumbents in the state legislature to a staggering 95 percent.
The New York Observer took the ugliest senate drafts to create a great slideshow called “The 20 Ugliest Gerrymandered Districts.” One map, which they’ve titled “Ancient Knife,” shows a district starting in Marble Hill in the upper reaches of Manhattan and creeping all the way down to 24th street in slim sliver of land along the Hudson.
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/new-york-redistricting-go_n_1236685.html
Thanks in large part to Ed Koch, New York Uprising, and the ReShape New York coalition of good government groups, New Yorkers have shown a much greater interest in addressing the decennial practice of gerrymandering in their state than ever before. But despite the increase in attention the issue of redistricting has received from the media and the public, there is still a great deal about the current debate that is largely unknown, misunderstood, or unsaid. The following are ten things you probably didn’t know about redistricting:
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/morgan-pehme/10-things-you-probably-di_b_930880.html
by: Henry J. Stern
Writing a blog has many satisfactions. One can share information and opinions with thousands of people who have elected to receive them. One can affect the public’s view of issues. On some occasions, one can publish material previously unknown or unconnected to the larger universe of public policy issues…
…Common Cause New York deserves praise for the substantial labor that it is currently performing to create their own set of lines, drawn up according to the principles commonly held by good government groups. Basic fairness requires that legislative districts be compact, contiguous, equal in population, reflect communities of interest, and not be stacked, packed, hacked or cracked, which are terms used to describing either stuffing members of one group into a district in order to control it, or breaking up natural concentrations of people to diminish their power to elect a member of their group.
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/henry-j-stern/beware-the-gerrymander_b_917631.html
