Posts Tagged ‘LoHud’
A federal magistrate judge released her proposal Tuesday for consolidating New York’s congressional districts from 29 to 27, altering the districts now held by Reps. Nan Hayworth, Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey. The plan closely follows the geographically compact lines suggested by Common Cause and other good-government groups.
Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, called it a “vast improvement” over boundaries proposed by the Assembly and state Senate because it “keeps regions whole and unites communities of interest.”
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.
Maria Ciobuca is puzzled why state lawmakers, in their attempts to reshape New York’s political boundaries, carved Ossining out of Westchester County and put it with Rockland.
“It’s very bizarre,” the Ossining woman said recently after playing a round of bocce at the Joseph G. Caputo Community Center, noting how this post-industrial town’s demographics, economy and problems are far different than those across the Hudson River.
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.
by Susan Lerner, executive director, Common Cause New York
The Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research — a panel led by legislators in charge of redrawing legislative district lines — produced a set of redistricting maps last month that were laughable. The proposed district boundaries were clearly designed to protect and advance the political interests of the majority parties in the State Assembly and Senate.
Communities across the state are carved up and placed into legislative districts not according to demographics or even geography, but according to party enrollment. Across Westchester and Rockland counties, voters have been cherry-picked from far-flung corners of the region and sewn together into an awkward jigsaw
Residents’ voting power could be watered down under proposed state Senate and Assembly District maps recently released by the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, panelists told the Editorial Board.
People need to pay attention to the politically charged process, they said, because legislative district lines matter.
“What are our taxes going to be? What are out school districts going to get?” said Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner. “Those (are) decisions made in Albany.” Lerner was joined by Carolyn Stevens of the League of Women Voters of Westchester, Ossining Mayor William Hanauer and Ossining Town Supervisor Susanne Donnelly in a discussion about the redistricting process in New York. View the discussion at lohud.com/editorialspotlight; click on “videos.”
As a nonpartisan citizen’s organization, the League of Women Voters has long supported the appointment of an independent commission for the redistricting process. The League believes that the results of the present partisan process only serve to demonstrate the need for such an independent body.
The New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, or LATFOR, recently released draft maps for state legislative districts. Analysis makes evident that the process has resulted in even more gerrymandered lines, particularly for the state Senate districts, than in the past.
I would like to propose a solution to the problem of establishing new districts every 10 years, at least in New York. Actually, it’s very simple.
Starting with eastern Long Island, draw north-south district lines across this area right up to the East River, making sure that Queens residents and Brooklynites are kept in their own boroughs as much as possible.
Read More: http://www.lohud.com/article/20120204/OPINION/302040030/Redistricting-needs-geometric-solution
A proposed redistricting plan for the state Legislature — released last month by the legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, or LATFOR — feeds the general perception that in New York, politics and power grabs are hallmarks of the process. Every 10 years, the state Legislature is required by law to redraw the lines for all state legislative and congressional seats to reflect population and demographic changes.
The New York State Senate Republicans who have been in charge of redistricting as far back as I can remember have always used Eastchester as a political football.
In 1992, Eastchester was in then-Republican Sen. Nick Spano’s district. In 2002, it was moved to Republican Sen. Guy Velella’s district. To the chagrin of the state Republican Party, Mr. Velella resigned and the seat was taken over by a Democrat, Jeff Klein, who has served as Eastchester’s state senator since 2004. Now, in a very blatant attempt to create a Republican state Senate district,
Read More: http://www.lohud.com/article/20120202/OPINION/302020036/Redistricting-shifts-Eastchester-again
As New York prepares to submit a redistricting plan that will alter the political map for the next 10 years, the ugly specter of the undemocratic and unconstitutional process of gerrymandering is once again showing its resilience.
Gerrymandering manifests itself in three forms, all designed for partisan advantage: “excess vote,” where the power of your opponent is put into a few districts, so as to dilute their overall power; “wasted vote,” where your opponents’ strongholds are spread over many districts to dilute their advantage in any one district; and “stacked vote,” where bizarrely configured boundaries are set to link favorable voters. We should take a moment to understand from whence it came.
ALBANY — Citizens Union, a good-government group, sought to bolster its case for independent redistricting by releasing a report Monday that found incumbents in New York easily keep their seats and competition has decreased under the current system.
Ninety-six percent of incumbents have been re-elected in the 941 state legislative races since 2002, with just 38 losing re-election, the study found. In 1968, 1 percent of races were uncontested, compared to 19 percent in 2010.
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GOP congressional win in NYC changes upstate redistricting options (NY’s Lower Hudson Valley)
WASHINGTON — Republican Bob Turner’s election in the 9th Congressional District on Tuesday gives the GOP a new statewide bargaining chip for congressional redistricting.
With Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul’s election last spring in another special election, two congressional districts at opposite ends of the state have flipped party representation in four months.
The political calculus on how New York will eliminate two of its 29 House seats prior to the next congressional election also has flipped. Two seats must go because census data shows New York’s population grew more slowly than the rest of the country.
