Citizens Redistricting Committee

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced plans for a constitutional amendment and legal statute that would reform the redistricting process in New York state “by putting an end to the partisan and incumbent-protection gerrymandering that has plagued the process for over a century,” a news release stated.

“This agreement will permanently reform the redistricting process in New York to once and for all end self-interested and partisan gerrymandering,” Cuomo said in the release. “With the legislature agreeing to pass this historic constitutional amendment twice by a specified date, and passing a tough statute that mirrors the amendment, we have taken a major step toward finally reforming the state’s broken redistricting process.”

Read More: http://www.uticaod.com/latestnews/x872940913/Cuomo-announces-deal-to-reform-redistricting-process

New York state’s redistricting fiasco continues, and Oneida County is right in the middle of it.

Newly released proposals for state Assembly lines would carve Oneida County into five districts.

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente called the maps, crafted by the Assembly and released Tuesday, “unbelievable.”

Read more: http://www.uticaod.com/latestnews/x872936093/Judge-releases-final-congressional-district-map

GOOD A proposed map from a judge overseeing the state’s independent redistricting group to configure congressional lines is much better than any of the three being pitched by the Assembly, the Senate and the watchdog group Common Cause.

Read More: http://www.uticaod.com/opinion/x1612611808/The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-Ugly

Three maps of possible new Congressional districts in New York state have been released.

The maps, submitted to an independent panel by the state Assembly and Senate, and by the watchdog group Common Cause New York, each would divide the Utica-Rome area in different ways.

The one by Common Cause would lump Utica and Rome into a district with Syracuse.

Read More: http://www.uticaod.com/latestnews/x1055696082/Three-proposed-Congressional-district-maps-released

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch said New York’s Republican-led Senate and the Assembly’s Democratic majority would be “disgraceful” if, as expected, they propose new legislative districts this week aimed at protecting their political power.”

I believe there is no question but that the Legislature is going to adopt maps which are going to be primarily supportive of incumbents to make sure they get re-elected,” said Koch, leader of the NY Uprising group.

Read More: http://www.uticaod.com/latestnews/x870490854/Koch-blasts-NY-Legislature-over-new-district-lines

If you want to confuse an issue, turn it over to the New York state government. That’s what has happened with redistricting, the political equivalent of the old Abbott & Costello “Who’s on First?” routine. The only difference is that nobody’s laughing.

Recently, a group of civic leaders filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to take over the process of redrawing the boundaries of New York’s congressional districts. The lawsuit came on the heels of a report by Citizens Union, a good-government group that says the state’s process to redraw election district lines is rigged, erodes democracy and contributes to lower voter turnout.

Read More: http://www.uticaod.com/opinion/x1059073774/Our-view-Redistricting-delay-must-not-jeopardize-2012

When politicians at any level of government don’t want to do something that’s in the public’s best interest but not necessarily their own, they have a clever way of dancing around it: They just blame the other guy — usually the one across the aisle. Then they stall, debate or tie it up in committee, and eventually it just goes away.

Redistricting reform in New York state should not go away. The old practice of gerrymandering, which serves the parties and the politicians — not the people — has to end, and now is the time to do it.

Read More: http://www.uticaod.com/opinion/x919522197/Our-view-Tell-legislators-to-get-back-to-Albany-and-get-it-done