Citizens Redistricting Committee

Concerned that the plans in store for St. Lawrence County’s state legislative districts would do its residents a grave disservice, about a half-dozen St. Lawrence County officials descended on a public hearing in Syracuse and practically begged a state task force to reconsider its proposal.

The maps, drawn every 10 years to account for shifts in population, cut St. Lawrence County into four Assembly districts and three Senate districts, even though with its population, it could just as well have had one senator and one member of the Assembly serving its interests.

Read more: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20120314/NEWS03/703149862/-1/news

First, the bad news: A good-government group believes a legislative proposal for the north country’s congressional seat doesn’t serve the interests of the region’s residents.

But the good news is those legislative proposals hold no special weight before the court that ultimately could decide which politicians represent which areas unless they come to an agreement, which may never happen.

“These maps remain hyper-political,” said Susan Lerner, the head of Common Cause New York, in a conference call with reporters Friday.

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20120303/NEWS03/703039822

When it comes to representation in Albany, St. Lawrence County officials aren’t merry about the more of it that they might get.

A legislative task force has proposed splitting the big county across three Senate districts and four Assembly districts, drawing several officials and residents to attend a public hearing here Tuesday to voice their concern about the redistricting plan.

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20120215/NEWS03/702159837/-1/news

A federal judge’s decision establishing the state’s congressional primary at the end of June makes it incumbent on state leaders to complete the redistricting process and set an election calendar quickly.

Determining the election calendar should be a legislative matter; but the Assembly and Senate have failed to agree on when to hold a congressional primary that would comply with federal mandates ensuring adequate time for absentee military and overseas voters to cast their ballots for the Nov. 6 election. So it fell to the courts.

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20120131/OPINION01/701319948

In the upstate-downstate divide, the north country has always seemed to be at the losing end to points south, be it school aid or the home address of the three men in the room.

But when it comes to voting for a state senator, one north country resident’s vote goes a lot further than the vote of one Big Apple denizen.

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20120129/NEWS03/701299876

A New York legislative task force is about to turn its focus to redrawing New York’s congressional districts and could have proposals out in March, one of its co-chairmen said Monday.

State Assemblyman John J. McEneny, D-Albany, co-chairman of the state Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, gave the timeline in a telephone interview as officials prepared to release proposed maps for state Assembly and Senate districts, possibly by today.

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20120124/NEWS02/701249911

It is game time again in Albany as the decennial legislative realignment is under way. As a starter, the Republican Senate has found it necessary to add a 63rd Senate seat to respond to population changes. Previously in 2002, the Republican Senate added two Senate seats to protect their political majority in the face of larger Democratic and fewer Republican voters.

Currently, Democratic enrolled voters in New York have a 2-to-1 advantage over Republican ones. By reducing the number of eligible voters in each Senate district, the Republican majority hopes to maintain their majority in the Senate, which they have controlled for over 40 years by this political gerrymandering. The additional Republican Senate seats would protect Republican districts in rural and Northern New York constituencies.

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20120113/OPINION02/701139969

New York’s state senators might have to scooch over just a little bit to welcome the 63rd senator into their ranks.

In a message posted Friday to a state Legislature website, a legislative task force confirmed plans to add another seat to the state Senate, increasing membership from 62 to 63.

The plan was met with vocal opposition by Senate Democrats and could provoke a lawsuit. It would ease the population crunch that upstate Republican senators are facing as the state redraws its political boundaries and make 2012 easier for Republicans to cling to their 32-29 edge in the state Senate.

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20120107/NEWS03/701079914/-1/news

When counties use population numbers later this year to figure out how big each legislative district needs to be, inmates at the five north country state prisons won’t be included in the mix.

That’s because every county in New York will have to follow the state’s rule change on counting prisoners for the purposes of redistricting. Previously, they had been counted as residents of the prison in which they are incarcerated. Now, the state will use the inmates’ last-known address as their official residence.

Read more: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20120106/NEWS03/701069890

A good-government group has released a new set of political maps that would complicate the political situation in the Assembly, would further north country-ize our state Senate district, and would do what was expected of our congressional district.

The state is in the midst of a fight over the decennial redistricting process, wherein the changes in the state’s population are borne out in the contours of district lines. That way, a Sen. Patty Ritchie represents roughly the same amount of people as a Sen. Joe Griffo.

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20111219/BLOGS13/111219777

If you’d like to see partisan gerrymandering, look no further than the north country’s Assembly and Senate districts, a report from a good-government group concludes.

Senate districts 47 and 48, represented by Republicans Joseph A. Griffo and Patricia A. Ritchie, respectively, are two of the least-populated districts in the state, drawn that way by the lawmakers themselves to allow the state Senate GOP to magnify its clout by having more districts in politically friendly areas. Assembly districts 118 and 122, represented respectively by Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, and Kenneth D. Blankenbush, R-Black River, are significantly overpopulated, an effort by Assembly Democrats to stuff more Republicans into fewer Assembly districts, the report says.

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20111123/NEWS03/711239903

The Sept. 12 editorial “Redistricting politics interfere with Arizona panel” points out that nonpartisan redistricting of legislative districts is not always nonpartisan, namely the recent nonpartisan redistricting in Arizona. The editorial points out that the Arizona nonpartisan redistricting has evolved into partisanship among the commissioners.

There are two other nonpartisan redistricting systems, California and Nebraska. There are other states, including New York, undertaking nonpartisan redistricting of legislative districts. For over a century, New York has utilized partisan redistricting where the majority party in the bicameral Legislature determines the redistricting of districts in census years.

Read  More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20111008/OPINION02/710089968

Democratic Rep. William L. Owens and Republican Matthew A. Doheny, putative rivals for Congress in November 2012, can agree on at least one thing: they don’t think the north country’s congressional seat will be split up because of redistricting.

“Certainly, anything is possible,” Mr. Owens said. “But if you think about the nature of the district, just its geographic size and the small number of people in many parts of it, we think that it’s unlikely that the district would be eliminated.”

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110925/NEWS03/709259841

The north country’s state legislators will lose thousands of residents in the next round of redistricting, mostly to New York City, because of a new law on counting prisoners.

The 2010 law mandates that when the state redraws its political boundaries to account for population shifts — a way of making sure each New Yorker has roughly equal representation — prisoners must be counted at their last known address, instead of the prison in which they reside. Last known addresses are often in New York City; of the state’s 67 correctional facilities, 58 are north of Westchester County.

Read More: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110907/NEWS03/709079875