Posted on 03/02/2012 12:03:04 AM PST by neverdem
The Legislature is expected at last to vote on redistricting next week — although not on a plan for new congressional seats. Its foot-dragging is undoing all of the goodwill gained from its cooperation with Gov. Cuomo last year.
The congressional plan, which was due last week, is about to wind up in the hands of a court-appointed special master. The state Senate and Assembly punted this core legislative responsibility to the judiciary.
As a high-school football coach recently put it on HBO’s Real Sports, “Punting is a sign of offensive failure.” The Legislature’s failure is offensive: Lawmakers surrendered to partisan and intraparty wrangling — giving credence to demands that redistricting be permanently handed to an independent commission.
Foot-dragging has become the Legislature’s habit, from the 2002 federal mandate for electronic-voting machines to the 2009 law ordering enough time for mailing in military ballots.
In his day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. rightly denounced the Southern states-rights strategy of “interposition and nullification.” Today, he’d say the same of New York actions preventing the enforcement of federal laws.
No, our state leaders don’t block voter-registrar doors; instead, they quietly defy federal mandates with which they disagree or which simply inconvenience them.
For years, they managed to flout federal voting-rights laws while negotiating waivers. But this year, federal Judge Gary Sharpe put an end to the game, ordering congressional-primary elections be moved to June 26 to allow compliance with the military-balloting law.
Its actions here have been obstructionist.
Gov. Cuomo, meanwhile, has been inscrutable. Yes, he’s promised to veto any redistricting plan that doesn’t include a mechanism for independent redistricting. In a recent radio interview, he essentially called the Senate Democrats hypocrites for not enacting independent redistricting when they were in the majority two years ago.
As I’ve noted before, we’re headed...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
California has one the worst redistricting plan in the nation. Partly because they have a full time legislature.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
No?
Not a surprise, since Party division automatically follows single Party demographics, but still, they only have Sec. 2 (Voting Rights Act) liability issues, which are highly unlikely since the population in the State is decreasing, relative to the other States, in apportionment.
Horrors! Liberal Democrats cannot agree together on the spoils of total legislative control? How counter-revolutionary!
This sounds like it could be done with a simple mapping program and a spreadsheet.
From the article: “[Cuomo] essentially called the Senate Democrats hypocrites for not enacting independent redistricting when they were in the majority two years ago.”
The majority swings back and forth in the NY State Senate. Sometimes within a matter of days. IIRC, a couple of years ago the majority went R with the switch of 2 state senators, then one changed his mind again a few days later; he and the majority switched back. It’s not ‘overwhelming’ as in CA.
Thanks for the ping!
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