Three ballot propositions will greet voters on November 4. The first asks whether the state’s Constitution should be amended to change how State Assembly, Senate, and New York’s Congressional districts are redrawn.
Currently, the once-a-decade redistricting process is handled by a task force of Assembly members and senators. Under the amendment, that responsibility would go to a standalone commission.
Elected officials would be unable to serve on the panel, but state legislative leaders would appoint eight of the commission’s 10 members. The Legislature and the governor would have to approve the redrawn districts.
The Rochester area League of Women Voters, the Interfaith Alliance of Rochester, and the Social Justice Council of the First Unitarian Church of Rochester will hold a forum on the ballot measure from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Monday, October 20, at First Unitarian Church, 220 South Winton Road.
Judy Weinstein, who represents the league, will argue for the proposition. Stuart Berger, who represents the Interfaith Alliance of Rochester, will argue against it.
Statewide, the League of Women Voters urges voters to support the measure. It takes the responsibility of drawing the lines out of legislators’ hands and provides for a more public process, says Elaine Schmidt, a member of the Rochester chapter of the league.
“This is a step in the right direction, we feel,” she says. “It’s better than what we have.”
But Berger says that the process would be bipartisan, not nonpartisan, which still allows for collusion between the political parties. A commission with an odd number of members, with greater stress on members who are independent of the major parties, would be a better approach, he says.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2014.
The City News article mistakenly states that “[e]lected officials would be unable to serve on the panel…;” while in reality only state level elected officials and some others may not serve. The amendment allows local elected officials, including county executives and legislators who may be considering a run at the state legislature, to participate in drawing the lines for themselves and their potential fellow legislators, with whom they will be soon negotiating for power. Other states with such commissions include an ethics provision that prevents commission members from running for such offices for a period of time. NY Prop 1 does not.
This is one of the many overlooked serious flaws with the proposed amendment. While it may be a baby step forward, it is a small step into cement, entrenching a still too flawed system into the constitution where it will be even more difficult to improve. New Yorkers should reject this illusion and insist on real reform before the next redistricting.
As a NY judge stated in his ruling that the word “independent” did not fairly describe this proposed commission, “Legislative semantics do not change the reality that the commission’s plan is little more than a recommendation to the Legislature, which can reject it for unstated reasons and draw its own lines.”