The Redistricting Puzzle
by Dee-Dee Goidel
Few New York voters have paid serious attention to the fact that this past summer the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) had been conducting public hearings on redistricting reform. Every year, following the census, the state legislature redraws district boundaries for state legislative and congressional seats. The idea is for the redistricting to reflect changes in population so that districts are proportionately represented.
Over the years, redistricting has had one aim: the re-election of incumbent legislators from both major parties. And this gerrymandering has achieved results: 90 percent of our state’s elected officials have been re-elected.
Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering, by definition, is a process used to achieve desired electoral results for a particular party; it may also help or hinder a particular demographic such as a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group. And in some cases, as in federal redistricting to achieve racial representation, gerrymandering is considered a positive by many.
However, I think we can agree that LATFOR’s goal has not been to right society’s wrongs in recent memory, at least. And this time, some sectors of the public are clamoring for an independent commission to draw district boundaries according to objective criteria; these fair election advocates say they do not want to wait another decade to see this happen.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in his campaign platform, promised to reform the process of redistricting. Last winter, he introduced legislation to appoint an independent, bi-partisan commission to handle the subject. The bill has gone nowhere so far, but the issue is sure to surface again when the state legislature reconvenes next year.
Strength in factions
I bring this up for two reasons: The first is to keep you abreast of what is happening in Albany that affects all of us.
The second, however, is that I’m concerned about having one party dominate the discussion in the state. We have seen how state government works when Republicans and Democrats share power, and we’ve seen what happens when one party dominates. I think we can all agree that, at least during the last time the Democrats held the Senate, Assembly and governorship, we had as dysfunctional a government as we’ve seen in recent memory. Plus, if you recall, Gov. Paterson’s own party ganged up on his attempt to reform campaign law as well as to legalize gay marriage. In addition, budgets were late.
Gov. Cuomo has successfully worked with his own party as well as with the Republicans on a number of issues. With the support of the Republicans, he passed an on-time budget, saw same sex marriage become a reality and capped property taxes. He seems to know how to manage the strengths and weaknesses of both parties.
So what’s my point? Voter registration is dominated in NYS by the Democrats. It’s almost 3 to 1 in some districts. How then do you balance the power of the majority against the interests of the minority?
It’s an age-old question that our founding fathers argued about as they created a balance of power among branches of government. If and when redistricting occurs, shouldn’t the criteria take into account not only population, race and geography but political affiliation as well?
I don’t have the answer, but I believe it’s a variable that must be considered.
