Albany: reconvene now on redistricting

Back in July, we praised Gov. Andrew Cuomo, State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for completing so much important work in the last legislative session. In a civics-lesson-worthy show of leadership, these men — and most members of the Legislature — acted boldly on controversial matters and achieved resolutions that were in the interests of the people of the state.

Examples of their accomplishments (though some remain controversial) include an early passage of a balanced budget; marriage-equality legislation; a 2 percent limit on school districts’ and municipalities’ tax levy increases; an expansion of rent-control laws; ethics reform; mandate relief; the NYSUNY 2020 plan and the Power NY Act.

No one can deny that — unlike other years — the leaders took action and the legislative process functioned effectively.

With one exception: redistricting.

Every 10 years, the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts must be redrawn to reflect population changes that occurred during the last decade as revealed by the census, so that each district has about the same number of people.

Attention is paid to the one-person-one-vote Constitutional mandate and to the Voting Rights Act so that the rights of minorities are protected. The process is called reapportionment, or redistricting.

Under the current system, the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment provides the Legislature with a redistricting plan. The task force consists of six members, four of whom are legislators and two who are not. It is now holding hearings around the state — in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Westchester, the five boroughs of New York City and, in October, Long Island — so the public can hear how the new maps are being developed and offer its input.

But the remapping system was long ago manipulated into an incumbent-protection system. Instead of changing the district lines to reflect population shifts, lines are redrawn to help keep politicians in their jobs in spite of population changes.

Since 1999, incumbents in the State Legislature have enjoyed a 96 percent re-election rate. Except for two years, the Senate has had a Republican majority since 1965. The Assembly has been in Democratic hands since 1974. Waves of immigrants have come to neighborhoods in New York, left for other neighborhoods, been replaced by others, but incumbents remain. Sons and daughters of Long Island homeowners have left the state in search of affordable living, but incumbents remain. Retirees who have lived in New York for decades have moved to Southern states, replaced by new homeowners from the city and from nearby states and other countries, but incumbents remain.

Gerrymandering — the reconfiguration of district boundaries for partisan gain, no matter how twisted and tentacled the new district’s shape — reigns, so incumbent remain.

All parties in Albany proclaimed enthusiastic support for redistricting reform during the last election. To get it done, Cuomo introduced legislation in February that would create a bipartisan commission to ensure “independence, transparency and a commitment to fair representation and equality,” he said. His bill has gone nowhere.

Time is of the essence. The state has 45 days after the September 2012 primaries, when the general-election ballot is created, to mail out absentee ballots to members of the armed services and others. Primaries can’t be contested until candidates know their district lines, and whom they’re seeking to represent.

Republicans, who signed former New York City Mayor Ed Koch’s NY Uprising pledge  to vote in favor of reforming the reapportionment system, rejected the independent  commission plan and sought a state constitutional amendment instead, saying their solution would offer a permanent fix. But the constitutional amendment process requires approval from two consecutive legislatures as well as by the electorate.  

That couldn’t happen until at least 2013, meaning no change for the 2012 election   and no change until at least the next remapping after the 2020 census. So   incumbents remain.

Democracy’s purists, and some sincere elected public servants, say there’s nothing wrong with having the redistricting process influenced by political horse-trading, and that real democracy is all about deals and quid pro quos that end up serving the interests of constituents. They say that removing politics from what is a political process and creating a system that ignores the essentially political nature of representation denies the electorate the power to have the people they voted for continue to represent their interests, including in the reapportionment process.

Maybe people keep getting re-elected because they’re doing a good job.

That sounds fine, except that a 96 percent re-election rate defies common sense. The point of democracy is to make sovereign the people’s will, not to make sure incumbents keep their jobs.

For Fortress Incumbent to be stormed, we urge all citizens to demand that the Assembly and Senate return to Albany and create that independent commission now, even if some want to simultaneously work toward an amendment. There’s no good reason we can’t do both.