Support redistricting reform

Editorials

May 15, 2010

Anonymous The Tonawanda News The Tonawanda News Sat May 15, 2010, 11:53 PM EDT

— — Few reforms in state government would have more impact than a nonpartisan, independent process for determining the boundaries of legislative districts.

In a dubious but time-honored tradition, state lawmakers do their self-serving best after each 10-year census when they redraw Senate and Assembly district boundaries. Last time, Republicans in the Senate and Democrats in the Assembly carved out one “safe” district after another for their incumbents. This time around, if Democrats retain control of both chambers, only Republicans seem to have anything to fear.

But Sen. David Valesky, D-Oneida, has a better idea “eliminating partisan influence designed to preserve majorities and incumbents, and creating districts that are cohesive geographically and culturally.” Put another way, he wants voters to choose their representatives, not the other way around.

Valesky proposes that a nonpartisan redistricting panel replace the current commission dominated by legislators. Modeled after a successful, 30-year-old version in Iowa, the panel would use criteria like municipal lines, community character and protection of minority voting rights. The commission would hold public hearings and submit its plan to the Legislature for an up-or-down vote.

Reform advocates support Valesky’s initiative. So does the public, it seems: In a Quinnipiac poll last year, 70 percent of respondents said they favor an independent redistricting commission. This past week, the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations reported out Valesky’s bill on a bipartisan vote the first time any legislative committee has moved a nonpartisan redistricting measure.

But at a meeting with reform advocates in Albany Wednesday, Senate leader John Sampson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver distanced themselves from the bill. They would only promise a fairer process and continuing dialogue. Sampson did say he would allow Valesky’s bill to reach the Senate floor for a vote another first.

However, Senate President Malcolm Smith, speaking earlier to Democrats in Niagara Falls, sang the same old song. Mindful of Republicans’ partisan manipulation of district boundaries when they ran the Senate for 40 years, Smith vowed that given the chance, “we are going to draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the state of New York for the next 20 years.”

The measure clearly has an uphill climb. Its success or failure will test the ability of the high-ranking Valesky who was first elected in 2004 as a reform candidate to push through a major reform. Even if he is successful, a big obstacle remains: Companion legislation in the Assembly lies dormant.

If the full Legislature approves the measure and Gov. David Paterson signs it, as he has promised to do, the commission could be empaneled and complete its job within seven months well before the 2012 deadline.

Even if inertia and partisanship continue to dominate the Legislature, the next governor could play a key role. All the candidates including the so-far-undeclared Attorney General Andrew Cuomo have pledged to support redistricting reform. The threat of a gubernatorial veto of any self-serving redistricting plan served up by the Legislature, with the prospect of a court appointee redrawing district lines might yet save the day.

— The Syracuse Post-Standard

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