July 27, 2011 - Area residents and good-government groups turned out last week to tell a state commission that New York lawmakers should not control the redrawing of the state’s congressional and legislative districts.
“Voters across all parties believe an independent commission should re-draw the lines,” said Katherine Smith, president of the League of Women Voters-Rochester Metropolitan Area, one of about 20 who addressed the commission.
The July 20 meeting at Rochester City Hall was the second of 12 that the New York Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment is slated to hold around the state to gain public input on the redistricting process. The task force (also known as “LATFOR”) has the job of re-drawing New York’s state legislative and congressional districts to be in line with the demographic changes revealed by the 2010 Census. A commission of four state legislators of both major parties and two private individuals heads the task force. About 40 attended last week’s meeting, which stretched on for close to four hours.
While most who addressed the commission called its work into question, state Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Seneca Falls, defended that work. “We want this process to be as open, as responsive, as any process in the history of redistricting,” he told the crowded hall.
Despite that pledge, the process by which districts would be redrawn may have changed little from previous efforts. Brighton supervisor Sandra Frankel, one of three town supervisors who addressed the commissioners, recalled speaking with colleagues about the same issues after the 2000 Census. “Times have changed, but the need for change is no less imperative,” she said.
Several who addressed the commission used the earmuff-shaped 28th Congressional District of Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, to illustrate how the current redistricting process can produce extreme results. The district, which was created after the 2000 Census, travels from the Rochester suburb of Fairport through a thin strip nearly 90 miles in length along the shore of Lake Ontario to the Canadian border. It then heads south, to just below the Buffalo suburb of Kenmore.
The importance of shaping electoral districts in this manner extends beyond aesthetics. Politicians have long known that they can influence the outcome of an election by shaping the playing field-essentially drawing its lines with political goals in mind. The process, which in extreme form is called “gerrymandering,” has grown easier with the use of voter databases and sophisticated computer programs. When the 28th was formed, Slaughter and another Democratic incumbent were placed in the district. Had the other Democrat not retired, two members of the same party would have had to slug it out for one congressional seat.
This year’s redistricting process has less time to prove out than that of 2000, due to passage of new federal legislation, the MOVE Act. The act, which gives more time for service member’s ballots to be collected, has prompted the state legislature to consider switching the date for primary elections from September to June, starting in 2012.
LATFOR is scheduled to gather public input on redistricting issues at 12 meetings around the state altogether, according to Nozzolio’s office. With those in hand, it would then draft a new map of the state’s electoral districts, and present it to the public for comment at 12 more meetings. After incorporating the suggestions it has obtained into the draft redistricting plan, the commission plans to present it to state lawmakers for approval.
“The approval is ultimately going to come from the state legislature,” says one of the LATFOR commissioners Bob Oaks, R-Macedon. If the legislature approves of the plan, it would go to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his signature. Nozzolio said the new districts should be formed by the end of this year.
