Craig Johnson

Redistricting bill passes Senate committee
by Bryan Fitzgerald

In an attempt to make the upcoming redistricting process less partisan, a bill passed through the Senate Standing Committee on Investigations Tuesday that would create an independent redistricting commission and end the current practice of allowing the majority leaders of each house to essentially draw their own lines.

The committee heard testimony from former New York City major Ed Koch, a staunch advocate of adopting an independent commission.

“Something that was so important every 10 years has failed every ten years,” said Koch, who was in Albany with his New York Uprising group to promote a balanced budget and a reformed ethics package as well. “Having an independent commission to draw the lines now a real possibility.”

The current system has been attacked for allowing gerrymandering: Good government groups have accused the Legislature of drawing line that favor incumbents in their respective party rather than keeping them equally distributed throughout the population.

Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., D-Bronx, objected to the bill, saying that the current system has always worked and the only reason the current system is being criticized it is now favoring minorities in power.

“This system has been used for years and years,” said Diaz. “It has been a good system. But now, when blacks and Hispanics are becoming president and are in power, the system is all of a sudden no good.”

Koch rebutted to Diaz that he’s never been in favor of the old “gerry-rigged” system and that this was not a matter of race, but of accurately reapportioning districts for the good of the public.

Senate Temporary President Malcolm Smith has been recently been under fire for remarks he made at the Democratic Rural Conference in Niagara Falls, saying that, “With the Democrats in control of the state Senate, 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.”

Koch called the statements “absolutely dumb” as Democratic colleagues at the hearing criticized Smith as well.
“The message was wrong to the residents of New York state who are disgusted with the way our government has operated over the last decades,” said Sen. Craig Johnson, D-Long Island and the committee’s chair. “Moreover, it constitutes the old way of doing things.”

The bill is sponsored in the Senate by David Valesky, D-Oneida, and in the Assembly by Mike Gianaris, D-Queens.