How to redistrict New York
It was good news that New York City gained population in the just-released 2020 census data. While New York State will lose a congressional district, we defied earlier more pessimistic expectations that the state would lose two U.S. House seats.
The bad news, however, is that state and national Democrats see the Empire State as their prime candidate to effectuate a radical gerrymander of congressional and legislative districts to preserve their power both in Washington and Albany.
Standing in their way is the 2014 state constitutional amendment creating an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) tasked with the job of redrawing legislative and congressional districts. Inspired by the relentless advocacy of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, the state amendment for the first time in New York’s history established legal principles to direct this process. The line-drawing process is guided by strict standards to protect local communities of interest, jurisdictional boundaries, and ethnic and racial minority groups. The Constitution also directs that district lines should not be drawn to favor one party or candidate over another.
No system will ever be perfect, but the new process guiding New York’s redistricting is manifestly better than what previously existed for more than 200 years. The IRC is finely balanced between Democrats and Republicans, and the appointees are taking their role seriously and acting in a bipartisan fashion — as was intended by the framers of the amendment.
For instance, the IRC has hired a single, non-partisan line-drawing consultant to assist with the critical task of drawing legislative and congressional district lines. Also, the commissioners earlier this year joined together to successfully oppose an effort by Gov. Cuomo and Democratic legislative leaders to limit their independence and insisted on adequate funding to complete its mission.
The IRC has already conducted a series of virtual hearings across the state to gather community input. The first draft of district lines is due Sept. 15, and the commission will then conduct another round of hearings, giving the public an opportunity to comment on the initial districting plans. The commission is scheduled to submit final plans by the end of the year to the Legislature for their approval, expected during January or February of 2022.
Once they get the plans in hand, legislators have two opportunities to reject these plans, but under terms of a state law adopted in 2013 at the insistence of Cuomo and good-government groups, it is limited in making changes to the final plan submitted by the IRC. Ultimately, like any other state law, the plan creating new districts for the Legislature and Congress must be signed into law by the governor, giving incoming Gov. Hochul a critical role in this process.
If it works as intended, this is New York’s way out of the poisonous, partisan gerrymandering that so many on both sides of the aisle, but especially liberals, complain relentlessly about.
There is, however, one gigantic fly in the ointment. Albany politicians have placed yet another redistricting amendment on this November’s ballot which seeks to undermine the bipartisan nature of the new system. The new amendment removes protections for the minority party on the IRC — in this case New York Republicans — and in a masterful bit of subterfuge, seeks to obscure their true intent by hiding these offending provisions around a group of innocuous and meaningless changes to other constitutional language relating to redistricting. The minority party would no longer have equal administrative control on the IRC and the Legislature could more easily ignore the commission recommendations.
Democratic leaders have portrayed these changes as “reform,” but no one should be fooled. The real purpose of this new amendment is to eliminate key bipartisan protections contained in the 2014 amendment, paving the way to an extreme Democratic Party gerrymander of legislative and congressional districts. Regardless of party, voters need to be alerted to this classic bit of Albany legislative skullduggery and overwhelmingly reject this effort to rig the political game in New York State for the next 10 years.
Ironically, Democrats in Washington are promoting non-partisan, independent redistricting commissions in H.R. 1, the so-called For the People Act, a massive federal preemption of state election laws and procedures. At the very same time, Albany Democrats are seeking to sabotage New York’s brandnew commission with last-minute changes giving themselves complete control over the process.
The IRC should be allowed to do its redistricting work as Mayor Koch and New York voters directed — without dishonest and unnecessary changes to the state Constitution. The process which the people overwhelmingly approved in 2014 should be allowed to work.