Dear Friends:Last week the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) released the Republican proposal for Senate district lines. As expected, these lines are a blatantly partisan effort to allow majority legislators to pick their own voters.
I urge everyone who believes in good government and fair elections to testify at LATFOR's Manhattan hearing on the proposed maps. The LATFOR meeting will be held at:
250 Broadway, 19th Floor -- Assembly Hearing Room
Thursday, February 2 | 10:30 AM
To present testimony, please fill out and send in this form by fax or mail, or contact Dina Weissman of the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research & Reapportionment at (212) 618-1101.
The Senate Republican map is a perfect example of the kind of partisan dysfunction and Albany power grabs that Governor Cuomo campaigned against, and I am pleased that he has already indicated that he finds these maps unacceptable and would veto them. Nothing in these maps meets Governor Cuomo's objective criteria for fairer, more representative districts. Just a few of the most egregious examples of gerrymandering in the Republican plan include:
- The illegal creation of a new additional Senate district. This violates of the formula in the state constitution that establishes the number of districts.
- Extreme, widespread variations in district size. 50 Senate districts are more than 3 percent larger or smaller than the average population size. These wide variations in district size mean voters in some districts literally get more of a voice than others. Even in the heavily gerrymandered redistricting done in 2002, only 19 out of 62 districts exceeded a 3% threshold.
- Underrepresentation of New York City and the surrounding suburbs. More voters are packed into New York City districts than average, and all districts above Westchester have fewer voters than average. This variation allowed the Republicans to propose the creation of a new, extra district upstate, despite the fact that upstate New York has lost population while New York City and the suburbs have grown. This interactive map shows the Republican plan's anti-New York City bias.
- Continued disenfranchisement of minority communities on Long Island. As the Wall Street Journal reported in its analysis of the lines, "Republicans protected their stronghold on Long Island by splitting up Latino neighborhoods in Suffolk County and African-American ones in Nassau County."
- Pitting six Democratic senators against each other. While nonpartisan redistricting might well result in senators ending up in the same district, it's no coincidence that the Republican plan only did this to Democrats - and did it to so many.
- Districts that violate standards of compactness and contiguity, and do so for purely partisan reasons. In the New York City suburbs, Rockland County is split in two for the first time in decades, and one of the districts containing part of Rockland would now include one - and only one - town in Westchester, on the other side of the Hudson River and only accessible to the rest of the district via a toll bridge that lies outside the district.
While I am pleased that Governor Cuomo recognizes these districts are unacceptable and will veto them, it is critical that LATFOR also hear from the public about this outrageous proposal. I hope you will be able to attend and express your opinion.
Sincerely,
Liz Krueger
State Senator
PS: I've included below some images of our district for comparison -- one is an image of the proposed new lines, one reflects the current lines, and one reflects the lines as they were when I was first elected.
Newly-renumbered 28th Senate District, under the proposed new lines.
The current 26th Senate District, as drawn in the 2002 redistricting.
The 26th Senate District as it was when I was first elected in February 2002, as drawn in the 1992 redistricting