The Silence is Damaging Democracy as NY’s Partisan Redistricting Ruling is Appealed in Higher Courts

The Silence is Damaging Democracy as NY’s Partisan Redistricting Ruling is Appealed in Higher Courts

By Gary Tilzer

On March 31^st Judge Pat McAllister ruled that the new district maps, approved by Democratic supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature were unconstitutional, and the judge ordered that new maps be drawn before the state’s Democratic legislative leaders appealed his order. This week Appellate Division Justice Stephen Lindley ripped New York’s legislature for creating an independent redistricting panel that lawmakers knew was “easily manipulated” — resulting in the state legislature drawing partisan district maps that have ended up in a messy court battle, which could delay the June 28^th primary.

Judge Lindley has ordered a continuing stay, meaning the elections will continue to proceed under the current district maps until the Appellate Court hears the appeal on April 20^th,  if the Appellate Court agrees with the lower court and finds the districting lines unconstitutional, the primary may be delayed until mid-august.

Until then Judge Lindley approved the use of a special master to draw new congressional districts that could be used if the existing maps are thrown out. The Lindley order said: “the Legislature may begin redrawing the map right now or the Legislature may choose to do nothing and risk the possibility of having to live with the map drawn by Judge [Patrick] McAllister’s neutral expert should respondents lose before the Court of Appeals.”

Judge McAllister ruled that the redrawn district lines discourage competition. In reality the partisan redistricting would only make NY’s dysfunctional government worse, not fix NY’s broken disconnect government. Politics and our democracy only works when elections are competitive, where the public is given a choice to vote for a candidate with the better ideas and platform that they agree with. Partisan redistricting in a one-party state like NY makes incumbent elected official’s reelection more of a sure thing, by allowing them to cut out areas of their district where they have weak support. Cutting neighborhoods apart to benefit incumbents only weakens the voice of those neighborhoods and the people who live in them.

For decades, the NY Times and Good Govt Groups have been organizing and writing against incumbent protection and partisan redistricting. Yet at this critical moment when a state judge has already ruled the state’s redistricting as unconstitutional, and the city’s economy and crime wave have put its future in jeopardy, all the traditional groups who have been fighting for independent redistricting have been silent. How can Common Cause NY or the Citizen Union not be organizing against the 2022 redistricting that can only make NY’s government more disconnected from the public who already want to move out of the city because of its failed government? How can the NY Times, which has already shown how NYC’s dysfunctional government failed to audit the corruption of the homeless nonprofits, not warn its readers that partisan incumbent protection redistricting will only make NY’s government more dysfunctional? Does the Times think the new State 220-billion-dollar budget is not filled with pots of hidden member items slush funds that will go to politically connected nonprofits, whose board members donate to those same elected officials?

The NY Times Published in an Editorial in 2014 that the Independent Redistricting Commission Was Not Independent. . . Today Silent

 

The NY Times wrote in an editorial on 10/28/14 that voters should defeat the Independent Redistricting Commission Amendment but has not written any editorial opinion on Judge McAllister ruling that the 2022 district maps were unconstitutional.

NY Times 2014 “Proposal One is a constitutional amendment to revise the state’s redistricting procedure. This is a phony reform that purports to establish a new system of drawing legislative districts. Legislative leaders would appoint a committee charged with drawing new districts. If the legislators do not like the first two tries, they can draw the districts themselves. The net result would be to reinforce, not reform, a system that virtually guarantees job security for incumbents and discourages competition. Vote no on Proposal One.”

Wokeness and Politics Destroyed Institutions That in the Past Protected the Common New Yorker

It looks like the Good Government groups and the NY Times do not want to anger the Democratic Party in control of NY or they are so caught up in the narrative of the woke culture that does not want to give any power to Republicans. But this redistricting is not about giving a party that does not exist in most of the city, it is about taking power away from Democratic Voters in Democratic Districts to help incumbents. The goal of redistricting should be to give the voters of every district influence on their elected officials. The goal of redistricting is to have the representative serve the particular needs of his or her community, which is impossible if the elected officials district cuts through several neighborhoods with unique needs. The high reelection rates caused by the gerrymandering of districts done by partisan and incumbent protection map makers, allow elected officials to avoid problems like affordable housing, homelessness, and bad schools. It would teach Albany a lesson and go a long way to fixing the city by holding elected officials responsible if the judges appoint a special master to redraw the districts to keep neighborhoods together and ignore the current incumbent protection lines.

The Jewish Voice wrote months ago that Albany’s supermajority Democrats would do an end-run around a bipartisan commission empowered by the people in 2014. Gerrymandering to the hilt to dilute voices and votes hurts democracy— no matter which party does it.

On January 10, 2022, the Jewish Voice warned that the so-called Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) would not reach an agreement on new state and federal redistricting lines. The JV article, “The Kabuki Dance Redistricting Incumbent Protection One-Party NY Fix is In, predicted that the IRC would not agree on new district maps. The JV reported that new Congressional, Assembly and State Senate maps would be partisan gerrymandered, to limit the number of seats a Republican can win in the state. More importantly, we warned that the level of competency of NY’s government would decrease and the level of corruption with one party drawn districts would increase. The Founding Fathers set up a system of divided government to protect us from our own government. One-party control hurts which works against the founder’s governing principle, hurting our democracy and the ability to meet the people’s needs. In one-party state elected officials gain Orwellian type power of the voters, drawing partisan redistricting maps is just one example. With the breakdown of NYC local media in the last 20-years one-party power has increased to dangerous levels.”

The Jewish Voice Predicted: Malliotakis New Lines Would Favor Rose Before Her District Was Attached to Park Slope

Jewish Voice January 2022: In 2020, incumbent Democratic Max Rose lost to Republican Nicole Malliotakis 137,198 46.8% to 155,608 53.1% in the Staten Island/Brooklyn congressional district, which could still be the 11th district depending on redistricting. Rose recently Tweeted: “I’m running for Congress in #NY11 because I can’t sit by while Republicans tear us apart just to hold onto power. The America we believe in is possible – one that is safe, affordable, and fair. All we need are leaders willing to risk it all to fight for it.” The buzz among the insiders who belong to NYC’s political class is that Rose will receive after redistricting a more Democratic leaning district. Looking at the demographics and voting patterns in Southern Brooklyn that just elected the first Republican Assemblywoman, Inna Vernikov, the Albany map makers have their work cut out.

When Steuben County state Supreme Court Justice McAllister ruled that the legislature’s Democratic supermajority new redistricting maps violated the New York State Constitution, the refrain was “oh, he’s a Republican.” Well, Rochester Appellate Division Associate Justice Stephen Lindley who won office as a Democrat, kept in place McAllister’s plan to have an outside expert redraw the lines. Unless Albany quickly did a do-over, this time abiding by the Constitution. Greedy Democrats have created a massive mess by disrespecting voters and the Constitution. The only bigger mess would be making their offense against democracy permanent by retaining the twisted lines they drew. A final decision is expected around the end of April.

The Press Allows State Senator Gianaris and Other Leaders of the Partisan Redistricting To Hide Behind Their Spokesman

 

“This is one step in the process,” said Michael Murphy, a spokesman for the State Senate Democrats. “We always knew this case would be decided by the appellate courts.” Albany Democrats ignored the will of New Yorkers who demanded fair, independent redistricting. Instead, they adopted partisan maps to protect themselves,” he said. “This is a victory for [all] New Yorkers.

On January 26, 2022, Jewish Voice Was Right: Independent Redistricting is Dead As Albany Democrats Draw New Partisan Political Districts

One-party redistricting: 1) Assure the left-wing increasing political control of NY; 2) Assure two million non-democrat registered moderate voters cannot vote in the election that already chooses 85% of the city’s elected officials, the Democratic Primary; 3) The current insiders who have not solved the city’s problems, will have more power to control City Hall and Albany; 4) It’s about the public being cut out twice – once after voting for Independent redistricting and second building powerful incumbents that will not listen to them.

Good Government Groups for Decades Opposed District Lines Being Drawn by Lawmaker are Silent On Judge McAllister’s Unconstitutional Ruling

Even the good government group Common Cause/NY supported this year’s bill giving the power back to the legislature to draw the maps if the commission was deadlocked. The governor cited the good government support as one of the reasons she signed the new redistricting law. It is important to note: In 2014 Common Cause opposed the redistricting proposal, whose executive director, Susan Lerner, said: “We should not be memorializing partisan control of redistricting — this requires it,” she said. “There is a set of voting rules that is dependent on who is in the majority of either house.” She said, “the criteria for redistricting are deliberately structured so they can do anything they want to with the maps and not provide guidance for the courts.” Instead of tinkering with the system now, Ms. Lerner said in 2014, “we have time between now and 2022 to set up a good system through statute or a constitutional amendment. If we settle for the crumbs that the Legislature is willing to give us, then we don’t actually get reform.”

Apparently, the partisan redistricting is not enough, or Democrats think the judges will eliminate the advantage they tried to create. They are now talking about creating a third party, in essence, encouraging Democratic candidates to hide the fact they are Democrats in case you are wondering about the midterm environment. Jay Jacobs the leader of the NYS’s Democratic Party said, “This is about winning in November, and so we are going to weigh all of our options. It’s about having a level playing field, according to a leading state democrat.” Are NY’s state leader in agreement with democrat consultant Douglas E. Schoen who wrote in The Hill that if President Biden complicity is shown in the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, “what is now likely a red wave election could turn into a massive blowout that is more substantial than anything seen in recent history.”