Peace & Justice

This is the blog of the Commission on Peace and Justice for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Worse than we thought?

The Times Union has an article today (from The New York World) that shows how partisan the redistricting process has been in New York:
The new boundaries for state Senate and Assembly districts proposed by New York's legislative redistricting task force would increase the number of seats held by the majority parties in both chambers, an analysis by The New York World has found.

In the closely contested state Senate, the Republican Party's precarious 32-to-30 majority would expand to 34 to 29 if each 2012 voter cast his or her ballot in support of the same party as in the 2010 elections.

In the Assembly, the comfortable 98-to-50 advantage the Democrats enjoyed following 2010's elections would also increase, to 102-to-48.

"You can't put a good face on this," said Douglas Muzzio, a professor at the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College and an expert in New York politics. "It gives real empirical weight to the argument that there is total partisanship in redistricting."
We realize that some people may find this discouraging. However, we think it should energize those of us who favor a less partisan process. Since one of the co-chairs of the task force that devised this scheme is a local legislator, we suggest that you call his office to express your dissatisfaction. That legislator is Jack McEneny, and his office telephone number 518-455-4178.

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