Goo-Goo Dreams
Here's something worth keeping an eye on: an announcement in the New York State Assembly of hearings on redistricting.
For good government types, redistricting would be a dream, wresting the reigns of power from the autocratic hands of legislative leaders and giving citizens a legitimate chance at unseating sinecured incumbents from their purposefully drawn districts.
But will Sheldon Silver really want to change any part of the system that has allowed him to compile a 105-seat, veto-proof majority?
Blair Horner, legislative director for NYPIRG, thinks Silver may not have a choice, optimistically telling Newsday's Lauren Weber that "it'll be hard for them to have hearings and then do nothing, especially with a new governor coming in who wants to see some changes."
Anyone out there want to take that bet?
Blair Horner,NYPIRG have been around for year all they do is press release, never challenge the power structure on anything real. connect the dots what do you thing is going to happen.
NOTHING
well, what reforms /will/ create a more open and honest government? or, change the power structure, as you say?
BLAIR HORNER COULD HAVE JOINED APRIVATE LOBBYING FTRM AND MADE MILLIONS.IBSTEAD HE WORKS FOR AHIGHLY RESPECTED GD GOVT AND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP FIGHYIGN AGAINST POWERFUL SPECIAL UNTERESTS.THAT DESERVING OF PRAISE NOT CYNICISM
New York needs tighter rules, not a commission. Commissions play the same zero-sum game as legislators: there are winners and losers. The so-called ideal Arizona commission, created for the first time in 2001, is still in court for allegedly failing to create competitive districts.
New York's legislators must have a more transparent process, more independent appointees to the committees, and prohibitions on regional/political favoritism, rampant in both Assembly and Senate plans, and more so in the Senate plan.
The NYC Council redistricting uses a commission of mayoral and council appointees. While they have some leverage to protect incumbents, the good lawyering of the 2003 council commission staff prevented egregious gerrymandering also tempered by vigilant use of the Voting Rights Act to prevent any backsliding. Not a single legal challenge was filed against th city council plan, unlike most other redistrictings.