Governor Andrew Cuomo is Fake and Betrayed the Community (2 articles & questions)

Cuomo and the New York State Legislature are perpetuating a travesty

this week in their handling of the state’s redistricting process, including proposing

a Constitutional amendment for an “independent” redistricting commission. Instead

of the much-needed redistricting reform the public overwhelmingly seems to want,

they are now conspiring to create the illusion of reform by essentially adopting

a system that shortchanges the residents of the state. This is not at all the result

of compromise but of caving in to the worst aspects of partisanship and plutocracy.

 

Despite the Governor following through on his pledge to veto the lines created by

the Legislature if they appeared too partisan, he is caving in to the Legislature

in apparently endorsing their Congressional maps over those created by the court,

and is now negotiating over the Legislature’s eleventh hour and backdoor maps for

the State Senate and Assembly. The court-created Congressional plan has generally

reflected that proposed by, among others, the New York Voting Rights Consortium

that developed a “Unity Pan” that followed the letter of the federal Voting Rights

Act (VRA). The Consortium is made up of the leading civil rights and legal defense

organizations representing communities of color, including the Asian American Legal

Defense and Education Fund, the Center for Law and Social Justice, LatinoJustice

PRLDEF and our organization, the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP). The

result is that the Governor is inviting more lawsuits and objections based on the

VRA.

 

But, as egregious, is the Governor and Legislature’s apparent agreement to adopt

a Constitutional amendment to create a so-called “independent” redistricting commission

for the next round of redistricting in 2021-2022. While the idea of an independent

body should mean that the politicians in the Legislature would have nothing to do

with the redistricting process, their involvement being the source of the problem,

this proposed amendment would give the Legislature final say and allow the party

leaders to select the members of the new commission. This should be unacceptable

to New Yorkers who have been demanding a redistricting commission that is completely

independent of the Legislature and privileges the two major political parties, excluding

the participation of the large group of independent voters we have in this state.

 

Despite Governor Cuomo’s rhetoric about redistricting reform, it is now clear that

it was not genuine and that he decided long ago to use this issue to negotiate on

other matters, like the budget and pension cuts, with the Legislative leadership.

It is a shame that the people of New York had to witness this lost opportunity for

real change in Albany that so many have called for, and all just for the political

expediency of a political class that will do anything to perpetuate its existence

and corrupt practices. Governor Cuomo still has time to do the right thing. Will

he?

By:

Angelo Falcón is President and Founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy

(NiLP), a nonpartisan policy center based in New York City focusing on Latino issues

since 1982. Lucia Gomez-Jimenez is a Senior Policy Fellow on voting rights issues

with NiLP.

FROM DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE (March 16, 2012)

ALBANY— On Page 16 of an ethics agenda distributed during his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, then-candidate Andrew Cuomo made it clear: He “will veto any redistricting plan in 2012 that reflects partisan gerrymandering.”

Less than two years later, Cuomo signed a new set of Senate and Assembly district lines on Thursday that were drawn by the lawmakers sitting in the political majorities.

Cuomo defended the move Thursday, saying he got the best deal he could get and a law to create an independent panel for future redistricting — starting in 2022. “I supported an independent commission for these lines. I lost,” Cuomo told reporters in a briefing in his office.

His decision left some good-government groups and Senate Democrats flummoxed. Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch had all 32 Senate Republicans and dozens of Democrats in the Assembly sign a pledge to pursue an independent redistricting process in 2012. They broke their pledge, he said.

“While the governor worked hard to produce a better outcome, and while there are glimmers of hope for reform in the future, this puts off reform for a decade and forces the voters to endure 10 more years of the undemocratic way the Legislature’s district lines are drawn,” Koch said in a statement. “I am disappointed that the governor compromised.”

Cuomo accepted the lawmaker-drawn, heavily criticized lines in 2012, but Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats agreed to pursue a constitutional amendment to take the once-a-decaderedistricting process out of their hands in the future.

Cuomo said the deal would end the gerrymandering of legislative lines every 10 years. The compromise was the best possible outcome, he argued, given the circumstances.

If he were to veto the Senate and Assembly lines, a court-appointed “special master” likely would have drawn them similar to what the Legislature proposed anyway, he explained. And there would not have been any long-term fixes. “This is a very real reform package that will end this once and for all,” Cuomo said.

The Senate and Assembly approved the process of amending the constitution to create a bipartisan, 10-member panel that will draw new state and congressional lines beginning in 2022. The panel would allow each of the Legislature’s four political conferences to appoint two non-lawmakers to the panel, and those panelists would select who would fill the final two slots.

The compromise was approved by the Legislature late Wednesday during a marathon session.

A change to the constitution must be approved by consecutive, separately elected Legislatures before it’s put to a vote of the public for final approval. The earliest that process could be completed is 2013.

Courts and the U.S. Justice Department will ultimately decide whether the new Senate and Assembly lines for 213 seats hold up.

JCAMPBELL1@Gannett.com 

QUESTIONS: Where are the Queens Latino leaders? Who is protesting from Queens? What’s happening with the community-based organization? Why their silence? Are they going to confront the political boss? Is someone standing for the Latino community?