Koch: Skelos reneges on redistricting vow

ALBANY - Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos will "weasel out" of his promise to allow an independent committee to draw election districts for the State Legislature and U.S. Congress, former New York City Mayor Edward Koch said Tuesday.

Koch, who has spearheaded a campaign for independent redistricting, said Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) told him Tuesday that taking away redistricting power from the legislature and giving it to a nonpartisan panel was unconstitutional.

Koch said Skelos never raised the constitutional issue last fall, when some Republicans were backing Koch's campaign and using it as an election issue in what became a successful effort to take over the State Senate.

"He's going to weasel out," Koch told reporters Tuesday.

Later, in an interview, Koch said Skelos and his aides are raising the constitutional issue "only because they are trying to get out of their commitment they made when they were running. In my judgment, it's deplorable that he is withdrawing from his commitment."

Asked whether he thought Skelos was acting purely to protect the Republicans' narrow 32-30 majority in the Senate, Koch said: "Yes, that's what he wants to do."

Skelos issued a statement expressing constitutional concerns about giving away the legislature's authority.

"The strongest plan would amend the constitution to establish a process that is truly fair, bipartisan and constitutionally sound," Skelos said. He added that the process of changing the constitution should have begun a year ago, when Democrats controlled the Senate.

Skelos added that it "is our intention to pursue a redistricting reform measure that will meet the NY Uprising pledge," referring to the name of Koch's reform group.

State lawmakers must use the 2010 Census to draw new legislative district lines and congressional districts - and eliminate two congressional seats - in time for the 2012 elections. Koch led a news conference at the Capitol that included Democrats and Republicans from the Assembly but only Democrats from the State Senate to urge passage of a redistricting bill proposed by Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Cuomo proposed putting redistricting in the hands of an 11-member independent panel.

With Michael Amon