NY redistricting faces major showdown

ALBANY -- This is a pivotal week in New York for the redistricting process that will play a critical role in how the state is governed and how its politics operate for the next decade.

It now appears the process will be extended and that Senate and Assembly majorities won't meet their own timetable of voting on new state legislative and congressional district lines on Thursday. A vote by then would require redistricting bills to be submitted by midnight Monday.

Disagreements on Friday made it more likely the vote will be delayed a few days, according to two state officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

A federal magistrate is convening lawyers for the Senate's Republican majority and the Assembly's Democratic majority this week to try to hasten the process.

Redistricting is colliding with a federal court order to move primary elections from September up to as early as June.

After a series of public hearings, the redistricting bill is expected to have different legislative lines than were proposed earlier this year. Most attention is on the sharply partisan Senate, which is divided by just one vote. By contrast, Assembly Democrats have a comfortable 95-51 majority.

On the congressional front, New York will lose two seats, based on slower population growth than in other states. One upstate Republican seat and one downstate Democratic seat are expected to be eliminated.

The process is intended to make sure communities of similar racial and ethnic makeup get a clear voice in the State Legislature and in Congress, but good-government groups said the proposed district lines drawn by the legislature's majorities and released this year are again tools by the majorities to protect and expand power.

"They send me these lines, I am going to veto these lines," Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vowed last week. He referred to the election district lines proposed before a second round of public hearings with often critical input from citizens' groups. "These lines are not fair. They are hyper-political."

Cuomo, a Democrat, won't say what needs to change for him to support the new districts, which are important for his close allies in the Senate's Republican majority to keep their 32-30-seat edge in the heavily Democratic state. He wouldn't even say how he felt about the Republicans' proposal for a 63rd seat, which could help them maintain control.