Editorial: Draw Suffolk County Legislature's electoral maps in a nonpartisan way

Not to be outdone by the breathtaking gall of state lawmakers who turned away from a promise to do redistricting in a nonpartisan way, the Suffolk County Legislature is poised to do the same thing. That would be a real shame.

State lawmakers merely pledged nonpartisan redistricting, but reneged. In Suffolk, the legislature and then-County Executive Steve Levy actually passed a law in 2007 creating a nonpartisan commission to draw new lines for the 18 legislative districts after the 2010 census.

But it has become sadly clear in recent months that the process has not worked smoothly. There were squabbles over appointees and difficulty in getting the right data. The requirement that members be out of elected office 10 years made it tough to find eligible retired judges, so the rule for judges was changed to five years. And a commission co-chair was added.

Then Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) announced last week that he is proposing legislation to have -- guess who -- the legislature itself do the job. There's some truth to his claim that Republicans took too long making valid appointments. But scrapping the commission is a bad idea. Better to just extend it. The legislature's election isn't until next year. So an early 2013 deadline would be fine.

It's time to knuckle down and get this done. Suffolk deserved praise for adopting the nonpartisan commission. For abandoning it too soon, it would merit scorn .