The Point: Rapid redrawing, the old-fashioned way
Now that the state’s first-ever Independent Redistricting Commission goes out of business without having sent a unified 10-year map plan to lawmakers, the old imprecise acronym LATFOR — long familiar to Albany insiders — gets bandied about in a rush to finish redrawing in time for early-March nominating petitions.
The formal title is the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, established in 1978. It has been drafting congressional, Assembly and State Senate district maps ever since. Controlled by the majorities of both houses — this cycle both Democratic for the first time — the task force is abuzz with what has always turned into an insider process of deep concern to incumbents.
Even as the IRC was drawing up maps and at least attempting bipartisanship earlier in the process, the old LATFOR apparatus was fired up. Legislative sources told The Point that discussions of the ultra-high-stakes congressional districts were discreetly begun among state lawmakers who must approve them.
Expect the decision-making on state lines to be divided between the two legislative chambers, with "a lot of deference" to the Assembly and Senate shaping their own lines, as one official put it. In 2012, the Senate was Republican-controlled and the Assembly Democrat-controlled.
LATFOR cannot keep a lid on the maps it crafts for long. To make election deadlines, the Assembly under Speaker Carl Heastie and the Senate under Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins are planning to vote on maps next week.
But first the bills enacting them must be introduced, indexed, sent to the proper committees, and set aside to "age." For that reason, details of the plans are expected to be revealed by Saturday. As a former Bronx party chairman, Heastie is expected to play a key role in the map, as is Sen. Michael Gianaris, who is Stewart-Cousins’ deputy Senate majority leader and key player on the standing LATFOR.
IRC officials, meanwhile, said materials the new commission collected, including its own conflicting partisan map plans and hearing transcripts, have been sent to key lawmakers. David Imamura of Westchester, who served as the IRC’s Democratic chairman, said Wednesday he is "confident" the final maps will reflect the needs of the people and reflect testimony that his commission gathered over several months.
Republicans on the panel, led by Vice Chairman Jack Martins from Nassau County, said Democrats on the panel had abruptly ended negotiations toward a single plan.
"It appears that Chairman Imamura and our other colleagues are handing over the keys to the Commission to the Democrat controlled legislature as they were apparently instructed to do when they were appointed," the GOP members said in a joint statement this week.
Any irregularities in the process that ended in lawmakers drawing their own maps, as well as details of that coming product, appear likely to become fodder for litigation.
"Does it go to court? That’s always what happens" with redistricting, said a veteran elected official.
Meet the new system, now just about the same as the old system.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
