The Point: NY redistricting shifts in Brentwood, Five Towns, Elmont
State Sen. Todd Kaminsky represents the 9th Senate District. Credit: Howard Schnapp
Not everyone feels they come out winners on Long Island’s new state legislative maps. The State Senate redistricting unveiled Tuesday left Michael Fragin, a trustee for the Village of Lawrence, "pretty shocked," he said.
The map crafters are doing pretty much what Fragin and several of his neighbors asked a state panel in testimony last July not be done — move parts of Nassau County, including Cedarhurst, Hewlett and Woodmere, with a common interest among Orthodox Jewish communities, which have tended to vote Republican, across the border into what has been a heavily Democratic Queens district.
That is, a significant part of the Five Towns shifts from the 9th S.D. represented by Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) to the 10th S.D. long represented by Sen. James Sanders (D-South Ozone Park). "It’s hard to find a commonality on local issues from a very suburban, single family environment like the Five Towns with Jamaica, Queens, a very different urban environment," Fragin told The Point. And, Queens and Nassau represent "a different type of government entirely," he said.
In other instances, changes requested in testimony before the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission were reflected in the proposed maps. Elmont had been split in the Senate between the 7th and 9th districts. Under the new map, Elmont is all in the 7th district, now represented by Sen. Anna Kaplan (D-North Hills), shoring up the incumbent with added Democrats as the party's traditional base in Great Neck crumbles.
The new 6th S.D., represented by Sen. Kevin Thomas (D-Levittown), the first Indian American NY state senator, will no longer have white residents make up more than half the district’s population, helping his reelection chances. Another so-called "majority-minority" district emerges in Suffolk, where the 3rd S.D., represented by freshman Republican Alexis Weik of Sayville, would have a plurality of Latino voters.
The hamlet of Brentwood would thus be united within the district as local activists asked.
And given a new and more advantageous playing field, Brentwood resident Monica Martinez — the Democrat unseated by Weik in 2020 — is expected to announce her candidacy "imminently," pending a "final decision," a Town of Islip source told The Point.
While parts of the process resulted in gerrymanders that look like more jagged puzzle pieces, some districts will look like simpler puzzle pieces — at least with a new straight edge or two.
Assemb. Taylor Darling (D-Hempstead) said her redrawn 18th A.D. makes more sense now. "I don’t have East Meadow and I don’t have Merrick, but I acquired more of Uniondale, I’ve acquired more of Lakeview," Darling told The Point. "I think I have a stronger district. There were parts there that didn’t make the most sense in terms of their needs and the rest of the district’s needs."
Of course the perception of those needs, communities of interest, proper process, and what makes political and geographic sense are all forever debated — which is why these matters usually bring litigation.
— Dan Janison @Danjanison
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
