The Point: Time to win, lose or redraw
Nassau County Republican chairman Jack Martins said Independent Redistricting Commission maps are supposed to form the basis of the final product. Credit: Howard Schnapp
The Assembly’s overwhelming rejection of new legislative lines sent by the Independent Redistricting Commission sharply reversed an eternal rule — that the majority puts nothing on the floor unless assured of approval.
There’s a simple reason for this exception. For the legislative majorities to assert full control over the new district lines for State Senate, Assembly and Congress, they had to reject the commission’s plan under the 2014 constitutional amendment that created this whole new process.
Now the commission has until Jan. 25 to try to agree on a single coherent redistricting plan again. For anyone following the story in detail, there’s little reason to believe the evenly split bipartisan 10-member body can do now what it couldn’t do before. And even if they succeed, and that map’s rejected like the first set, the Democratic majorities can then craft and pass their own anyway.
Given that situation, Nassau County’s Jack Martins, the IRC’s Republican vice chairman, has contacted other members of the panel and urged them to reconvene and see whether they can’t finish their part of the task. They have time, but not too much. Martins said even if they’re headed for a rewrite, commission maps are supposed to form the basis of the final product.
All this has led legislative sources to acknowledge to The Point that given a short time frame for nominations for the June primaries, the Capitol’s redistricting specialists are already deployed behind the scenes in "analyzing" the commission proposals to date.
Even if the Democratic lawmakers bypass the commission as expected, the record of the panel’s actions could potentially become part of any litigation down the road. Legal questions could focus on whether the core of existing districts was preserved and whether districts were created with the intent of helping one party or a particular candidate.
Other standards involve even populations, respect for towns, counties and communities of interest, and how condensed or dispersed a district may be.
For Long Island, specific questions are highlighted in the process so far. Will the 2nd Congressional District run north to south with a leg to the east? Will multiple Assembly districts cross the Nassau-Queens border? Will CD3 get squeezed more into Suffolk?
The devil resides in the district details.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
