NYS Gov. Cuomo set himself on a collision course with the Legislature yesterday as he reiterated a threat to veto new congressional and legislative district lines being drawn for next year’s elections.
The threat, which came as a special legislative task force held the first of a series of public hearings on redistricting, was blasted as “dumb” and a “petty approach” by Assemblyman Jack McEneny (D-Albany), the task force’s co-chairman.
Cuomo, who pledged during his campaign last fall to back an independent nonpartisan redistricting commission that would take politics out of the process of drafting new boundary lines, shot back at McEneny’s “unkind words” after a bill-signing ceremony near Syracuse.
“To the extent that the assemblyman has unkind words to say about it, I would disagree,” he said. “I will veto lines that are not drawn by an independent commission that are partisan.
“I want to have lines drawn that represent the people of the state of New York, not a particular assemblyman,” he continued.
A Cuomo veto could be overridden by a two-thirds vote of both Assembly and Senate, but the overrides would require the backing of the political minority in each house, which is far from certain.
(Source: NY Post)
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7 Responses
I believe the way it works is that the Democrats gerrymander the Assembly, and the Republicans gerrymander the Senate, and they have to cooperate on the House of Representatives. A non-partisan redistricting would not help the incumbents, which is why it isn’t likely to be approved (since by definition, only incumbents vote in the legislature).
Perhaps it would be more democratic (small “d”) if one house was chose by proportional representation.
Akuper: both houses are proportional, despite the political gerrymandering.
So we have a new little dictator on the scene. Cuomo knew had his toeiva concern gone for a vote among the people that it would be voted down each and every time. So he did just what the Revolutionary War was fought over.
Had he ruled like this back in the day, he would have been a Red Coat
Why can’t we get 30% of adult signatures and force it on a ballet?
Coumo is not an idealist, by any stretch of the imagination. So, we have to look deeper to see what he is really after.
Cuomo wants to be the “kingmaker” who everone will have to bow down to. He will control the appointments to the “non-partisan” commission,” so that he can control the process from behind the scenes.
Pac-Man,
The districts for the US House of Representatives are proportional, but those for the legislature are not. Upstate Republican Senate districts contain far fewer people than downstate Democratic districts. The reverse is true in the Assembly.
charliehall:
What about Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964)?