News from Senator Liz Krueger

New York State Senate | 26th District For Release: March 22, 2012 Please Contact: Andrew Goldston | agoldston@gmail.com | 917.720.7895

Federal Court Keeps Hope for Independent Redistricting Alive

New York A panel of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals has directed Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann to continue acting as special master in the Favors v. Cuomo redistricting lawsuit and work with Prof. Nathaniel Persily to determine whether new, independent state legislative lines are to be drawn. The court rejected requests from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) to allow the redistricting lawsuit to drop, recognizing the real possibility that the redistricting plans passed earlier this month could be overturned by the federal Department of Justice or by state and federal courts. Hope is still alive for political accountability in our state, said Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), a longtime advocate of independent redistricting. The Senate Republicans may have shut off the debate last week, but they cannot shut out the reality that their plan intentionally disenfranchises minority communities and violates the state constitution. This decision means that when the majorities illegal gerrymandering scheme is overturned, the court will be ready to step in with new, fair maps that will restore accountability to our state government. The incumbent Republican majority in the Senate and Democratic majority in the Assembly have been protected for decades by some of the most naked, brazenly partisan gerrymandering in the nation. The congressional maps already drawn by Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann and adopted by the court departed significantly from New Yorks existing maps and both legislative majorities proposals, most closely resembling the congressional maps drawn by Common Cause, a nonpartisan good-government advocacy organization. The Common Cause state legislative maps, if used as a model for court-drawn state legislative lines, would remake the state legislature. The proposed Common Cause eliminate longstanding injustices like the cracking of minority communities in Long Island and upstate, as well as the systematic underpopulation of upstate State Senate districts which has made Long Island and New York City voters second-class citizens in their own state.
###

Albany Office: District Office:

Legislative Office Building | Room 905 | Albany, NY 12247 | 518.455.2297 | Fax 518.426.6874 rd 211 East 43 Street | Suite 401 | New York, NY 10017 | 212.490.9535 | Fax 212.490.2151