Making Cuomo walk the lines

• Published in: Daily news (New York, N.Y. : 1920)
• Main Author: Hammond, Bill
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, N.Y Tribune Publishing Company, LLC 25.06.2014

Gov. Cuomo will fittingly share the ballot this November with a proposed constitutional amendment that - depending on whom you ask - will either end the ugly practice of gerrymandering or merely put lipstick on the pig. The amendment, which goes to voters having already been approved by lawmakers, is a messy compromise that grew out of Cuomo's most blatantly broken promise of the past four years - his failure in 2012 to veto district maps that legislative leaders had egregiously distorted for their own political benefit. Instead, Cuomo signed off on the lawmakers' self-serving lines - in a trade for an amendment that will supposedly fix how district lines are drawn in the future. That outcome split the leading government watchdogs down the middle, with Citizens Union and the League of Women Voters hailing the amendment as a breakthrough, and the New York Public Interest Group and Common Cause rejecting it as fake reform. It's only right that Cuomo should have to justify the tradeoff as he seeks voters' approval for a second term. Why the question matters was compellingly explained four years ago by then-candidate Cuomo, who declared in his campaign agenda: "New York has had some of the worst gerrymandering in America." By long tradition, the party bosses in Albany shamelessly use their control over redistricting to create the safest possible seats for themselves and their fellow party members. Which is one reason why a mere 50 incumbent legislators have lost reelection over the past three decades, as a study released on Monday found.