BY TONY HOFFMANN | At its September general meeting, the Village Independent Democrats political club voted unanimously against a proposed amendment to the New York State Constitution that would revise the state’s redistricting procedures.
The amendment, known as Proposition 1, will be on the ballot in the Nov. 4 general election. It calls for the establishment of an independent redistricting commission every 10 years beginning in 2020 that would draw new legislative lines in accordance with established principles and subject to legislative enactment.
The amendment was drafted to take the drawing of electoral and legislative districts out of the hands of legislators.
The V.I.D. vote came after presentations by Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause N.Y. (but who was not speaking on behalf of Common Cause), and Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union N.Y.C., and a spirited discussion among the club’s membership. Lerner opposed the amendment while Dadey, an author of it, spoke in favor.
Dadey emphasized that the amendment would end partisan gerrymandering, protect communities of interest, create more compact districts, and remove the redistricting power from the Legislature.
Lerner rebutted Dadey’s arguments, stating that the process, ultimately, would still be in the Legislature’s hands, was too complicated to know if it would work, gave a veto power to Republicans and, most important, would be virtually impossible to change since it would be embedded in the state constitution.
Lerner felt the redistricting amendment was too weak and complex to risk making it a permanent part of the political landscape. Dadey countered that we shouldn’t make the perfect the enemy of the good.
“The club agreed that the current system of redistricting is subject to political abuse and has led to gerrymandering,” said Ed Yutkowitz, V.I.D. campaign chairperson. “But the changes promised by Proposition 1 are fraught with uncertainty, and its confusing language could lead to far greater, and more permanent, problems.”
The vote opposing the redistricting amendment was unanimous.
The redistricting forum was one of a series of programs that V.I.D. presents throughout the year on issues of concern to the public. V.I.D. was founded in 1957 and is one of the oldest Reform Democratic clubs in New York City and the first in Greenwich Village. The club works for the election of progressive public and party officials, and works with other community groups to shape a progressive agenda for the Village, the city and the state.
Hoffmann is president, Village Independent Democrats
