Kimberly Wilder on Redistricting

Kimberly Wilder posts at The Wilder Side with her husband Ian (who recently lost his mother, our sympathies and condolences) and she was noted last week in Newsday.



NY State Senate Coup; Redistricting; and Bi-Partisanship

by

Kimberly Wilder

As noted in the Newsday article, "Experts: Political circus has serious stakes for GOP", part of the underlying problems and instability in the NY State Senate were because of the looming crisis of redistricting and how it occurs. Redistricting is one of those powers that people think is carried out with accountability because it is done in a "bi-partisan" way. But, now we see that bipartisan means that there are Democratic Party leaders and Republican Party leaders who play rough, make deals behind closed doors (keeping reporters waiting for hours), and can be thwarted by switchers in their own parties."Bi-partisan" is not some wonderful, fair, Holy Grail. "Bi-partisan" by definition refers to the pack of fools we have in Albany, including Republican leaders willing to enlist the help of Democratic officials who are facing investigation and charges. It would be a more fair system, a more democratic system, and probably a more stable system to have a NON-partisan commission or a MULTI-partisan commission to create district lines.

Redistricting is a good example of where third party voters and independent voters should have more power, but constantly get overshadowed or stifled by the two party duopoly. I have previously proposed having an "independent and third party" ombudsperson at the Suffolk County Board of Elections. Adding someone who represents interests other than the two major parties - and their bosses - would put some accountability back into the system. There should be someone entirely independent and/or someone who represents third parties on any redistricting commission.

In some states, working at the Boards of Elections is a non-partisan, civil service job--not a patronage job assigned by the major parties. If we had a system like that, the threat of redistricting would not have been a direct reason for a coup in the chamber which discusses our budget and public services.