Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Glimpses of the Next Redistricting Fight

The Daily News reports that some of the white constituents in the district of Assemblyman Carl Heastie, who co-chairs the committee responsible for redistricting, may mount a challenge to their district lines: "There's already some rumbling that whites in the East Bronx might file legal action under the federal Voting Rights Act - as a minority group by then - to oppose a Latino congressional district being carved out there."

If it's already time to start thinking about the power struggle that follows each census, shouldn't we also get serious about redistricting reform? New York deserves a redistricting process that suppresses politics and power in favor of the values of redistricting reform: counting the population and redrawing the district lines in a way that is equitable, fair, and sensitive to diversity.

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