By Colin Campbell 3/15/12 7:59am

the big ugly

Senator Sampson's new district contains an odd attachment in its lower southeastern portion: Democratic State Senate candidate Lew Fidler's house.

And Here It Is: Cuomo Hails Redistricting Deal

In the wee hours of the morning, Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted out a statement touting two of the three aspects of his redistricting compromise: a constitutional amendment providing a commission to draw districts the in the future and a statue to implement the amendment as ordinary law if the Legislature doesn’t follow through with its promise to pass the amendment in the subsequent legislative session.

(Left unsaid are the “less hyper-political” lines standard he previously presented as a condition of his support.)

“This agreement will permanently reform the redistricting process in New York to once and for all end self-interested and partisan gerrymandering,” Governor Cuomo said in the release. Read More

By Colin Campbell 3/12/12 5:00pm

battle lines

ny redistricting

Senate Democrats Release Senate Republicans’ Map

In typical fashion, the State Legislature released their new redistricting maps for the State Senate and State Assembly in the dark of the night on Sunday in an unreadable 20,000 word textual format instead of actually providing visual map.

The Senate Democrats, however, apparently compiled the data and provided the new State Senate maps to reporters.

“Since the Senate Republicans are content on keeping the public in the dark and concealing the maps that they produced, we will do it for them,” Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy wrote. “Attached you will find the maps which show very clearly that there is virtually no change from their previous proposal.” Read More

By Hunter Walker 2/23/12 9:55am

Accusations

Pete Gleason (Photo: Facebook)

Pete Gleason Thinks Daniel Squadron Is Trying To Gerrymander Him

Democratic Senator Daniel Squadron has criticized the legislative lines proposed by the Republican majority as the result of a partisan and “poisonous” redistricting process,” but one man believes Mr. Squadron is responsible for gerrymandering him out of his district. Pete Gleason, an attorney and two time City Council candidate who’s mulling another run for the Council, told The Politicker he believes his home was slated for removal from its current Senate district by Mr. Squadron.

“You know, it’s so transparent, it’s comical in one sense, but it’s also so transparent and it’s very dangerous,” Mr. Gleason said. “You cant have opposing parties in Albany complaining the other party is a scoundrel and you have no say in the process. When the line that was drawn in front of my door to exclude me from the district I’ve been in since 1998, you can’t say you had nothing to do with it, that’s ridiculous.”

Mr. Squadron’s spokeswoman, Amy Spitalnick, was flabbergasted when we called to ask about Mr. Gleason’s accusation.

“Has April Fools’ Day come early?” she asked.

She subsequently provided us with a statement  saying Mr. Squadron had nothing to do with the proposed Senate district lines. Read More