Citizens Union

Amidst a shortening amount of time to end partisan gerrymandering and the increased likelihood of political chaos if redistricting reform is not enacted before the 2012 district maps are drawn, Citizens Union today released a definitive account demonstrating how decades of partisan gerrymandering has undermined the workings of our democracy and governance in New York State.

"Drawing district boundaries for partisan advantage rather than the public interest has long had a harmful impact on the very functioning of our government, corrupting the spirit and reality of representative democracy in New York State," said Dick Dadey, Executive Director of Citizens Union. "This report demonstrates unequivocally how the rigged practice of partisan gerrymandering has made elections dramatically less competitive with rising margins of victory and sky-high re-election rates among incumbents. It also shows how gerrymandering has divided communities and ethnic groups, made elected officials less accountable, and hampered the ability of the legislature to solve long-standing issues of importance to the public. We must once and for all end the corrosive effects of this partisan practice to restore a government that is responsive to the people and a democracy that reflects real choices."

The report entitled ReShaping New York: Ending the Rigged Process of Partisan Gerrymandering with an Impartial and Independent Redistricting Process highlights how uncompetitive elections have become because the two majority parties, the Democrats in the Assembly and the Republicans in the State Senate, have colluded for decades to draw safe districts that protect incumbents and maximize their seats in their respective house of the legislature.

The report's major findings identify six major effects of gerrymandering and explain how the parties in power manipulate districts through exploiting allowable population deviations from the average size of a district:

Increasing Lack of Competitiveness
1. Ninety-six percent of incumbents have been re-elected since 2002 with only 38 incumbents losing re-election in 941 races.
2. Since 1968, there was no major party opposition in 854 of 4,625 state legislative races accounting for 18% of all contests.
3. Completely uncontested state general election legislative races showed stunning growth, rising from 1 percent of all races in 1968 to 19 percent in 2010.

Rising Margin of Victory
1. The rise in uncontested races has taken placed alongside a dramatic increase in the margin of victory for contested elections, from a substantial 33 percent in 1968 to a whopping 51 percent in 2010.
2. Between 2002 and 2010, 93 percent of incumbents won in races that were either uncompetitive or uncontested. Uncompetitive races were won by margins of 10 percent or more. The average margin of victory neared 61 percent. Even in races for open seats in which there was no incumbent running, which accounted for 35 percent of all races during that time period, the average margin of victory was 42 percent.
Declining Voter Participation
New York had the fourth worst voter turnout in the nation in 2010, with only 34.9 percent of eligible voters voting for their governor, the state's highest office, likely in part due to the lack of real choices down-ticket at the polls. This compares unfavorably to a national turnout average of 40.8%. Thirty years ago in 1982, New York's voter turnout stood at 43.4%, just above the national average of 42.1%.

Marginalizing Minority Representation
Gerrymandering has resulted in a representative body that, in preserving the status quo to ensure incumbent re-election, is slow to reflect the state's increasing diversity and shift in the role of women.
1. Minority representation in the state legislature is just 25 percent, while minorities comprise 42 percent of the state's population.
2. Latinos are 17.6 percent of the state's population yet only 4.24 percent of the legislature.
3. Asian Americans consist of 7 percent of New Yorkers but have only ever held one seat in the legislature, or 0.47 percent.
4. Women hold just 22.6 percent of seats in the legislature, which ranks 31st in the nation.

Fragmented communities and disparate representation.
1. All of New York City senate districts contain parts of 4 or more assembly districts and over half of them contain 6 or more assembly districts. Assembly districts are similarly diluted, with over half containing 3 or more senate districts in New York City.
2. Legislators divide groups of people who share common interests. This is starkly evident in Rochester, NY where the city is split between three different assembly districts and three different state senate districts when the city, if kept together, could be served by one senate district and two assembly districts given its population. But the majorities in each house have cracked it apart to ensure the Republicans hold all three seats in the senate covering sections of the city, and the Democrats in the Assembly dividing up the city differently, doing essentially the same.

Public Policy Delay
Because the parties in power create district maps overwhelmingly concerned with winning reelection and maintaining their iron grip on power, it results in increased issue polarization among elected officials. Safely ensconced in their partisan-based seats, legislators are less likely to cross party lines and work together toward bipartisan solutions. The effects of this are profound and ongoing. Budgets are almost always late. Years, even decades pass, while important issues - like campaign finance reform, mandate relief, school district and local government consolidation - go unaddressed. Those that do eventually get done, such as reform of the Rockefeller drug laws or same-sex marriage, take a generation to solve.

Manipulating Population Deviation
Though state legislative districts are required to be approximately equal in population size as required by federal law, case law has permitted legislatures to lawfully create state legislative districts that vary in population size as long as the largest and smallest districts differ by no more than +/- five percent or a total of ten percent. This has provided the legislature its greatest tool to politically manipulate district boundaries to their advantage through partisan gerrymandering and thereby enabling the majority parties to inflate population in districts in certain regions of the state over others.
1. Assembly districts have been underpopulated in New York City to allow for greater Democratic representation, and overpopulated in upstate New York and on Long Island to minimize Republican representation. The reverse has occurred in the state senate to maximize Republican representation in typically Republican-leaning areas such as upstate New York.
2. Every district in Long Island in the Assembly was overpopulated by nearly 4 percent, while in New York City, districts were underpopulated by as much as 4 percent (except for the borough of Manhattan, which was overpopulated by about only 1 percent).
3. In the Senate, all districts in New York City were overpopulated, the highest being 4 percent in Queens, while in the 36 districts outside of New York City, 32 of these districts were underpopulated (only 4 districts outside of New York City were overpopulated, all in the New York City metropolitan region in Westchester, Rockland and Orange Counties).
4. Forty-six percent of assembly districts and 30 percent of senate districts were between 3 and 5 percent from the average district size in 2002 while fewer than 12 percent of assembly districts and 17 percent of senate districts were within 1 percent of the average district size in 2002.
5. Due to shifts in population, many districts in 2002 that were once within the 5 percent allowance are now in 2010 well over the maximum deviation allowed, pointing to the need for tighter deviations to help prevent the disparities in representation as the years advance after each redistricting cycle. While redistricting every ten years recalibrates district size to reflect population shifts, drawing districts close to the 10 percent margin shows how quickly it can go beyond that acceptable allowance.

"This election data of declining competition demonstrates that by gerrymandering, legislators are choosing the voters before the voters choose them. This practice has made a mockery of our democracy, making the ascension to office a foregone conclusion determined by those who wield the redistricting pen in a backroom," said former New York State Attorney General and Citizens Union board member Robert Abrams. "Is it any surprise with this lack of choice in candidates that New York had the fourth worst voter turnout in the nation in 2010, with just 34.9 percent of eligible voters participating in the governor's race?"

"Gerrymandering itself is ironically exhibit A in the legislature's own dysfunction," said John Avlon, Citizens Union board member and senior columnist for Newsweek. "Rigged line drawing forces power in our politics to the margins, giving disproportionate influence to special interests. An independent redistricting commission would empower people to choose their politicians, rather than vice versa. No election reform would do more to heal the harsh but artificial polarization of our politics while adding real accountability to Albany."

"By focusing on drawing lines to protect incumbents, redistricting controlled by the legislature has historically not fully accounted for demographic changes in the state," said Rachael Fauss, Policy and Research Manager at Citizens Union, and principal author of the report. "Consequently, particular constituencies do not feel that the legislature sufficiently addresses their concerns or interests, or reflects their diversity."

"Unless criteria are reformed to narrow population deviations and respect the integrity of political subdivisions like cities and other communities of interest, gerrymandering will persist," said Alex Camarda, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy at Citizens Union. "That is why ReShapeNY, a coalition led by Citizens Union of 37 groups united around change to the redistricting process, has called for an independent commission drawing lines according to fair criteria with opportunities for the public to provide input into how boundaries should be drawn."

The redistricting principles articulated by ReShapeNY, a statewide redistricting reform campaign organized and led by Citizens Union, New York Public Interest Research Group and the League of Women Voters New York State, are supported by 184 of the 212 members of the legislature, who either pledged to the voters during campaign season to support an independent commission, or co-sponsored legislation reforming the redistricting process this past legislative session. Yet in spite of this record level of support, the legislature has so far failed to act to reform the redistricting process.

Yet there is hope for an agreement. As detailed in the report, the framework for an agreement to reform redistricting exists from the consensus on broad principles in four different bills supported in the legislature this past year (S.3419/A.5388 (Cuomo/Silver), S.2543/A.3432 (Gianaris/Jeffries), S.3331/A.5271 (Bonacic/Galef), and S.660/A.5602 (Valesky/Cahill)). These common agreement principles include:

an independent panel without legislators and others affiliated with them;
equal representation on the panel by majority and minority parties in the legislature;
criteria that lessens incumbent protection; and
criteria that includes contiguity and compactness.

"Legislators should keep their promises and honor their commitments," said Dick Dadey. "Renewing confidence in the much-maligned state legislature requires that elected officials transcend narrow partisan self-interest and deliver the real redistricting reform the public demands, reinforced by the backing of 77 percent of the state's voters who want an independent commission. The four bills lay the foundation for an agreement; it is incumbent upon the legislature to seize the moment and bridge the divide on the details."

If an agreement can't be reached, Governor Cuomo will veto any lines the legislature approves constructed by the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR). Cuomo has repeatedly expressed his lack of confidence in LATFOR's ability to be nonpartisan and impartial. Should this unfortunate scenario be realized because legislators who pledged and committed to redistricting reform were not able to enact it, political chaos will surely result and legislators will have to take responsibility for such failure and explain to voters why they backed away from their promises.