Nassau Legislature takes halting step toward final redistricting map

The Nassau County Legislature on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to two maps, one backed by Republicans, another by Democrats, to form new boundaries for all 19 legislative districts.

The process of drawing new districts occurs every 10 years.

Democratic and Republican legislators are at odds over how closely lawmakers should hew to the boundaries of the existing legislative map, which was drawn in 2013 and expires this year. Democrats have argued that the existing set of boundaries favor Republicans, who hold a 10-8 advantage in the legislature. It was 11-8 at the end of last year, before Republican Steve Rhoads was elected to the state Senate.

Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) called for votes on the two parties' map proposals Tuesday after a lengthy hearing in Mineola of the legislature's rules committee.

The Republicans' proposal passed by a vote of 4-3, with all committee Democrats opposing. The Democratic version was approved unanimously, 7-0.

The 19-member County Legislature must approve the final map and can rip up the current proposals or alter them materially.

"Neither side is endorsing the maps, and we will be considering all that we have heard today," Nicolello said before concluding the hearing.

Efforts deadlocked

The legislature's review comes two months after Nassau County's Temporary Districting Advisory Commission deadlocked on efforts to compose a single, bipartisan map.

That committee, which meets every 10 years to draw new legislative districts through Nassau, held hearings throughout the fall.

A new map must be completed by March. Nassau has lagged behind other counties in New York State in the redistricting process. Suffolk County adopted new boundaries in November.

Republicans say the existing map is familiar to voters, and should largely be kept intact. Democrats said the map approved in 2013 by majority Republicans in the County Legislature keeps minority communities separate.

The Democrats' proposal would create five "majority-minority" districts in which Black and Hispanic voters comprise more than 50% of the district's electorate.

The proposal would also create "an Asian influence district," for the first time in the history of the county, David Mejias, chair of the Democrats' delegation to the redistricting committee, said Tuesday.

The proposed majority-minority districts have Black and Hispanic populations exceeding 50%, while the "Asian influence" district is more than 40% Asian American.

Republicans, whose plan has four majority-minority districts, have disputed the Democrats' definition of an Asian district.

"If we would be intent on simply preserving the cores of the current map," Mejias told legislators, "all we would be doing is endorsing the very partisan gerrymandering and institutional racism that the legislation was designed to tear down."

"Continuity for the electorate"

Lisa Perillo, counsel to committee's Republican delegation, said with the GOP proposal, on average 91% of "the cores of existing districts are maintained."

The proposal, "provides continuity for the electorate, and keeps established communities of interest together, as they have been for at least the last decade," Perillo said.

The Democratic plan, she said, "effectively displaces existing voters by drawing these new lines." Perillo said the Democrats' plan, "although lawful in other respects, intentionally ignores the requirement that the existing districts and cores be considered in developing the new map, when they say the 2013 map was illegal or unlawful."

H. Scottie Coads, the NAACP's civic engagement chair for the New York State conference, said she was concerned that parts of the Lakeview community in Hempstead were divided in the Republican proposal, thus disenfranchising minority voters.

The Lakeview communities were "split up and put it where we don't have common districts," including Malverne and Lynbrook.

"We do not have common interests with the two communities," Coads said. "I don't worship in Lynbrook, I don't worship in Malverne, I worship in Lakeview and communities surrounding Lakeview."

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.