Campaign seeks to take politics out of redistricting

The militance of the name "New York Uprising" seems specious, given the goal.

We are talking about a civic campaign - endorsed by mainstream politicians - aimed at creating sensible legislative districts.

But whatever it has lost, New York still has show business - including its politics.

So instead of, say, trying stand-up at Westbury this summer, the retired New York City mayor, Ed Koch, is headlining an "uprising" against gerrymandering.

Show biz aside, Koch and allied ex-leaders have a sober goal: Pare the power of legislative majority leaders to draw contorted districts to help them rule their own houses and caucuses, and create an independent, bipartisan panel that would do a public-minded job.

This "uprising" has already been compromised by the legal deadlines involved.

In tandem with the U.S. Census, the lines for U.S. House, State Assembly, and State Senate seats are re-crafted every 10 years. The Citizens Union, which supports the drive, notes in its own materials that it is too late for a state Constitutional amendment to create a plan that would take the line-drawing out of legislative hands by 2012, when the next political map takes effect.

Instead, the good-government organization backs a bill sponsored by Assemb. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) and David Valesky (D-Oneida) that would create an independent panel - while keeping final legislative approval over the lines.

Ironically, some legislative insiders warn that "independent" redistricting could make the state even more Democratic-dominated than is already the case.

This argument holds that partisan gerrymandering has kept Republicans in the Albany game. Recent census figures suggest a continuing proportional shift in population from upstate to downstate. Without GOP-friendly district-drawing, that could translate into a further dwindling of Republican strongholds, some Albany sages say.

Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) might have inadvertently boosted the independent-redistricting cause a few weeks ago with one of his less-than-nuanced statements.

Smith was quoted as saying that if Democrats hang on to the majority in November's election, "We are going to draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the State of New York for the next 20 years."

Former Democratic Assembly Speaker Mel Miller said, "If I was a legislative leader, I wouldn't be looking to do nonpartisan reapportionment. I don't believe there's anything nonpartisan about this . . . A transfer from the legislature to the executive is the question. The governor [now] has significant input in the process if we wants it."

The major-party candidates for governor, comptroller and attorney general didn't break a sweat signing the "New York Uprising" pledge in recent weeks. Their desired positions are all in the executive branch.

Even the Gianaris-Valesky reform bill incorporates the partisan reality of the system. Among other requirements, membership of its independent commission would include 15 Democrats, 15 Republicans, and 15 voters of neither party, with steps taken for diversity.

Common sense would have it that the redistricting process could use deodorizing. But you wonder if the "uprising" will end as one of those futile bids that gets memorialized as an effort to take the politics out of politics. There's still time.