New Nassau maps can't be rushed
On April, 26, 2011, Nassau County Legislature Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt showed new legislative district map. On Aug. 30, the state's highest court said the process for adopting new maps was not followed. Credit: Newsday/Karen Wiles Stabile
The right outcome was reached in the Nassau apportionment war: New districts won't take effect until 2013. It's the result common sense and the bulk of the county charter demanded, as Tuesday's 7-0 decision by the New York State Court of Appeals shows.
Republican legislators, led by Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt of Massapequa under the guidance of County Attorney John Ciampoli, took a cynical shot at gerrymandering the districts via a fast-forwarded process, just eight years after the last redistricting took place. It was a strategy that showcases how high the stakes have gotten for the party in a county where Republicans are losing the voter registration battle to Democrats.
The Republicans had on their side one section of the Nassau County Charter, which states districts must be drawn within six months of the reporting of new census results -- though it doesn't say they must be implemented. Countermanding this, though, were two other sections that go much further in spelling out the requirements, including opportunities for public comment that must be afforded and specific deadlines for adopting new districts that must be met.
It was never possible that these safeguards could be satisfied in a way that allowed information from the 2010 Census to be used in drawing districts for the 2011 primaries next month. And the result of the attempt to do so was a chaos of multiple candidates and uncertain districts as the election rapidly approached.
The whole episode -- from Schmitt's effort to ram the districts through, to Republican County Executive Edward Mangano's refusal to veto them, to the majority of lower court judges who rendered decisions that seemed more based on party than law -- was the wrong battle for a county in such deep economic trouble. Politicians may always seek to bend laws and district lines to increase their power, but where possible, clear and unambiguous rules should exist to prevent such conflicts. The Nassau County Charter is partly at fault for this mess, and it needs to be clarified throughout.
The upcoming Nassau legislative elections are crucial. The officials elected in November must see Nassau through one of the toughest periods in recent memory, and to do that successfully, they must have public trust and cooperation across the aisle. With the county facing a mounting and potentially overwhelming financial crisis, these elections are too important to become a farce.
Yet this process would have made them one, all but eliminating public input, splitting cohesive communities and failing to reveal new districts early enough to allow meaningful review or fair campaigns.
We should be able to vote for our leaders in fair elections and legally drawn districts. If we can't expect them to put aside politics to work for the public good, we can, at the very least, insist they be elected by legitimate means. hN
