New District Lines Muddy the State Legislative Waters

If the New York State Senate Republicans (under the guise of the “New York State Legislative Taskforce on Demographic Research --”LATFOR”) gets their way, most of Scarsdale will be represented in the State Senate by Democratic, Yonkers based Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

LATFOR is theoretically bi-partisan -- but in fact the Democrats control the pen for district lines for the State Assembly and the GOP holds the pen for the State Senate lines. In fact LATFOR has proposed actually adding a seat to the State Senate – going from 62 to 63 (notwithstanding questions about the necessity for two legislative houses in the first place). The Senate Republicans are furiously trying to engineer the preservation and possible expansion of its slim, 2-seat majority over the Democrats in the State Senate. That’s why they’ve proposed adding a Senate district -- not in areas that have grown in population --like the Hudson Valley, New York City, or Long Island -- but in population -drained upstate New York -- where the GOP would have a much better chance of adding to their caucus.

For the local Westchester districts, Amy Paulin’s has only minor proposed variations from the current outline. Most of the Democratic assembly gerrymandering occurred 10 year ago but the 37th State Senate district is slated for major changes under the LATFOR plan. Currently held by retiring Senator Suzi Oppenheimer, the proposed new 37th district would lose most of Scarsdale, all of Ossining, gain Republican strongholds in East Yonkers, Tuckahoe, and Eastchester, and gain Bedford.

In 2010 Bob Cohen came within 700 votes of dethroning Suzi Oppenheimer from her 26-year hold on the 37th District senate seat. Among the tasks of the state Republican party was to reconfigure the district to give Cohen a better chance to win the seat in 2012. Although Cohen has moved his residence from the Village of Scarsdale to New Rochelle the proposed new lines conveniently include Cohen’s new domicile. In the meantime, however, Oppenheimer has announced her intent to not seek another term in the Senate. The likely candidates for the seat are Cohen and Sound Shore Democratic Assemblyman George Latimer. Latimer is conducting his due diligence on the viability of the race -- particularly the composition of the new senate district -- and then will decide whether to run for the open senate or bid for re-election to his assembly seat.

All of this is in a state of flux. Governor Cuomo has threatened to veto the lines, and just today, the Democrats in the State Senate sued LATFOR to throw out the lines. And to put all of this in context, the map at top, courtesy of the New York Observer – describes that the outline of the proposed new line looks like a man urinating on a miniature turkey.  As always stay tuned.

Columnist David A. Singer is a former political consultant/campaign professional and political junkie currently toiling as a lawyer in Westchester and managing real estate and media investments.