Who goes?

What they should do... (0.00 / 0)

is break up Louise Slaughter's district and put the Rochester portion of the 28th in with the 29th and take the Buffalo portion of the 28th and put it in with either the 26th or 27th. Louise's district is the most ridiculous district in NY.

Then, they should take New York's 8th and 14th congressional districts and merge them together to make one.

That's what I would do...

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by: robert.harding @ Thu Dec 27, 2007 at 23:47:01 PM UTC

No way! (0.00 / 0)

Eliminate 2 Democratic seats????  Are you serious?

Bruno would be proud

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by: Roatti @ Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 04:23:28 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

That's what's going to end up happening... (0.00 / 0)

We hold 23 of the 29 seats. After the next election, we could hold 26. So the chances of eliminating two Democratic seats are very good, if not very real and expected.

If you merge the Rochester end of Louise's district with what could be Massa's, you make that a more Democratic district. If you merge the Buffalo-Niagara Falls end of Louise's district with the 26th or 27th district, you make that more Democratic as well.

If you merge the 8th and the 14th, you would still have a Dem in that seat. I'm not saying "eliminate" two Dem seats, as you put it. What I'm saying is make the 8th and the 14th in a more powerful district for the Dems and make the WNY seats a little less "safe Republican."  

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by: robert.harding @ Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 14:16:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I see your point in WNY (0.00 / 0)

But combining the 8th and the 14th doesnt make any sense because those districts have probably had population growth since the last census.  I'm sure that there are is at least one GOP district with population loss.  

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by: Roatti @ Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 18:54:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I was just trying to make it fair... (0.00 / 0)

And divide up one upstate and one downstate district. Of course, this isn't how it's going to go down. What they'll is they will take the 29 districts we have now and go back to the drawing board and draw up 27 new ones, instead of keeping what we have now and just altering it a bit. Look at what happened last time. We had John LaFalce here in WNY and his district was pushed out and he was sent to retirement. Then we end up with Tom Reynolds...

In the name of fairness, I would like to see 27 fair districts. But we all know that won't happen. Like I said, they'll draw up 27 brand new districts for us to remember for the next decade.  

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by: robert.harding @ Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 19:21:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Personally, I'd (0.00 / 0)

create districts by region, not by party (or incumbent, sorry).

Buffalo and Rochester would get each get a district for their metro area plus.  The Southern Tier would be a district again, stretching from Jamestown to Binghamton.  

As much as I love Hinchey's work, his district is an embarrassment, and breaking that into its component parts (roughly Hudson Valley, Binghamton, Ithaca) would make it a lot easier to make sense out of central and eastern New York. (Arcuri's district is also pretty bizarre, to take one example.)

I'm guessing that downstate and the Hudson Valley have grown a bit while upstate has not, so it probably makes sense to make some shifts there that tilt congressional representation slightly away from Upstate (alas) and further toward downstate, in addition to losing a seat upstate.

(I don't have anything specific to say to about the design of districts downstate.)

Having regional coherence should make it a lot easier for Congressfolk to set priorities, and putting metro areas into districts should ensure that there's diversity within districts, from the urban core through suburbia to the farms.

Of course, it's not up to me.

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by: simonstl @ Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 08:18:04 AM UTC

Finger lakes growth... (0.00 / 0)

I think Ithaca and Tompkins County should be rewarded for growing population (unlike the rest of non-Hudson Valley upstate) by having its own Congressional seat, instead of being carved up between 3 to 4 congressional districts, depending on the year.

But, Andrew makes an excellent point below.  What any of us thinks will matter not a whit.

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by: robinia @ Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 16:40:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Open? (0.00 / 0)

New York?

ROTFLMAO

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by: Andrew C. White @ Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 16:02:31 PM UTC

ROTFLMAO (0.00 / 0)

ROTFLMAO

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by: Andrew C. White @ Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 16:02:53 PM UTC

ROTFLMAO (4.00 / 3)

ROTFLMAO

Breath Andrew... breath!

Open? LOL... cough... choke... splutter... gag

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by: Andrew C. White @ Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 16:03:55 PM UTC

What I would do (0.00 / 0)

is combine Vito Fossella(NY-13) and Jerry Nadler(NY-08) into one district taking up most of Staten Island but also including the most Democratic parts of Nadler's current district in Kings county.  This would create a district that went 59%-41% for Kerry in 2004 and 65%-35% for Gore in 2000, making it impossible for Fosella to win.  That gets rid of one Republican right there.  The rest of the remaining territory would be given to neighboring districts that need to gain population.  

I would next try to get rid of an upstate district.  My target would probably be Republican Jim Walsh in NY-25.  I would cut up his district and give Syracuse to Mike Arcuri in NY-24, making his district safely Democratic and give is most Republican areas like Wayne and Monroe county to Slaughter in NY-28, whose district is already overwhelmingly Democratic and can afford to lose a few percentage points.  

I would then try to make both Gillibrand and Hall safe in NY-20 and NY-19 respectively.  I would extend NY-19 all the way down into the Bronx to pick up some African American neighborhoods out of Engel's district and give Engel much of Orange county.  For Gillibrand, I would extend her district to include the three Democratic counties on the Canadian border and give McHugh much of Warren, Essex, and Saratoga counties as well as the most Republican areas in NY-24.  I would also give Gillibrand the heavily African American neighborhood of Arbor Hill on the east side of Albany.  

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by: Sean @ Sat Dec 29, 2007 at 00:09:54 AM UTC

8th and 14th (0.00 / 0)

I suspect that even though it may not be the best from a political standpoint, taking Nadler's 8th out of Brooklyn, and Maloney's 14th out of Queens, and having Manhattan below 96th street as one district is a logical choice they will consider....and those two will sure as heck duke it out to remain the rep.

McHugh's district could also be broken up into the 4 directly south. That district is so big because people live so few and far between, that moving the eastern part into what is now the McNulty seat, and moving Albany into Gillibrand's, followed by moving Arcuri out of the Syracuse suburbs and keeping him Utica and north. Then put the Western part of McHugh's district in line with what Walsh has,  Ogdensburg through Syracuse. The districts would visually make a lot more sense, and I suspect would keep all as competitive as they are now for the Democrats.

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by: peterpiper @ Sat Dec 29, 2007 at 00:42:53 AM UTC