A few weeks ago, I, as well as other activists, had the honor of telling the hacks LATFOR Comission how they are subverting democracy in New York State. When I testified, Senator Nozzolio said this to explain why the proposed 16th Senate District was drawn the way it was:
You asked a question, I'll give you an answer. The question is, why is this district the way it's configured? Well that is the very first Asian American seat in the history of New York State. The very first Asian American senate seat in the history of New York State. It was through a design to maximize the Asian American strength. It was a result of seven hours of hearings in Queens, a number of meetings that were conducted. A number of citizens who provided input, it was designed to maximize a majority, establish a majority of Asian population within a senatorial district.
Actually, the reason it was drawn that way was to make a super concentration of Democratic votes in the district, which is why it is convolutedly wrapped around major thoroughfares in the area and also why the northeast blob of the 16th district exists. Look at the map- see how it tunnels thinly into neighboring Tony Avella's 11th Senate District and then captures a small area abutting Little Neck Bay in between the Clearview and Cross-Island Expressways?
Looks strange, right. Well, then look at the 2010 census data on party registration and then it doesn't look so strange:
That area is heavily democratic, and it was drawn that way to keep those votes out of Tony Avella's senate district because that is a district the GOP has some hope of regaining. Indeed, they held it until with Frank Padavan for years until Avella Dislodged him in 2010, and they are gunning to take it back this year. So they shoved that whole neighborhood of Democratic Voters into District 16. In reality, District 16 is really a depository of Democratic Votes to weaken Tony Avella, but Senate GOP happened to superimpose it over an Asian Neighborhood so they use that as an explanation as to why it is drawn that way.
However, that is not necessary to have a majority Asian district. The Asian American Legal Defense Fund, along with other civil rights organizations, have put out a map they call the "Unity Map,"which achieves an majority Asian Senate district in a much more reasonable way. As you can see, the proposed 15th district captures Asian-American votes with a nice, compact normally-shaped district. Not the distaster that is LATFOR's proposed 16th:
So shame on you Senator Nozollio for pretending your conference had altruistic notions behind the proposed 16th district. If you truly wanted to increase the voting power of minority communities, you wouldn't have Long Island exclusively represented by white Republican Senators through gerrymandering that disenfranchised African-American and Latino voters, right?
Of course. |
