A Critical Westchester County Concern
Background. New York’s Independent Redistricting Committee (IRC) was charged with redrawing New York’s Congressional, State Senate, and State Assembly district maps. On January 3, 2022, the IRC presented the state legislature with two sets of redrawn district maps – one set produced by the IRC’s Democratic members, the other by its Republican members. Not for the first time, a split directly along party lines in what was designed to be a non-partisan, collective endeavor. The legislature rejected both sets of maps and sent them back to the IRC for their final allowable draft. The IRC has until the end of February to re-submit one set - or, if collaboration remains unattainable, two sets - to the legislature which will either approve of one or reject both and draw its own maps.
A Critical Westchester County Concern. Let’s set aside the IRC’s failure to expunge politics and create a single set of maps. Let’s also set aside, for the time being, the Senate and Assembly maps. Let’s focus on the Congressional district maps the IRC sent the Legislature, now being revised. At least one of those maps does Westchester no favors: it proposes a new District 14 that joins New Rochelle, Larchmont, parts of Mamaroneck Town, the Village of Mamaroneck, the Village of Pelham and Pelham Manor to parts of the Bronx and Queens. In other words, the single Representative serving large parts of the Bronx and Queens will also be serving these six Westchester areas. Query: How does one Representative adequately serve the diverse interests of urban New York City and suburban Westchester – the different school systems, public transportation, highways, taxation, park systems, and waterfronts, for starters. The situation almost evokes sympathy for the Representative and staff who must now thoroughly learn the laws, regulations and politics governing THREE counties in order to competently do the job. The current official Congressional map has, for the last ten years, diluted Westchester votes by joining certain parts of Westchester with the Bronx. Throw in Queens and every Westchester vote in that new district loses more strength and meaning.
So What Can You Do? Together we can flood IRC and State Legislature inboxes with hundreds – no, thousands – of emails as soon as possible. We do not know when the IRC will complete its revisions. It could be this week. Please consider doing it right after you’ve read this – it will take 10 minutes. A simple, brief, respectful model letter is below. Copy, paste, sign, and email it to the IRC and Legislators listed below.
