Good afternoon — It’s Tuesday and Fudge Day.
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In today’s CapCon:
The Independent Redistricting Commission met Tuesday. Here’s what its top two members said about lawmakers’ efforts to change the redistricting process.
A new independent expenditure committee was formed Tuesday with $850,000 to spend in a competitive primary for state Senate.
Hochul will soon decide a bill that would open local economic development nonprofits to state transparency laws.
Lawmakers approved a bill this year that would create new state protections for workers offered severance. Here are the details.
This Week in New York History: The Statue of Liberty, the General Slocum and a 105-year-old veteran.
Names in today’s CapCon: Charles Nesbitt, Ken Jenkins, Kathy Hochul, Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Jessica Ramos, Adam Erickson, Andrew M. Cuomo, Letitia James, James Skoufis, Amy Paulin, Harry Bronson, Mike Gianaris, Clyde Vanel, Leroy Comrie
The Independent Redistricting Commission met on Tuesday (Dan Clark/Times Union)
🗺️ Redistricting amendment ‘premature,’ IRC vice chair says
The state’s Independent Redistricting Commission — an entity created through an amendment to the state constitution in 2014 — held its first meeting Tuesday since Democrats took an initial step this month toward changing the state’s redistricting process.
That wasn’t the subject of the meeting but the commission’s chair and vice chair had plenty to say about that effort while speaking with reporters after they adjourned.
Democrats in the state Legislature gave first passage to a proposed amendment to the state constitution earlier this month that would give them greater flexibility over when, and how, the state’s districts in Congress can be redrawn.
That amendment will ultimately be decided by voters, who are expected to consider it on the ballot in November 2027.
Part of that amendment seeks to avoid what happened during the first round of redistricting undertaken by the commission in 2022 following its creation. That year, the commission couldn’t agree on a set of maps to send to the state Legislature for consideration.
So the two factions of the 10-member commission sent their own, individual sets of maps to lawmakers, who rejected them.
Lawmakers are now seeking to change the process to give themselves explicit power to draw the maps themselves if that happens again. They’re also seeking other changes, including a strict deadline for the commission to submit maps to the state Legislature.
But Independent Redistricting Commission Vice Chair Charles Nesbitt, a Republican, said lawmakers are seeking the changes without more context around why their first round of redistricting in 2022 was so difficult.
“I think some of the rhetoric around it was just not correct,” Nesbitt said.
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