By Kathianne Boniello
One of three Queens congressmen could be vulnerable to losing his seat next year when New York’s declining upstate population forces the reshaping of congressional district lines, U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) said.
The state is losing two of its congressional seats because census figures revealed a population boom in the nation’s southern and western states that has outpaced that of New York.
That upstate population decline could result in the loss of two of New York’s representatives and in a wide ranging interview with the TimesLedger Friday, Ackerman suggested one of the two seats would come from the city.
The redistricting of congressional boundaries will be decided by the state Legislature in 2001.
Ackerman said that while the state’s population drop occurred upstate as the city’s population grew, state politics would preclude the loss of two upstate congressional seats.
“The compromise is you lose one and we lose one,” the longtime congressman said of the complicated divide between upstate and the city. “It’s politics of geography not just politics of party.”
The 2000 census figures showed that while the state’s overall population increased by 5.5 percent to nearly 19 million, most of that growth occurred in the city while upstate counties experienced a drop.
He said it was likely that the city’s members of Congress who represent women or minorities would be protected during any redistricting.
Among the women are U.S. Reps. Nita Lowey (D-Rego Park), Nyda Velazquez (D-Brooklyn), and Carolyn Maloney (D-Astoria). Velazquez’s and Maloney’s districts reach into Queens.
In the minority column are U.S. Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans), Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn), Major Owens (D-Brooklyn), Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan), who represents a small section of western Queens, and Jose Serrano (D-Bronx).
Given the small size of State Island, Ackerman said U.S. Rep. Vito Fossella (D-Staten Island) would probably survive any redistricting.
Ackerman said that left five white men in New York City whose districts could be sacrificed.
Of those five, Ackerman said, U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills), whose district stretches from Brooklyn into Queens, or he himself could be eliminated. The other two at possible risk are U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Brooklyn) and U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx).
“The argument is that one of them is going to lose a seat,” he said.
While Ackerman quickly pointed out that it was still “too early to tell” who would lose a congressional seat to redistricting, he said the even balance between Democrats and Republicans in Congress would likely shift toward the Democrats over the next several years.
“What I would like to see are compact districts with Queens people representing Queens,” Ackerman said. The 5th Congressional District, which Ackerman has represented since 1992, stretches from parts of Flushing and Jamaica Estates through northeast Queens and into Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Ackerman was first elected to office in 1978 as a state senator and was sent to Congress in 1983 in a special election. As a congressman, Ackerman represented central Queens until 1992 when redistricting shifted his area to northeast Queens and northern Long Island.
Commenting on the often strange results of political redistricting, Ackerman pointed out that his district is actually separated in two spots on Nassau’s north shore by U.S. Rep. Peter King’s (R-Nassau) district.
Ackerman, a former state assemblyman and city school teacher who lives in Jamaica Estates, said when he questioned whether or not his district followed the constitutional guidelines of being “compact and contiguous,” he was told that it actually reached into Long Island Sound.
“I represent more fish than people,” he said laughingly.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
