By Adam Kramer
Nothing in the long drawn-out congressional redistricting process has been finalized, but the two most recent proposals submitted by a federal special master and a state court appointee have left the Queens Democratic delegation basically intact.
Both plans propose eliminating two upstate congressional seats where population growth has been much slower than in Queens and the four other boroughs. Combining two upstate Republican and Democratic districts spares any of the Queens congressional members a bitter election fight against a Republican incumbent.
Even so, early reports indicated that one of Queens’ eight congressmen may have their district combined with another district, thus eliminating a congressional seat. But according to the two new proposals, the boundaries of Queens’ congressional districts will only be shifted.
Federal special master Frederick Lacey and state court appointee Kenneth Bialki, who have designed the new districts, have proposed very similar plans. Both proposals pit U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-Utica) against U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-Ulster) in one district and U.S. Rep Jack Quinn (R-Buffalo) against U.S. Rep. John LaFalce (D-Buffalo) in another in order to shrink the state’s congressional delegation from 31 seats to 29 seats.
The state must eliminate two congressional seats for the 2002 elections because seats are allocated by population. And according to the 2000 Census figures, New York only grew by a rate of 5.5 percent, while the country grew at a rate of 13.2 percent.
In addition to the congressional redistricting, both the state Senate and Assembly will be redistricted based on population trends.
If no agreement can be reached by the state Legislature, the federal court can impose its plan without clearance from the state. But the plans by the state court and the state Legislature have to be approved by the U.S. Justice Department.
Both plans shift the Queens delegation around. U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) is moved out of Suffolk County and given a larger section of the borough. The district of U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans) remains basically intact. Both proposals push U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) further into the Bronx, but the state plan gives him more of Queens.
In Queens, the boundaries of U.S. Anthony Weiner’s (D-Forest Hills) district stay pretty close to his old district lines but he gets moved around in Brooklyn.
Three of the four congressmen who had the smallest slice of the borough — U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Long Island City), U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Astoria) and U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Astoria) — stay pretty much intact, but U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Forest Hill) gets moved out of Queens.
“I look forward to representing an additional 200,000 of my friends and neighbors,” Ackerman said. “There could be no greater honor. The Queens delegation has and will continue to have enormous talent.”
Commenting on both plans, Meeks said, having Lowey removed from the Queens delegation would not be a total blow to the borough as long as she remains a member of the House of Representatives. He said Lowey, who is on the House Appropriations Committee, would still understand the issues facing Queens.
“It would be a big loss for the borough to lose her,” Weiner said. But he said other members of the Queens delegation would be given parts of the neighborhoods she covered.
Weiner pointed out that a shifting of congressional districts is normal during redistricting and “districts can change by one-third. Queens did well by maintaining its full compliment of congressmen.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
