Forum planned on county redistricting

Dan Glaun

The Nassau United Redistricting Coalition, an alliance of good-government groups opposed to a Republican redistricting plan that would split Great Neck into two county legislative districts, will hold a community forum on Feb. 13 during which it will present an alternative plan for redrawing Nassau County’s political map.

The forum will take place ahead of the Legislature’s March 5 deadline to pass a new district map.

The bipartisan Nassau County Temporary Districting Commission, which was allocated a seven-figure budget to come up with its own map, failed to recommend a plan to the Legislature in January after Democratic members of the commission boycotted the process and denied Republicans the majority needed to pass their map.

The Nassau United Redistricting Coalition includes the League of Women Voters of Nassau County, Common Cause New York, La Fuente, Latino Justice, Long Island Civic Engagement Table and the Nassau County Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

“Voting power is reshaped every decade when governments draw new legislative districts. Redistricting should protect and strengthen voting rights,”  wrote League of Women Voters of Nassau County co-president Jane Thomas in a press release. “The proposed map by the Republican commissioners seems designed to divide and dilute the voting power of the Great Neck area. Legislative districts should keep neighbors together, respect existing community boundaries.”

The map presented by Republican members of the redistricting commission would have placed Kings Point and Saddle Rock and part of the Village of Great Neck in a different district than the rest of Great Neck and shift boundaries in New Hyde Park and the Willistons. A Democratic map, which Democrats declined to formally introduce at January’s contentious public commission hearing, largely conformed to the current county map and would have kept Great Neck within a single district, but changed Lakeview’s representation.

Had the commission recommended a plan, it would have been subject to a vote in the Legislature, where Republicans hold a one-vote majority. Following the commission’s failure to agree on a map, the Legislature must pass a plan by March 5.

The coalition’s alternative map also makes some changes to local districts.

Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth’s (D-Great Neck) 10th District would lose Manhasset to Nassau County Legislator Wayne Wink’s (D-Roslyn) 11th District, while gaining parts of Albertson and Williston Park as well as part of New Hyde Park from Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello’s (R-New Hyde Park) 9th District. Wink’s district would also gain part of eastern Williston Park, while losing East Hills, Glenwood Landing and part of Roslyn. And Nicolello’s district would claim much of Garden City from Vincent Muscarella’s (R-West Hempstead) 8th District.

The plan would keep the Great Neck and Port Washington peninsula’s unified within their districts.

The Republican plan faced harsh criticism from both the commission’s Democrats and a packed chamber of residents at the commission’s hearing, some of whom took issue with the division of Great Neck and accused the Republican commissioners of playing politics with the county’s voting lines.

Commission chair Francis X. Moroney (R-Carle Place) defended the GOP map as an even-handed proposal and criticized Democrats for not presenting their own plan sooner.

“This map was developed under very fair standards and would be upheld in a court of law,” Moroney said at the hearing.

The coalition’s forum will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 at Great Neck House, 4 Arrandale Avenue.

Reach reporter Dan Glaun by e-mail at dglaun@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x203. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.

Share this Article