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State Senate chambers (photo: Philip Kamrass/Governor's Office)

The Census Bureau released its population counts for the nation and the states on April 26, including changes for the states in the apportionment of 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives. New York State will drop one House seat, going from 27 seats to 26, even though it actually gained more than 800,000 people, from 19.4 to 20.2 million, since 2010. Extraordinarily, the Census reported that New York would have held its 27th seat if 89 more persons had been counted.

The changes come at a time when the Democratic majority in the House is deeply threatened. Historically, the party in power (this time, the Democrats) loses seats in the midterms, the congressional elections halfway through a presidents term. This is a fact Democratic President Joe Biden is surely keenly aware of given his long political history in the U.S. Senate and as Vice President.

The Republicans have more power over drawing new state district maps than the Democrats do because they have more trifectas, where one party controls both houses of the state legislature and the governors office. The Republicans now have 23 states with trifectas compared to 15 for the Democrats, including New York. These national Republican advantages mean the outcome of redistricting in New York could be vital to the Democrats holding the House of Representatives. Democrats now dominate both Houses of the New York State Legislature and have the power to eliminate a number of Republican House seats, despite the existence of an Independent Districting Commission created to make redistricting fair to both political parties.

The apportionment changes across the country were less dramatic than anticipated, although the shift in the allocation of House seats continued to the South and the West. New York and a handful of other states will lose one seat each. Texas will gain two, and Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Montana, Colorado, and Oregon gain one each. The apportionment changes, however, are just a prelude to the national power struggle over redistricting. The 2022 midterm elections for control of the House of Representatives will take place on the new district lines drawn by the states.

Some states have set up nonpartisan commissions to achieve fair districts; in some states one political party has a trifecta and has only the exercise of self-restraint to curb ruthless partisan gerrymandering. In other states, divided government, where theres some political split within the two houses of the legislature and governors office, can result in political compromises in the drawing of the lines. Virtually every districting plan ends up challenged in the courts, whose decisions can sometimes, but not always, act as a final restraint on partisanship.

Partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts is virtually synonymous with redistricting itself, and is well known to the general public. Gerrymandering has been a political fact of life since the early 19th century and includes state and local districts as well as the House of Representatives. Both parties historically have gerrymandered where they had the power to do so, but the 1960s produced some restraints on the process, like the Voting Rights Act and the one-person, one-vote 1964 decision of the United States Supreme Court.

New York State has been no stranger to partisan gerrymandering, but there was a division of power in the state for decades, with Republicans in control of the State Senate and Democrats in control of the State Assembly. The division of power forced compromises on the House seats, but for the state legislative districts in the Assembly and the Senate the party in power controlled the process. Voting Rights Act and one-person, one-vote protections, as well as court challenges, continued to force modest restraints on partisanship, and elections always produced unique results. In my 32 years in the State Legislature, I went through three redistrictings, in 1992, 2002, and 2012. They were never fun, even for a Democratic incumbent Assembly member from Brooklyn.

Demands for greater fairness in the process finally produced a constitutional amendment in New York creating an independent redistricting commission in 2014. I voted for the legislation that put the constitutional amendment on the ballot after the 2012 redistricting of the House seats and legislative districts. The Republican Party still controlled the State Senate in 2012 and 2014 but the Democrats were becoming ever more competitive. The Democrats in the State Senate gained an outright majority against the Republicans in 2016, gained more seats in 2018, and in 2020 won 43 out of the 63 seats in the Senate, or more than two-thirds of that body. Democrats in the State Assembly have had two-thirds majorities for decades, primarily because nearly every single one of the 65 Assembly districts in New York City is represented by a Democrat.

In the past decade, the United States Supreme Court, in two major decisions, undermined the fight for fair processes in redistricting, despite the creation of a number of independent districting commissions in the states. In 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the preclearance of district maps of the states by the Justice Department under Section V of the Voting Rights Act, claiming Section V was no longer necessary. In 2019. the U.S. Supreme Court, in Rucho v. Common Cause, halted the efforts to reform partisan gerrymandering in the federal courts, saying gerrymandering was ultimately a political question over which the federal courts did not have authority.

The Supreme Court decisions have now left the door wide open for ruthless racial and partisan gerrymandering over House districts, especially in the southern states like Texas, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina (the Democratic Governor in North Carolina has no role in redistricting there), which the Republicans control and where there is no longer preclearance by the Justice Department to halt racist gerrymanders.

Dave Wasserman, a political analyst for the Cook Political Report and one of the nations foremost experts on redistricting, has examined the state of redistricting across the nation. His analysis presents the current status as follows for the 435 House seats across the country: 187 seats with districting controlled by Republicans, 75 controlled by Democrats, 121 under independent/bipartisan districting commissions, 46 seats under divided party control, and 6 at-large seats. In some states, however, like Florida, the Republican Party is likely to aggressively draw new lines to eliminate Democratic incumbents and shore up newly-elected Republicans from South Florida. As many as 3 Democratic House seats are at risk there.

There are likely to be aggressive efforts to draw the district lines where one party or the other controls the process, but the fact remains that the Republican Party is in control of more states than the Democratic Party. The Republicans, just through redistricting alone, are capable of eliminating enough Democratic seats across the country on a net basis to offset the current 222-213, thin, five-seat majority the Democrats have in the House, making it ever more challenging to hold House seats for the Democrats in the midterm elections. In addition to New York, other important states like California, Ohio, Virginia, and Michigan have districting commissions that could neutralize partisanship. But even in those states the outcome is far from certain.

At the national level, there is still a chance that Congress could put the brakes on partisan or racial gerrymandering. H.R. 1, which has been passed in the House, requires non-partisan districting commissions for Congressional districts, and uniform standards for fair districting, like geographic compactness and communities of interest. H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, would restore Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and re-establish Justice Department preclearance of district lines. A version of H.R. 4 passed in 2019. These bills, advanced by Democrats, proffer a truce on redistricting to the Republicans, a chance to avoid an all-out war over district lines. The demographic data and individual population counts for each district, information essential for the lines to be drawn, wont be released until August. The redistricting will then begin in earnest. There is still time to negotiate, but in my opinion Republican acceptance of reforms is unlikely.

The design of New Yorks redistricting commission still puts the Legislature in ultimate control in a set of circumstances that have already come to pass. The plans submitted by the commission to the Legislature can be rejected twice, and, upon two-thirds vote of each house, the Legislature can then draw the lines.

Democrats currently have a 19-8 majority in the New York House delegation, and the state must lose one seat.

Compliance with certain standards in New Yorks law on redistricting, such as compactness and communities of interest, must be adhered to regardless of whether the commission or the Legislature draws the district lines in New York. Every Congressional district must have about 760,000 people, and it is not yet known how many persons are within each district or what their minority populations are, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among many others, is probably vitally interested in what the final lines will look like in New York.

Wasserman, in a set of New York maps put out on his twitter account, depicted New Yorks current lines and envisioned a districting alternative that eliminates five Republican districts. New York goes from a 19-8 Democratic majority to 23-3. See below for more.

New Yorks current district map from @redistrict April 27, 2021:

New Yorks Republican House districts are 1, 2, 11, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 27. Republican Congressional Reps. Lee Zeldin from the 1st C.D. just launched a campaign for Governor in the 2022 election and Tom Reed from the 23rd announced he is retiring, meaning two Republican-held seats are likely to be vacant.

Here is Wassermans concept for a redistricting in New York that goes to 26 seats and has a 23-3 template for Democratic wins:

The above map is just a concept. But the Democrats have enough flexibility shifting Democrats around to take all three of the Republican seats downstate (two on Long Island and the Staten Island-Brooklyn seat), and convert them into winning districts for Democrats. That would leave three Republican seats in Upstate New York instead of five.

Partisan maps dont guarantee victories in elections. No one knows what the overall national tone will be like in the fall of 2022. Will Biden stay popular? Will there be a conservative counter-reaction to Democratic spending, leading to a Republican wave like the Tea Party in 2010? Will Democrats in New York (and elsewhere) go to sleep and fail to come out to vote? The answers to these questions are unknown. But I think if the legislative leaders in New York offered Nancy Pelosi an elimination of five Republican seats I know what her answer would be.

***Jim Brennan was a member of the New York State Assembly for 32 years, where he chaired four committees. On Twitter @JimBrennanNY.

***Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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New York's Congressional Redistricting Could Be Tipping Point in Midterm Battle for Control of the House - Gotham Gazette

Whether you call them member items, community projects or earmarks, its all fundamentally the same thing: pork-barrel spending. And its coming back to Congress in a big way.

Before you dig out your old tea party hat and buttons from storage and look for a town meeting to disrupt, its worth taking a few moments to consider exactly what Congress is proposing here a new and supposedly improved process for allowing members to tack spending items onto legislation.

If theres one thing New Yorkers know, its pork the good and bad kinds. Done right, it can be beneficial for worthy projects and needy groups. Done wrong, it can be grossly corrupt, if not downright illegal.

A decade or so ago, member items were something of a dirty New York state secret. The Legislature published a list, sure, but good luck trying to figure out who sponsored a grant or what it was for. Lawmakers went to great lengths to make that hard to scrutinize, providing the lists only on paper or in computer images that couldnt be digitally searched. It took a lawsuit by the Times Union to pry the records loose.

And there was plenty of self-dealing and criminal activity behind that curtain. One of the most notorious culprits was Sen. Pedro Espada, a Bronx Democrat who spent five years in prison for siphoning millions off a health program for the poor that he had funded with federal and state money. He was one of the worst, but hardly the only one.

To supposedly clean up the process, New York shifted the legislative pork program to the Dormitory Authority, which is a little more transparent but could be better. Its latest report lists the amounts, recipients and uses of more than $1.2 billion in grants, but leaves out a critical element which legislator sponsored each grant. The state, though, assures the public that projects are screened for conflicts of interest and other shenanigans.

Congress, run by Democrats in both houses now, also assures the American public that the new earmark process, brought back after a decade, will be on the up-and-up. The rules are different this time around: Members must make their submissions public and certify they don't have a financial interest in them. The money can go only to government and nonprofit projects. Recipients will be audited.

The argument for restoring earmarks is credible enough representatives know better than bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., what their districts need. And certainly, some of the initial proposals sound positive $4.8 million for a floating solar array on Cohoes reservoir, sponsored by Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam; $27 million for a drinking water project at Fort Drum, sponsored by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville; and $430,000 for a gun violence prevention project in Ulster County, requested by U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck.

Will someone try to slip through a bridge to nowhere? Will bags of money traced back to this program be found in some politicians freezer? Will it turn out that some non-profit used an earmark to hire some congressmans relative? We dont have the crystal ball to say yes, nor the naivet to say no. The best we can say so far is that it sounds promising. Now, the trick is for 535 politicians not to break the promise.

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Editorial: Pork by any other name - Times Union

TALLAHASSEE The 60-day legislative session is nearly over. Lawmakers could agree Friday on the one thing that they are required to do, pass Floridas state budget, and go home.

But no matter what happens next, the 2021 session has already felt more consequential than recent sessions. Perhaps not since the 2011 session, when tea party Republicans flexed their muscle after being swept into office for the first time, have so many important and divisive bills been passed.

Heres what happened.

The Florida Legislature approved along party lines a multitude of changes to the states elections laws Thursday night, including a ban on possessing multiple vote by mail ballots and restrictions on the use of ballot drop boxes.

Relenting on a number of ideas that were strongly opposed by county elections supervisors and Democrats, the bill now heading to Gov. Ron DeSantis desk is far less onerous than what Republicans were proposing over the last month.

The bill does not ban drop boxes, an idea DeSantis endorsed earlier this year.

Despite warnings from opponents that the state is asking for more than it can handle, Florida legislators sent bills to the governor this week that preempted local government regulation of utilities and clean energy regulation.

Each of the efforts was opposed by local governments and environmental organizations, especially those in major urban areas which have been more aggressive than the Florida Legislature in advancing policies with sustainable energy practices. They say that local communities are better suited to make those decisions.

Clearly the theme of the 2021 Florida legislative session is taking power away from Floridians and consolidating it within the Legislature,' said Michelle Allen of Food and Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group on Thursday.

A Miami state senator on Thursday tried to emulate the vaccine passport initiative but in reverse, sponsoring a proposal to prevent schools and businesses from requiring people to not get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Miami, filed an amendment after he said state education officials told him Centner Academy did not violate any policy or law when it informed parents of its anti-vaccination policy for teachers and staff and spread misinformation to children about the potential risks of vaccination.

So right now, this is it. My district is counting on us to push back against this quackery, Pizzo said.

The amendment failed on a 19-19 vote, keeping the proposal off the underlying bill, which includes a ban on vaccine passports sought by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Senate Health Policy Chairman Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah, and Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, did not vote, though they were in the Capitol on Thursday. Three Republicans Sen. Jeff Brandes, of St. Petersburg, Senate Education Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, of Sarasota, and Sen. George Gainer, of Panama City joined Democrats in favor of the amendment.

HB 7051 passed the Senate with a unanimous vote Thursday. It now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature.

Tucked into a contentious bill that passed Wednesday night that included a ban on transgender athletes from womens and girls sports was an amendment that will delay, for a year, a much-publicized reckoning for college athletes.

Last year, Florida lawmakers passed legislation that would give athletes the right to make money off their likeness photos or autographs that produce revenue. Considered landmark legislation for correcting what many considered a gross inequity, Florida led the nation in this type of legislation. It was to go into effect July 1, 2021, far ahead of states like California and Colorado.

I really think it is Florida leading the way on this, DeSantis said last year.

Welp. Lawmakers added three lines last night in a massive education bill that delayed the legislation from taking effect. For one year.

It didnt take long for the backlash.

FSU quarterback McKenzie Milton, a former UCF star, said he has faith in DeSantis to make this right!

Even U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz weighed in.

Lawmakers for years have considered changing state law requiring local jurisdictions to publish legal notices in certain newspapers, like the Tampa Bay Times.

On Thursday, they passed a bill that does just that. Heres how.

Senators consider new training standards for law enforcement officers under a bill thats a response to the national reckoning on policing practices after the killing of George Floyd. Theyll take up HB 7051. which passed the Florida House 113-0 and has been a rare example of bipartisanship.

The bill sets statewide use-of-force standards for Florida law enforcement officers. It targets the use of choke holds, adds more oversight on investigations into deaths caused by police and requires officers to be trained on de-escalation techniques.

This is the sort of work product that we come up with when were willing to put partisanship aside and try to focus on policy that will help make our communities safer, said Tampa Democratic Rep. Fentrice Driskell, who, on behalf of the Houses Black Caucus, led negotiations on the legislation with House Republican leaders.

But some Senate Democrats have voiced concerns that the legislation doesnt go far enough.

Democrats make up just 16 of 40 senators in the upper chamber and have struggled to matter this year. On Wednesday, they replaced their leader, Gary Farmer, a Lighthouse Point lawyer, with Lauren Book, a childrens advocate from Plantation.

They meet this morning to discuss the upcoming floor session.

The Florida House last week sent Gov. Ron DeSantis a bill that gives the agriculture industry protection from lawsuits related to long-term health damage. Supporters of the measure, including the sugar industry, call the legislation Right to Farm. Opponents argue the measure gives growers immunity from practices that might harm nearby residents.

DeSantis signed the bill Thursday morning.

The Florida Senate may take up for the final time an overhaul of the states automobile insurance laws.

On Monday, the Florida House voted 99-11 to repeal the states no-fault laws and require every motorist to carry bodily injury coverage, a move that could lower rates for some, but raise rates for others. Who wins? Who loses? Nobody really knows.

The Florida House voted Wednesday for an overhaul of the states elections system. It includes a requirement that voters present ID when leaving vote by mail ballots in drop boxes.

The bill now goes back to the Florida Senate, which has approved its own overhaul of the states system.

Get updates via text message: ConText, our free text messaging service about politics news, brings you the latest from this year's Florida legislative session.

Sign up for our newsletter: Get Capitol Buzz, a special bonus edition of The Buzz with Steve Contorno, each Saturday while the Legislature is meeting.

Were working hard to bring you the latest news from the states legislative session. This effort takes a lot of resources to gather and update. If you havent already subscribed, please consider buying a print or digital subscription.

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Heres what happened Thursday in the Florida Legislative session - Tampa Bay Times

Rhode Islands courageous call for independence is referenced in the Rhode Island State March, written by Thomas Clarke Brown, which served as the states song from 1946 to 1996.

It goes, Heres to you, beloved Rhode Island, with your hills and ocean shore. We are proud to hail you Rhody, and your patriots of yore. First to claim your independence, great your heritage and fame. The smallest State in all the Union. We will glorify your name!

In 1996, the General Assembly replaced the march with Rhode Islands It for Me. The new state song has no reference to being the first to claim independence.

Rhode Island Independence Day is not a state holiday, but instead, a day of special observance. And some people question whether it should even be that.

The fallacy was birthed by a Slatersville man who really, really wanted a reason to hang his state flag. His successful persuasion campaign, launched in 1884, still resonates today, Casey Nilsson wrote in Rhode Island Monthly. The backstory: All colonies were required to sign oaths of allegiance to King George III. This Act of Renunciation, signed May 4, 1776, vigorously repealed that oath but did not declare independence from the British crown.

Heres why it took so long for Rhode Island to really declare independence:

Rhode Island served as the commerce center of the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century (an issue at the heart of calls for reparations by certain city leaders and Brown University students). West Indian molasses would be used to make rum in distilleries in Rhode Island, and traded for enslaved workers. The British attempted to tighten control over the Colonies trade, beginning with the Sugar Act of 1764. On June 10, 1768, British customs officials confiscated the Liberty because it had previously smuggled Madeira wine, which incited a riot on the streets of Boston.

Four years later, not too far from Providence, the British customs boat Gaspee ran aground. Rhode Islanders were angered by the Britishs attempts to tax them in ways they thought were unfair. So well before any tea was tossed in the Boston Harbor, Rhode Island colonists boarded and burned the British Gaspee, wounding the ships captain.

Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea told Globe Rhode Island Tuesday that compared to the Gaspee ordeal, the Boston Tea Party was a frat party gone awry.

The burning of the Gaspee is really the first act of rebellion in the colonies, said Gorbea.

Both Newport and Providence ports brought in wealth and trade, making Rhode Island the only small state that could have survived independence of the federal union that was proposed in 1787. But the state had no desire to lose income in the form of import duties to this new, federal government.

And so, Rhode Island held out until 1790 to be the last state to ratify the Constitution.

Gorbea said the Act of Renunciation is her favorite document in the states archives, because you can see the thinking process of the authors, where the entire second graph is crossed out, but is still visible.

It said, Whereas George The Third King of Great Britain entirely departing from the Duties and Character of a good King instead of protecting is endeavoring to destroy the good People of this Colony and of all the United Colonies by sending Fleets and Armies to America to confiscate our Property and spread Fire Sword and Desolation throughout our Country in order to compel us to submit to the most debasing and detestable Slavery. And whereas Protection and Allegiance are reciprocal, the latter being only due in Consequence of the former.

Gorbea said, You can just see the debate in the page in front of you. The document speaks to you about what was going on at the time period.

Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexagagosz.

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What is Rhode Island Independence Day? - The Boston Globe

Hear me clearly America is not a racist country. I have personally experienced the pain of discrimination being pulled over for no reason and followed around in stores. This statement was made by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who was selected by the Republican Party to give a rebuttal to President Bidens State of The Union speech on April 29.

Unsurprisingly, fierce reactions ensued immediately, with both sides of the political spectrum aggressively weighing in on social media. Hashtags such as #UncleTim, which were quickly removed from Twitter, and other intensely abrasive terms were hurled toward the center from the left side of the political spectrum. The response from the political right was complimentary and endearingly laudatory.

While there were a number of things to take issue with Senator Scotts rebuttal, it was the comment that America is not a racist country that opened Pandoras box, full of commentary that flooded the blogger sphere; the op-ed pages of local, state, and national newspapers; the late-night talk show circuit; the loquacious lips political pundits; and the chattering classes at large.

To be fair, Scott was not alone in his semi-Kumbaya rhetoric. Vice President Kamala Harris made a similar statement, as well. However, she quickly made it clear that we will never solve the problem of racism in this nation until we fully acknowledge it. President Biden spoke in the same vein in an interview with the journalist Craig Melvin on the Today show.

Tim Scotts life is distinctive. In his rebuttal speech, he once again said that he was raised in poverty by a single mother. Moreover, he is a darling son of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. He defeated the sons of the legendary, multiple-term, hard-core segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond and the popular, former governor Carroll Campbell, is revered by Donald Trump and won election in what is the staunchest Republican state in the south, arguably in the nation.

The biggest problem is not Senator Scott, even though his rhetoric is sometimes laced with intellectual dishonesty,but rather the GOPs frantic attempts to convince everybody that they are not racist by employing conservative Black people like him, Star Parker, Jason Whitlock, Candace Owens, Shelby Steele, Diamond and Silk, Doreen Borelli and others who identify as Black conservatives. In essence, they provide cover for and espouse largely offensive commentary that many right-wing White conservatives do not dare to say in public. In other words, they tell the racists what they want to hear as opposed to what they need to hear.

This is not to say all Black conservatives demonize other Black people for profit. Raynard Jackson and Robert Woodson are examples of Black people who reside on the political right of the spectrum, yet have no problem in calling out what they see are the shortcomings of the conservative movement in regards to the disconnect that it currently has with large segments of the Black electorate.

The truth is that we do live in a racist nation. Most sane, rational, and honest Americans know this, regardless of their race or ethnic background. The question is not whether America is a racist nation but whether we need to utilize legislation, government programs, and other forms of protection to target racism.

As a Black person born and raised slightly above abject poverty in hyper-segregated South Carolina. This region has always been hostile toward governmental assistance regarding upward mobility, especially Black upward mobility, Scott is (or certainly should) be aware of the devastating impact that poverty, sophisticated or subtle discrimination, and lack of access to mainstream society can have on the victims of such social inequities and inequalities. Economic and structural racism are undeniable factors in the lives of many poor people of color.

The fact is that Tim Scott and other Black conservatives, especially those over 45 years of age, know this all too well. But instead of acknowledging such brutal facts, they resort to espousing and promoting a dangerously misguided form of bootstrap politics that too often places the responsibility for change on those who are being disregarded and marginalized. The truth is one must have boots to be able to strap them. Such old-fashioned, buck up, forge forward, rugged individualism language is filled with nothing but empty platitudes.

No reasonable person can deny that systematic racism is a potently repulsive force in American life. They are evident in our health, educational, environmental, judicial, and political systems. Many politicians have expressed their opinion on racism: Black liberal Democrats like Vice President Kamala Harris, conservative Republicans like Senator Tim Scott, or White Democrats like President Joe Biden, and Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell know this. At the end of the day, the truth is racism is real and not debatable. Period!

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American Racism: Tim Scott, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and The Republican Party - The Good Men Project