Ocober 31, 2014
By Bob Levine
New York, NY – The Citizens Union has released a white paper that shows the deepening effects of partisan gerrymandering in this year’s election cycle and supports Proposal 1 on November 4th.
According to Citizens Union’s findings, “38 percent of the incumbents running for election this year have in effect already won: they are running unopposed. This is up sharply from 2012, when 28 percent of the incumbents ran unopposed. 45.6 percent of incumbents – almost half – will face either no opponent or only token opposition on November 4. This is up from 42 percent in 2012.
The report indicates that even incumbents embroiled in scandal easily win re-election under this system. Since 1999, 28 legislators have left office or will leave by the end of this year due to criminal and/or unethical conduct.
“These findings show the grave importance of voting YES for Proposal 1 this Election Day,” said Dick Dadey, Executive Director of Citizens Union. “Albany is broken and New Yorkers now have the opportunity to fix this rigged system and hold legislators accountable. This state constitutional amendment will ban partisan gerrymandering by outlawing legislative maps drawn for political advantage and put power back in the hands of New Yorkers.”
“Many of our Legislators have already been elected without a single voter casting a vote,” Dadey added.
