Editorial: GOP Nassau legislators do the right thing

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Editorial: GOP Nassau legislators do the right thing
Teddy Tong Photo Credit

In approving new district lines, Republican Nassau County legislators have done the unexpected – the right thing.

The new map, approved in an 11-7 partly-line vote two weeks ago, gives Democrats a 15-4 advantage over Republicans in districts with a majority of voters registered as Democrats.

The map, approved by Republicans, also gives Democrats a 14-5 edge in county legislative districts carried by President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Let’s repeat that for a moment. Eleven Republican legislators voted on revised districts that give Democrats a 15-4 edge in registered voters. And all seven Democrats voted against the map.

The new map reflects the latest numbers for registered voters in Nassau County. According to the state Board of Elections, Democrats lead countywide by nearly 100,000 people – 412,178 to 315,741.

But for Nassau County, this is the political equivalent of dogs and cats living together to borrow a phrase from “Ghostbusters.”

The new map is in stark contrast to 10 years ago when Republicans in the county Legislature, holding a 10-9 advantage, voted for a map that gave them a 12-7 advantage in districts based on registered voters.

At the time, Democrats held a 30,000 edge in registered voters over Republicans in Nassau County.

The county Republicans’ new-found fairness in drawing district lines still did not satisfy Democrats, who said the latest map was illegal and favored their GOP counterparts.

Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) criticized the Republican legislators for working in “secrecy.”

Abrahams also criticized the new lines for not reflecting the more than 40% of the county population that is non-white.

The new map does increase the number of minority-majority districts from three to five but at 26% of the Legislature falls three seats short of reaching 40%.

“It is not surprising that such a deeply flawed, self-serving process would produce an extreme partisan gerrymander that disenfranchises Nassau’s minority communities and violates numerous federal, state, and local laws,” Abrahams said in a statement. “By passing this illegal map, the Republican Majority has recklessly placed Nassau County on a collision course towards numerous lawsuits that will ultimately cost taxpayers millions of dollars.”

Abrahams has a fair point about minority representation not being equal. And it is important. Non-white Democrats in the county Legislature have split from white Democrats on occasion in votes and emphasis on such issues as police accountability.

But Nassau County is, by design, one of the most segregated counties in the country. This makes it difficult to create districts that are both geographically together and reflect the county’s ethnicity.

The county map is also a far cry from the district lines recently created by Town of Hempstead Republicans.

With nearly half the town comprised of non-whites, the Hempstead Town Council approved a map that maintains the current 5-1 advantage of majority-white districts.

Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park), who has announced he will not seek re-election, seemed to get it right in discussing the county map.

“Is this map perfect?” Nicolello asked during a press conference. “No. But perfection is impossible in redistricting. This map is a fair map, it provides equal representation for all our residents and protects community interests as much as possible.”

Other Democrats have complained about changes to their particular district, including county Legislator Arnold Drucker, who is currently one of four legislators whose district includes Roslyn.

Drucker expressed his displeasure with changes that among other things split Plainview with fellow Democratic Legislator Josh Lafazan.

“The current proposal is an extreme partisan gerrymander that carves apart Plainview and other communities across the 16th Legislative District,” Drucker said. “This is not about the political fate of one person over another – it is much more significant. This is a brazen attempt to dilute and render irrelevant the voices of all Democrats residing in the 16th District and it must not stand.”

Drucker is correct that redistricting should not be about the fate of one person over another. For many years this was common practice with Democrat and Republican officeholders who routinely worked together to help each other stay in office. We are happy to see that end.

We also believe that even in trying to create district maps injustices may happen.

But it is also true that to revise a gerrymandered map created in 2013 to give Republicans an undeserved advantage there would be changes that affected many legislators. Some not to their liking. That’s just a matter of mathematics.

You have to break some eggs to make an omelet, as it is said.

Democrats might be better served by trying to turn their 15-4 advantage in registered voters to a majority in the county Legislature.

Democrats should now be considered heavy favorites to win control of the Legislature, but that is by no means guaranteed.

In addition to Republicans and Democrats, elections are decided in Nassau County by members of the Conservative and Working Families Party as well as those with no party affiliation. The so-called blanks number 274,253, just 41,000 less than Republicans’ 315,741 registered voters.

It’s also true that blacks vote for whites. Whites vote for blacks. Democrats vote for Republicans and Republicans vote for Democrats.

And in some elections, one group or another of registered voters will lack the motivation to show up to vote in the numbers expected of them. This is what is known as election turnout.

For proof that there are no guarantees in elections just take a look at the 2022 election when Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor, received more than 55% of the vote in Nassau County – despite the county’s nearly 100,000 advantage in registered voters.

And much to our shame Republican George Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in the race for Congress in the 3rd District, where Democrats also held an edge in party registration.

Or take a look at 2021, when Democrats lost 13 of 45 city, town and county races, including county executive, district attorney, county comptroller and county clerk.

In both years, Republicans won in large part on a rise in crime statewide that they blamed on reforms to New York’s bail laws approved by the Democratic-controlled state Legislature.

The claim that the reforms are responsible for the increase in violent crime in the state wasn’t true.

But it was an effective message that Democrats failed to counter. Two years in a row.

Many have blamed Jay Jacobs, who is both the party’s state and Nassau County chair. Others have pointed the finger at the strength of candidates such as Gov. Kathy Hochul and then County Executive Laura Curran and how they conducted their campaigns.

Nassau Republicans also seem to have the advantage of a deeper bench in no small part due to their control of the Town of Hempstead for more than 100 years.

The good news is that if Republicans maintain control of the county Legislature going forward, it will not be because they have stacked the deck and subverted the will of the people through gerrymandering.

For that, we thank Republican Nassau County legislators led by Nicolello.

 

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