the albany project

Heaven forbid that a member of the State Senate be in any way accountable to the voters.

From Politics On the Hudson:

Redistricting Re-Visited

State Sen. Nicholas Spano has not yet conceded to Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins, but local Republicans are already pointing fingers at Joe Bruno and the Republican leaders in the state Senate for his expected loss.

At the heart of their anger is the redistricting plan adopted after the 2000 census, which, despite Spano’s objections, took the Republican friendly town of Eastchester away from him and put it in the district of then-state Sen. Guy Velella of the Bronx.

What makes local GOP officials even more incredulous is the fact that Velella, at the time, was already under indictment on bribery charges. He later pleaded guilty and resigned his seat.

“There is no question that the major reason it looks like Nick Spano lost this race is because the Republicans in the state Senate damaged his district in redistricting to the point that it made him vulnerable,” said Westchester Legislator James Maisano, a Republican from New Rochelle.

Yep. They had to jigger the district to save a guy already under indictment and apparently that made a State Senator "vulnerable".

This is YOUR state government, people.

Had enough?

Posted by downtown on Saturday, November 11, 2006 at 10:27 PM | Permalink