"Spitzer Calls for Nonpartisan Districting"

The NY Times offers this report, which begins: "Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Monday that if elected governor he will end a practice that many say is at the root of Albany's dysfunctional government: the power of state lawmakers to draw legislative districts so that incumbents are perennially re-elected. Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, called the current system 'a classic conflict of interest' and said that as governor he would push for a nonpartisan commission to draw district lines. If the Legislature did not agree to such a change, he pledged that he would veto the next set of district lines established unless the boundaries were 'reflective of democracy, not incumbent protection.'"

Posted by Rick Hasen at November 22, 2005 06:17 AM