Election Reform
UPDATE 9/25/06: Citizen Action of NY Endorses Brian Keeler for NY State Senate!
Much of the huge mess in Albany can be mitigated by returning accountability and transparency to the electoral process...and by removing the need for qualified candidates to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to challenge incumbents. Citizen Action of New York has a great description of Clean Money, Clean Elections:
More and more New Yorkers are fed up with a political system where contributions from wealthy special interests matter more than health care, decent jobs, education, Social Security and the environment.
Democrat mounts challenge in state Senate race
By RICHARD ROTH
HILLSDALE—Brian Keeler, the Democratic candidate for the 41st district state Senate seat held by Republican Steve Saland for the past 16 years, says he can’t outspend the incumbent, but he will have a “well-funded, well-supported” campaign.
“We will give [Mr. Saland] something he hasn’t had, which is a serious race here in the Hudson Valley,” says Mr. Keeler. “Steve Saland has, at last report, $300,000 in the bank from years gone by. But we can run an effective campaign with the budget we have.”
Mr. Keeler says Mr. Saland, as chairman of the Senate Education Committee, is “more responsible for the property tax crisis than any other senator in Albany, period.”
Gerrymander |ˈjerēˌmandər| verb [ trans. ] [often as n. ] ( gerrymandering) manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.
• achieve (a result) by such manipulation : a total freedom to gerrymander the results they want.
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Today, reform-minded New Yorkers from all over the state are converging upon Albany to bring their message of change to the Capital steps. As noted in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:
(May 8, 2006) — ALBANY — Advocates of reforming state government who plan to rally at the Capitol on Tuesday think they have hit on the key to changing the status quo: End the gerrymandering of legislative districts that all but guarantees most incumbents easy re-election.
They also think they have hit on a long-range strategy to make this happen: get all four candidates for governor to pledge to veto any redistricting bill that is drawn by lawmakers, who traditionally draw the lines. Instead, they say, it should be drawn by an independent commission.
As an advocate for reform in Albany, I feel this is an important step and I would support legislation to bring sanity and non-partisanship to the re-districting process.
