To paraphrase Von Clausewitz: “War is the continuation of politics by other means.”
To watch the Suffolk County Legislature in action this week, however, needed no paraphrasing. It was war. And it was certainly politics. And it was anything but bipartisan.
With Democratic lawmakers still holding a majority – and with their Democratic colleague Steve Bellone sitting as County Executive – a plan was proposed by Legislator Rob Calarco, the Legislature’s current Presiding Officer to hold a public hearing, move a plan through committees and a vote, and enact a map comprising 18 new Legislative Districts based on the legally-required reapportionment following the 2020 Federal Census.
The Legislature’s Republican Leader, Kevin McCaffrey, blasted the Calarco move as “a desperate power grab by a lame-duck legislature.”
Calarco, and the majority he leads, will not be around come the New Year. Last month’s “red tsunami” marked defeats for Calarco and two other Democratic incumbents, meaning the GOP will hold an 11-7 majority next year and McCaffrey will replace him to become Presiding Officer.
This week’s meeting saw not only dueling rhetoric around the horseshoe, but judicial battles as a GOP lawsuit resulted in a restraining order to prevent Calarco’s plan – only to have an appellate court overturn the ban the same day.
The result was a single public hearing – a hearing which was voted “closed” after Tuesday’s session – without the multiple hearings envisioned by the Suffolk County charter.
Commission, Charter, or Chaos
A bipartisan redistricting commission was supposed to be in place last month as prescribed in the County Charter. In its absence, Calarco maintains the lines he and his allies have drawn are needed and legally constructed. He and Republican leaders blame for failing to ensure sufficient qualified appointments for a commission to set the lines.
McCaffrey on Tuesday continued to cite the Charter and its provision for a February deadline for a reapportionment commission to create a set of new maps. Even without meeting the February deadline, the Legislature would have until June 2022 to redraw maps to its liking and approve a redistricting plan.
In a lawsuit that went before State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Santorelli, the GOP plaintiffs – which included McCaffrey –argued that the Democrats were acting in a “flagrant effort to derail and sabotage the reapportionment process and to return it to the partisan gerrymandering mischief of a prior era.”
On Tuesday, Justice Santorelli issued an Order rejecting “the attempt by outgoing and term-limited Democrats to avoid transparency as well as the requirements of County and Federal Law,” noted a press release from the Suffolk Republican Chairman.
“The court chastised Democrat Legislators who tried to push through an improper redistricting plan that subverted public input requirements mandated by the County Charter. The Charter requires that a Redistricting Commission be formed, have regular meetings and conduct four public hearings so that County Residents may participate in the process. Shockingly, not only did Democrat Legislators fail to follow the law, they even refused to appoint Members to the Redistricting Commission, instead having partisan district maps drawn by hand-picked patronage employees of Leg. Robert Calarco – who was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls on November 2,” the release continued.
Suffolk GOP Chairman Jesse Garcia said: “Suffolk voters rejected the radical and failed policies of Democratic legislators during last month’s historic election, and today the Supreme Court has rejected their effort to sabotage the reapportionment process to which the public is entitled.”
Later in the day, however, an appellate court panel sitting in Brooklyn overturned that decision, allowing for a public hearing on Calarco’s plan to be held.
Public Hearing
With the Restraining Order lifted, more than twenty Suffolk residents testified regarding the reapportionment plan, several with a view for improving minority representation
Prior to the public testimony, Calarco had defended his proposed maps because of what he termed improved focus on “communities of interest” in the 9th and 11th Legislative Districts, the creation of four so-called “majority-minority” districts (instead of the current two), and more cohesive and compact district lines in an effort to respect township boundaries. A number of the current 18 districts cross town boundaries, a situation said by critics to diffuse representation by communities – especially minority communities.
Dr. Beverly Dean, a Gordon Heights resident pleaded: “Please give us the opportunity to have equal representation,” saying that her community is currently broken up into multiple legislative districts. She hoped for a more unified district under the Democratic maps.
Unsurprisingly, Republican elected officials, reiterated McCaffrey’s complaints that Democrats were ignoring the November 2021 elections results and hoping to regain their majority status when each of the legislative seats is up again in 2023.
The GOP will maintain the majority through the 2023 legislative elections, based upon the two-year terms of the legislators.
“It’s like the elected officials at this point are choosing their voters instead of the opposite happening in a democratic society,” stated Brookhaven Town Supervisor Edward Romaine a Republican, former County Clerk, and twice-member of the Legislature in his long political career in Suffolk County.
Some testimony was a complaint that residents were excluded from helping to draw the maps.
“It’s not fair to make a decision that’s so important for the next 10 years without any community input,” said Central Islip resident Sandra Townsend.
A continuation by other means indeed.
