Nassau Legislative redistricting: Stalemate expected

The commission tasked with redrawing the boundaries of Nassau's 19 legislative districts will vote on proposed new lines Monday night after holding 12 public hearings throughout the county.

 Redistricting occurs every ten years after the U.S. Census.

But Nassau's Temporary Districting Advisory Commission,  composed of five Democrats and five Republicans, is expected to deadlock: Republicans will vote for their proposed legislative map; Democrats will vote for their proposed map.

Then the decision goes to the county legislature, which has 12 Republicans and 7 Democrats. It seems pretty obvious how that will go.

Next, presumably, will be court challenges to whatever map is adopted.

Meanwhile, a $140,000 contract for special counsel to the Republican members of the commission has been submitted to the legislature's Rules committee for approval on Monday -- four months after the special counsel law firm started work on July 29, according to the contract papers filed with the legislative clerk.

No surprise, the law firm is Messina Perillo & Hill of Sayville, often used by Republicans for redistricting. Lead partner Vincent Messina was elected Suffolk County surrogate this month and will begin serving Jan. 1.

The surprise is that former Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli, who headed up the Republican redistricting effort ten years ago, is not listed on the contract though he works for the Messina firm.

Ciampoli has been credited with overseeing the redrawn legislative lines that kept Republicans in the majority for the past decade, by packing Democrats and Republicans into each district, For example, District 14, now held by Republican Legis. Laura Schaefer -- hopscotches across the middle of Nassau, picking up Republican communities along the way.

The official reason why Ciampoli is not involved is that it was inappropriate while he was running for a Supreme Court judgeship in Orange County this year, though insiders whisper about other political reasons why the outspoken and combative Republican was kept out of the process.

Ciampoli narrowly lost his race for  judge. (No, he did not need to live in Orange County to run.)

Here is the current map, adopted ten years ago under Ciampoli's supervision:

                                                                               

Now here is the new proposed Republican map. Looks pretty familiar, doesn't it?
                                                                             

Now here is the Democratic map:

                                                                                      

We'll have to see if the legislature amends or adopts either map.

Just for informational purposes, here are the members of the temporary redistricting advisory commission:

The five Republicans are:  Peter Bee, a longtime Republican elections lawyer; John Reinhardt, Town of Hempstead water commissioner; Maureen Fitzgerald, Oyster Bay Town commissioner of community and Youth Services, Chris Devane, mayor of New Hyde Park; Eric Mallette, treasurer of the Town of Hempstead's Local Development Corp.

The five Democrats are: Jared Kasschau, who served as former County Executive Laura Curran's county attorney: Adrena Wyatt, a commissioner at the Hempstead Housing Authority; David Mejias, a former county legislator, Michal Pernick, a former member of the county ethics board who was planning to run for state senate this year but was redrawn out of the district by new court-ordered lines,  and James Magin, Jr., the head of IT for Democrats at the county board of elections.

Republican Frank Moroney, an adviser to the legislative presiding officer, is chairman of the commission but does not have a vote.