A look at Dutchess districts

DUTCHESS COUNTY — By law every 10 years, when there is a census conducted, political districts must be adjusted. At the federal level, this results in some states losing or gaining representatives in the United States House — New York will probably lose two house seats while Texas will gain four this time around. Even at the county level, the Legislature redraws the map for its 25 seats. Just how that will be done in Dutchess County is now the subject of fierce debate, largely argued along party lines.

At the end of the 2009 legislative session, before the Republicans took control  of the Legislature, a bill was passed to create a bipartisan, independent commission composed of four non-elected citizens, two Republican and two Democratic, plus one member selected by the other four, to redistrict Dutchess County. During the 2010 legislative session no move was made by the Legislature to appoint members to this bipartisan committee and now Republicans are mounting a repeal of the law.

Michael Kelsey, the Republican representative from the 25th District who beat long-serving Democrat Margaret Fettes in 2009, is the co-sponsor of the law to repeal the commission, along with John Forman and majority leader Gary Cooper. Republicans argue that the commission solution is unworkable and would take too much time, and that the Legislature cannot delegate its responsibility for redistricting to un-elected officials.

“The attempt to repeal it restores the charter to its previous state that allows the chairman wide discretion in determining how he wants the reapportionment process to proceed,� stated Kelsey in an e-mail to The Millerton News. “I love my gerrymandered district just the way it is and I would not like to see some partisan-minded five-member panel of non-electeds rewrite the map according to some utopian script or messianic fever that they somehow know what’s best for the constituents I was elected to represent.�

Democrats, and even some Republicans, like Marge Horton of East Fishkill, argue that the law creating an independent non-partisan committee takes the politics out of reapportionment.

The bill is currently up for committee discussion with a final vote probable on Tuesday, Dec. 7, when the Legislature is expected to pass its version of the county budget. There are 18 Republicans, six Democrats and one conservative in the Dutchess County Legislature and a simple majority is required to repeal the creation of a bi-partisan committee.