Splitting the Empire (Part 3)

The two previous posts in the 'Splitting the Empire' series offered very different solutions to address the lack of representation experienced by folks in 'upstate' New York in state government, particularly the state Senate. The first was to split New York into two states; the second was to formally keep us a unified state, but would create three completely autonomous regional governments, each with its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. There would still be a state government structure, with severely limited authority and responsibility. Neither of those plans seems to me to make much sense.

Today, let's look at the simplest - and in my mind, anyway - the most logical approach: modifying the State Senate. First, some background.

The State Senate currently has 63 seats; 40 senators are registered Democrats, 22 are registered Republicans, and one seat is vacant. Each senator represents a district drawn to meet balanced population goals. Given the population density in New York City, this type of districting means that there are more representatives downstate than upstate.

As a result, many upstate senators represent wildly disparate districts encompassing multiple counties. The 51st district's James Seward, for example, represents all or part of nine counties. On the map below, his is the meandering, crazy cloud-animal district just below the 'New York' in the center of the state. Compare Seward's district to Brooklyn, for example - that's one county with nine senators.

The mess of green string that outlines the different districts in NYC helps illustrate the imbalance between upstate and downstate representation.

So -- the simple plan, proposed by Senator Joe Griffo of Rome and Assemblyman Mark Walczyk of Watertown, is to change the Constitution to allow each of NY's 62 counties to have one State Senator, no matter the county's population.

Crazy, right?