Liberal Talk Radio

As a lifelong independent/unaffiliated voter and someone who distrusts political parties, I like it:

[New York] Attorney General [and sometime media-whorish gadfly] Eliot Spitzer said Monday that if elected governor he will end a practice that many say is at the root of Albany’s dysfunctional government: the power of state lawmakers to draw legislative districts so that incumbents are perennially re-elected.

Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, called the current system “a classic conflict of interest” and said that as governor he would push for a nonpartisan commission to draw district lines. If the Legislature did not agree to such a change, he pledged that he would veto the next set of district lines established unless the boundaries were “reflective of democracy, not incumbent protection.”

. . .

But districting is one of the most cherished powers in Albany. Currently, the Democratic-led Assembly draws the lines for Assembly districts and the Republican-led Senate draws the lines for Senate districts. Because of what critics call artful cartography, and some unusually shaped districts that critics say are drawn to benefit incumbents, neither house has changed hands in decades. And officials in both parties say districting has been vital to Senate Republicans, who have retained their majority even as Democratic voter registration has become stronger.

Lawmakers affected by the proposal had little to say about the proposal because — let’s face facts here — there’s little reason for them to be out on the forefront of this issue:

Mr. Spitzer’s call to end unusually shaped districts, known as gerrymandering, drew a muted reaction from the Democratic-led Assembly, where a bill to create a nonpartisan districting commission never made it out of committee this year. Charles Carrier, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said the issue would be discussed “as part of our ongoing conversation on reform.”

And John E. McArdle, a spokesman for the Republican majority in the Senate, observed that the state’s past districting plans had been done in accordance with the law and survived challenges in state and federal courts. He questioned why Mr. Spitzer, who took office seven years ago, had not weighed in until now. “I think he was attorney general the last time the lines were approved,” he said.

That both Spitzer and Schwarzenegger make this a priority should tell you something.