Brooklyn, N.Y.

Arnaldo A. Ferraro, Ph.D.

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

In a déjà-vu reapportionment conspiracy of the 49^th Assembly District in Brooklyn, the recently proposed drafted maps of Senate and Assembly districts by the groups Latino Justice PRLDEF, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Center for Law and Social Justice and the National Institute for Latino Politics are certainly not ones that provide “fair ethnic representation” to the people of certain areas, as they claim.

In analyzing the plan of the proposed map of the 49^th Assembly District, it seems, in my opinion, that the reapportionment of the 49^th Assembly District was mostly based on two simple objectives. The first is to reapportion out of her district, Lucretia Regina-Potter, the Republican Female State Committeewoman of the 49^th AD, and perennial nemesis of both the current Democratic Assemblyman Peter Abbate and Republican Kings County Chairman Craig Eaton.

If this seems to be a far fetched conclusion, please look at the political events in the 49^th Assembly District in the last six years, and more recently the Assembly and Leadership races that have just passed. They will illustrate and support this theory. Lucretia Regina-Potter is very active in the 49^th Assembly District and raises awareness and issues relevant to her community, much to the chagrin of those currently holding office.

By looking at the suggested new “unity” map of the 49^th AD, one can also see two very important as well curious facts: the border of the new district ends at Bath Avenue, just one block away from Cropsey Avenue where Lucretia Regina-Potter lives. Coincidental? I would say very strange. One more block would not have drastically changed whatever other objective that this plan wants to accomplish. On the other hand, conveniently so, the current Assemblyman is kept into the District by virtually “carving” his residence address by adding a small portion of two adjacent Streets near his mother’s house. Again, coincidence? Certainly, very strange!

Also consider that all other political players in this proposed reapportionment of the 49^th AD remain in the District; including the two current Democratic District Leaders, the Republican Male District Leader, and a former young Republican candidate for District Leader that run against the ticket headed by Lucretia-Regina-Potter in 2011.

The second arguably grandiose objective of this prejudiced and ill-conceived reapportioning plan is easily dismissible. The creation of any ethnic Districts would not reflect the best interests of the community, including the ethnic group that it purports to enhance. This is indicated in the following map proposed by the above mentioned groups.

The Fiorello LaGuardia Republican Organization, its Leadership, and its members all rise in strong opposition to a plan dictated by political and selfish individual interests!

UNITY MAP

A joint draft proposal for New York State Assembly and State Senate district maps that adjust for the changing demographics and afford fair representation for New Yorkers of every race and ethnicity

Proposed by
LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Center for Law and Social Justice and the National Institute for Latino Politics

http://aaldef.org/unity-map.html

BROOKLYN
Assembly District 49 Proposal

Part II

A Simple Solution:

What was described in Part I of this series is but one example of the manipulative plan by the powers that be to protect their incumbency and at the same time to eliminate possible challengers. In the case of the 49^th Assembly District, the elimination of a strong challenger seems to have been the main intention of the plan. It would not be surprising if those Republicans who are supposed to unite the party were also collaborating in this scheme. What brings one to this conclusion is the fact that the person we referred to previously as “a young former Republican candidate for District Leader that run against the LaGuardia Ticket”, is barely kept in the proposed District. A logical question would then be “Why?”

A simple solution to this mess created by enacting such a manipulative plan would be to extend the proposed lines by only one block, the one block that was intentionally eliminated in order to reapportion Lucretia Regina-Potter out of the 49^th AD. Obviously, this is not going to happen, at least if those who have planned this scheme have the power to decide. To quote Bill Hammond of the Daily News “quite simply, districts are rigged to be shoo-ins for incumbents,” even if this means to use their powers directly against their opponents.

In conclusion, all this hoopla about the long awaited districts reapportionment is just another exercise in futility or, better yet, another show of selfish greet of the egotistical and unscrupulous  incumbent public officials, regardless of Party affiliation, especially of those in the majority.

This makes everyone long for the non-partisan, independent redistricting commission auspicated by former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, supported by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and the greatest majority of legislators in New York State.

Arnaldo A. Ferraro, Ph.D. is the Former Assemblyman of the 49AD, and the Founder/Chairman of the Fiorello LaGuardia Republican Organization

He can be reached at contact@LaGuardiaRepublicanClub.org