Why Albany is so unaccountable

I've written several entries pertaining to the dysfunctional nature of New York state government. WHY is it so broken? Lack of competition.

I've heard it reported that the NY legislature has a higher incumbent re-election rate than the communist Chinese National Assembly. This article was one of many this weekend to put offer some numbers. It noted that 14 Republican Senators out of 37 will have no Democratic opposition. That means that a little less than half of the Republican majority will run virtually unopposed.

This pathetic situation is due primarily to the de facto gerrymandering of legislative districts. Rather than showing solidarity with their Republican counterparts in the Assembly, Senate Republicans align with Assembly DEMOCRATS to draw as many districts in as uncompetitive a way as possible. (And vice versa, obviously). Most districts are either overwhelmingly Democratic in voter registration or overwhelmingly Republican.

This discourges the other party in the district from even bothering to field candidates. And even if they do, the party doesn't want to spend resources on races it feels confident of getting massacred in.

The result is that even though the legislature hasn't passed an on-time budget in 20 years and even though the current legislature has done almost nothing this year and even though only 26 percent of New Yorkers think the legislature is doing a good job (according to a Quinnipiac Univ. poll), most legislators will get re-elected, if by default.

This is why smaller parties need to play a bigger role in New York state politics. It's clear that neither the Democratic majority in the Assembly nor the GOP majority in the Senate has any desire to shake up the status quo that so favors them. Unfortunately, it's that very status quo and dubious electoral laws that preserve it which put smaller parties at such a huge disadvantage.