Dems offer “Truth Juice” to GOP on redistricting

(Rick Karlin/Times Union)

State Democratic Party Executive Director Charlie King is in town to, among other things, offer a sip of what he calls “Truth Juice” to Senate Republicans who he says have been disingenuous at best over their signing a pledge and then backing away from embracing Gov. Cuomo’s and former NYC Mayor Ed Koch’s call for an independent or bi-partisan redistricting panel to take on the once-a-decade task of drawing political boundaries.

“Its refreshing for New Yorkers it tastes great…This juice has been shown to actually bring about the truth,” King said, explaining that he plans to offer it to all 32 Senate Republicans (King later explained that the beverage is orange soda).

Democrats have been blasting the Republican on the back-track for days now, and King, perhaps building on the somewhat humorous truth juice approach, also ridiculed GOP Sen. Tom Libous’s earlier assertion that the redistricting pledge was signed in the “heat of the campaign” that is the  closely fought race for control of the Senate which Republicans now have.

“This wasn’t a sex act. This was a campaign,” said King.

  1. Just My Opinion says:

    (Yawn) As a regular, non-government person the redistricting conversation is a bore. Am I supposed to get all worked up about a senator who signed the pledge and doesn’t plan to stand behind it or the senator who signed the pledge, gets behind it and votes to increase spending, taxes, etc….because they all pledged to do that and I don’t see them all working on that. The Democrats are trying to save their collective butt’s….and the only people that care are the Senate Dems.

  2. Craig says:

    How many times have the Dems changed the rules for the redistricting? Seems like they always change when they arent favored for having the benefit. Wake up New York your losing this battle.

  3. K2 says:

    So the Dems could have changed the redist. laws at any time the last 2 years and didn’t. Why? Because they thought they would stay in the majority and redistrict the republicans out of existence (just ask Sen. Smith). Now they whine and cry like little babies.

    I for one feel that creating jobs and cutting taxes should be a bigger priority than this.

    I would like someone to explain to me how counting inmates for redistricting purposes as residents of the community they lived in (when sentenced) instead of where they are actually living makes any sense. When an inmate needs medical attention they use the medical facilities in the community they are incarcerated in not NYC, they use local water/sewer infrastructure not NYC’s, their carbon foot print is in the community they are jailed in not NYC.

    If someone is sent to Upstate Correctional Facility to serve a life sentence how can they be counted in the community they came from when they won’t return to said community?

  4. mitch says:

    Nice pics! What a buffoon.

  5. sammy says:

    Repubs have been drinking too much Koch (that’s not Ed Koch, but the Koch brothers, pronounced ‘coke’, the right wing oil billionaires) and care only about increasing the wealth & power of the very rich; they never gave a damn about fairness or democracy.

  6. Down with Pedro says:


    How many times have the dems changed the rules? Just once, with the prisoner redistricting bill last year – otherwise they and the Republicans played the same game every decade – so what exactly are you going on about in your post?

    The simplest change that could be pushed is to ban any map with a varience greater than 1% from the mean. The ability to vary up to 5% from the mean is critical for the funny business that the legislature engages in – its not right that some districts are close to 8-9% more populous than others. Such a simple change (with no changes to any of the rules or process) would make a world of difference and could easily be sold in terms of creating a real one person one vote system.

  7. Bill M. says:

    Most think the Senate Democrats should be focused on the budget and nothing else and I guess that’s why they aren’t in the majority anymore.

  8. Stefan says:

    I don’t know about the Truth Juice, but it sounds like they all have been drinking the Kool-Aid.

  9. Upstate says:

    New York State has between 550,000 (2009 estimate) and 650,000 (2008 estimate) unauthorized immigrants, most of which live downstate, this amount shifts 1 US Congressional District from upstate to downstate.

    In 2008 the estimated unauthorized immigrant population in the United States was 11,000,000 which is the equivalent population of approximately 17 congressional districts. This shifts voting power from states with higher percentages of US Citizen residents to states with higher percentages of unauthorized immigrant populations.

    If we allow the Census Bureau to do statistical normalizing that they have proposed they will move even mor congressional districts to where there are lower percentages of actual US Citizens.

    How about that 1 person 1 vote?

  10. Craig says:

    Pedro Joe, I have been told its more than once. Going forward the DEMs will change when it doesn’t favor them. Really doesnt matter to me because I got my bags packed and thats the real problem in NY.

  11. limbic says:

    I thought all of the Senate democrats were in jail. Looks like one survived?

  12. Down with Pedro says:

    Hey Bill, how long have you been paying attention to Albany? Cause by now you should know that the minority party in either house has 0 to do with the budget – since the majority can pass it at any time all by themselves, the minority is regularly not engaged at all (This was of course the main republican complaint in the past two budgets).

    Seeing people make “cute” comments here never gets old.

  13. Mark Grimm says:

    Re-districting definately needs reform. It is also true there is no such thing as an independent commission in politics. Where do you think these members come from, the sky? They will be appointed by politicians.

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