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Health & Fitness

Greenwich is Gerrymandered Again

The Redistricting Commission Has Drawn House District 151 As a Safe Republican Seat.

The Reapportionment Commission has redistricted Greenwich so that House District 151 will remain a safe Republican seat even after popular incumbent Fred Camillo moves on to other endeavors.

Joe Kantorski and I had submitted a redistricting plan that followed the zoning map and RTM districts and would have made Districts 151 and 150 more competitive in future elections. Our goal was to reunite neighborhoods that had been separated in past redistricting and to combine similarly situated neighborhoods in the same district. Our plan would have reunited Riverside into District 150 and to add Pemberwick and Glenville to District 151 along with similarly situated neighborhoods in Cos Cob and Havemeyer Park.

No competing plan was ever offered in the public hearings.

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The only criticism of our plan was that I was planning to run against Fred Camillo (I wasn't). At the public hearing Fred's only comment was that he liked the district the way it was. No competing plan was offered. The plan that the Commission adopted added back country neighborhoods to District 151 and effectively split Riverside in two and sundered it from Old Greenwich. Pemberwick and Glenville remain isolated in the back country district 149. The neighborhoods added to District 151 are reliably Republican and will ensure a safe margin for Fred and future Republican candidates. A district I lost to Dolly Powers in 2006 by 132 votes will be non-competitive for the foreseeable future.

Presumably, this configuration was the product of a backroom deal with the House Democrats in trade for a safe Democratic seat elsewhere in the state. Also presumably our Representatives were consulted by the House leadership about the districts they wanted. Still it is disappointing that a backroom political deal trumps the public process and predetermines the result of house elections in District 151 for the next 10 years.

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