Politics & Government
Residents Bring Local Concerns to Redistricting Panel
From Greenwich to Westport, area residents brought ideas and complaints about the boundaries of their legislative districts to the state Reapportionment Committee on Monday.
Area residents asked the Reaportionment Committee in Norwalk City Hall to correct past mistakes which they said have splintered their communities in strange ways.
Here are some of the concerns they brought up:
Splitting up Darien
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Terrie Wood, the Darien Republican whose state House of Representatives district includes all of Darien plus the Rowayton section of Norwalk, asked the panel to consider creating a single senatorial seat for her town. At present, Darien is served by two state senators whose districts also includes other towns.
Splitting up sections of Greenwich
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Ed Krumeich and Joe Kautorski, both of Greenwich, were among the 18 speakers.
They presented a detailed proposal to alter legislative districts in Greenwich to conform with Representative Town Meeting districts, a change that would divide the town into coastal, central business and northern districts.
Their proposal, they said, would "undo the damage of the 1980 and 1990 redistricting, when Greenwich neighborhoods "were badly gerrymandered."
"Some villages were cut in three pieces," Krumeich said.
While Maryann Ramos of Greenwich agreed with their proposal, Fred Camillo, state representative for the affected 151st district, supports the district the way it is currently drawn.
"I love my district," Camillo said, urging the lawmakers to reject the proposal of Krumeich (who mentioned that he had challenged Camillo unsuccessfully in the past for his seat).
Splitting up Weston, New Canaan and Redding
John Hartwell of Westport urged the panel to create "more competitive, less incumbent-protective" districts.
"Too many are single-party districts," he said, and too many "lack an organic feel" because they break apart natural constituencies.
"I believe this is a real problem," he added, noting for example that New Canaan and Redding are each divided into two state House districts and two state Senate districts.
"It's really a patchwork out there that doesn't promote democracy," he said, proposing a radical redistricting that would link four house districts with each senate district.
Hartwell said that the Senate district that includes Westport, Wilton and other towns but only a sliver of Weston disadvantages Westonites.
His remark drew criticism from Larry Cafero a Norwalk Republican and minority leader in the state House of Representatives. Cafero sprang to the defense of Senator Toni Boucher, who represents that district. (Hartwell has unsuccessfully challenged her for that seat.)
Cafero spotted Boucher in the audience and invited her to speak, which she briefly did to say state legislators represent everyone in their districts "whether 100,000 or two" to the best of their ability.
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