Former Mayor Ed Koch yesterday urged the incoming state Legislature to quickly revamp existing redistricting laws.
Koch, who founded the Political Action Committee New York Uprising to promote government reform, is backing a measure that would establish a commission independent of the Legislature to draw congressional and state district lines rather than leave lawmakers in charge of the process.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican who took the New York Uprising campaign pledge when seeking re-election, did not take a position on the measure yesterday.
“Senate Democrats have controlled the agenda in the Senate for two years and did not take any action on reform legislation advocated by New York Uprising,” he said.
“The entire Senate Republican conference was among the first legislators to sign on to the group’s reform pledge.
“Only much later, after being criticized as ‘enemies of reform,’ did Senate Democrats decide to support it,” he said.