Riverhead Town will be excluded from a newly redrawn East End State Assembly District, if new district boundaries proposed by the state reapportionment task force are adopted.
Southold would become part of a reconstituted First Assembly District, which will also include Shelter Island, East Hampton, Southampton Towns, as well as the Moriches in southeast Brookhaven.
Riverhead would become part of a new Second Assembly District, which would also encompass the northeast quadrant of Brookhaven Town, stretching west to Belle Terre and south to Yaphank and Manorville.
Legislative districts are reapportioned after each decennial census to ensure that the population of each district throughout the state is about the same, as required by the federal and state constitutions. Each assembly district should have a population of about 130,000.
Both the first and second districts as currently drawn exceeded that number. The current First Assembly District, which takes in Shelter Island, Southold, Riverhead and northeast Brookhaven, has a population of about 150,000. The current Second Assembly District, encompassing East Hampton, Southampton and southeast Brookhaven, has a population of about 143,000.
"On the whole, this keeps most of the East End in one district," said Second District Assemblyman Fred Thiele (I, D—Sag Harbor) Thursday afternoon. But the change wouldn't make Riverhead, now excluded from the "East End district" less a part of the East End.
"There are many regional issues," Thiele said. "We all sink or swim together."
Assemblyman Dan Losquadro (R, C- Shoreham) said he was disappointed the task force would split the North Fork towns.
"Splitting Southold and Riverhead doesn't make sense," Losquadro said Thursday. "North Fork issues are very different from those on the South Fork. Southold and Riverhead have much more in common. Both have more primary homeowners than second-home owners. Agriculture, especially the vineyards, is much more important on the North Fork. I think they should remain in the same district."
Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said he thought the idea of splitting Southold and Riverhead in two different assembly districts was "ridiculous."
Walter said he thought it would have been more logical to move the western boundary of the First Assembly District farther west. But that might affect longtime Democratic Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) whose district abuts Losquadro's on the west.
Noting that reapportionments almost always have very strong political overtones, with the majority party usually drawing district lines in ways that favor its incumbents, the supervisor wondered aloud what the Assembly's Democratic majority had in mind with this redistricting.
"It just makes zero sense," Walter said.
Thiele said he had introduced legislation requiring reapportionment be undertaken by an independent, nonpartisan commission and was disappointed it didn't become law. He said he wouldn't vote for any redistricting plan unless it includes a constitutional amendment to insure all future redistricting plans are prepared by an independent, non-partisan commission.
The state reapportionment task force consists of six members. Three were appointed by Democratic legislative leaders and three by Republicans.
The 1st AD has always been a Republican stronghold. It has only once in history elected a Democrat: Marc Alessi, who won the seat in a hard-fought special election in 2005. He was turned out of office by Losquadro in a tight race in 2010.
Until reapportionment following the 1980 census, the First Assembly District encompassed both the north and south forks, as well as eastern Brookhaven.
The reapportionment task force on Monday will begin a series of nine public hearings throughout the state. A public hearing will be held in Suffolk on Thursday Feb. 9, beginning at 11 a.m. in the William H.Rogers Legislative Building in Smithtown.
Photo captions:
Map of the proposed new First Assembly District, which excludes Riverhead. Roll mouse over image to see Map of proposed new Second Assembly District, encompassing Riverhead and northeastern Brookhaven.
Top: Assemblyman Fred Thiele at the East End Arts gallery this month.
Bottom: Assemblyman Dan Losquadro at a press conference in Wading River last year.