Albany Watch

Here’s the ruling from federal Judge Gary Sharpe, setting the primaries for congressional election this year for June 26.

The presidential primary in New York is set for April 24. The ruling doesn’t affect the primaries for state legislative elections this year, but it could complicate matters as Senate Republicans in particular have preferred an Aug. 18 primary for state elections.

Even Gov. Andrew Cuomo would get a new senator under legislative lines proposed yesterday by a state task force—and he’d go from the liberal Democratic Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer to the conservative Republican Sen. Greg Ball.

Ball’s 40th Senate District would shift south under the new lines, giving him the governor’s hometown of New Castle, Westchester County. Cuomo shares a home there with Food Network star Sandra Lee.

Oppenheimer, who is retiring at year’s end, had long represented the upscale town.

But now if the maps hold up and Ball is re-elected—and he plans to run in November—Cuomo would be represented by one of the more controversial and outspoken members of the Senate.

The two have some history. Ball was among those who were contemplating whether to support legalizing same-sex marriage last year. Ball ultimately said the measure didn’t have enough religious protections and voted no.

Also, in a surprise move early last year, Ball was tapped by Cuomo to serve on his SAGE Commission that is looking at government consolidations. Ball had been critical of the panel.

Ball is also the most vocal Senate Republican in opposition to hydrofracking —something Cuomo is contemplating to allow in New York.

In 2010, Cuomo endorsed Ball’s Democratic opponent Michael Kaplowitz. Ball won.

Ball didn’t directly address representing the state’s top official in a news release yesterday, but he did heap praise on the Democratic governor—something Ball has done regularly since Cuomo took office.

“For me nothing will change,” Ball said. “My focus before and after redistricting will continue to be on job creation, lowering taxes and working with Governor Cuomo to get New York State back on track.”

In the Assembly, Cuomo’s representative would stay the same: Assemblyman Robert Castelli, R-Goldens Bridge.

Asked this morning if he knew if his own representatives would change, Cuomo said, “I have not looked.”

Perhaps he’ll wait until Ball shows up at his door in the fall asking for his vote in the November elections.

Assemblyman David Gantt, D-Rochester, said today that he may sue over how a state task force divided up the city of Rochester’s legislative lines, saying it could disenfranchise minority voters.

Rochester, the state’s third largest city with about 210,000 people, is being split into three state Senate districts under the plans released yesterday.

It includes giving Buffalo-area Sen. Michael Ranzenhofer, a Republican, a part of the city—including its diverse 19th Ward that runs along the Genesee River to near the Greater Rochester International Rochester Airport.

“I think it’s appalling that they would even try to draw districts like that. I will do my homework and then I will make up my mind about what it is I ought to do on behalf of those who live in the 19th Ward,” said Gantt, who represents the area in the Assembly.

“You know what that means? I’ll probably sue them,” he added.

Gantt has sued over redistricting in the past when he believed it was suppressing minority voters. He sued in the early 1980s when his own 133rd District was targeted to be carved up.

And in 2002—the last time the state undertook redistricting—he was part of a lawsuit over how congressional districts were drawn in western New York.

“I think they depleted the minority votes in that district,” Gantt told Gannett’s Albany Bureau today in a telephone interview about the new lines. “I believe we ought to be fair in the process. They have to be awfully careful about that which they do to discriminate against those who live in that district.”

Gantt also called out Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, who represents most of the city, and serves in the GOP majority. The city is currently divided among Robach and Republican Sens. James Alesi and George Maziarz.

Under the new plan, Robach would lose about 40,000 voters in the city of Rochester; Alesi would pick up more and Maziarz would be moved out of the city. Ranzenhofer would move into Monroe County instead, picking up the western Monroe County towns of Riga, Chili and the southwestern part of the city.

Robach “should say to those who are in charge in his house that that’s wrong,” Gantt said. “He has over the past 10 years claimed that he represents the whole district, so we ought to see what he has to say about that.”

Robach could not immediately be reached for comment.

For his part, Ranzenhofer said he’s looking forward to learning more about his new district, which would stretch from his hometown in Amherst, Erie County, through all of Genesee County and into Rochester. He was first elected in 2008, succeeding long-time GOP Sen. Mary Lou Rath.

“I’m looking forward to when the campaign starts and once I start serving as senator to learn about all the new constituents I will be representing,” he said, adding that his law firm, Friedman & Ranzenhofer, has an office in the Rochester suburbs.

He said no one is always going to be happy in redistricting.

“In every redistricting, probably back to when they started it, there has always been these claims made,” Ranzenhofer said today. “There will always be people that may or may not file lawsuits. Someone will make a determination on whether those are accurate claims or not.”

Updated: Robach offered this response in a statement: “No matter what the scope of the district, I will continue to strongly represent both urban and suburban constituents to the highest level. Others can continue to focus on politics and I will continue to focus on public service.”

Here’s the new 61st Senate District:

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Missed among all the news yesterday over redistricting was the grilling that state DOT Commissioner Joan McDonald received at a transportation budget hearing yesterday.

She was accused of offering vague answers to how the state will fund a $1.2 billion infrastructure plan for 2012-13 fiscal year. She didn’t say what projects would be funded and was accused by a Queens lawmaker of not even knowing that a road project was already underway in his district.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, was miffed by some of McDonald’s vague answers.

Check out this exchange:

“In order to make our informed judgment, would you agree that we need some facts and some information about the areas you are in charge of in the Transportation Department?” asked DeFrancisco, a lawyer and the Senate GOP’s lead floor debater.

“I believe that’s a fair assessment,” she responded.

“Now tell me, how we can do that function when your answers have almost been uniformly to all questions, ‘We’re studying it’?”

She responded, “This is the start of the dialogue.”

Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, Broome County, a member of the Transportation Committee in the Assembly, is raising concerns about the potential loss of the area’s DOT regional office.

“I understand the governor wants government to be more efficient, but we need make sure the Southern Tier isn’t negatively affected,” she said in a statement today.

Updated: Here’s the hits by DeFrancisco on McDonald. It starts at the 56:00 mark.

State Department of Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald told lawmakers this week that the agency plans to consolidate its 11 regions of the state into six in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins April 1. Each region has a central office and multiple residencies for operations staff and equipment. The residencies would not be affected by the consolidation, she said.

“We can consolidate how we do engineering and planning, right of way acquisition, environmental review to maximize those resources,” she said after speaking at a public hearing on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget.

McDonald, pictured here, said the administration hasn’t decided yet what the six new regions will be and where they will be headquartered.

Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, Broome County, said in a statement today that she is concerned the Binghamton area could lose its regional office.

“I understand the governor wants government to be more efficient, but we need make sure the Southern Tier isn’t negatively affected,” said Lupardo, a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee.

The DOT’s Region 9 is headquartered at the Binghamton State Office Building and covers seven counties: Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan and Tioga.

“The DOT regional office is critical to our ongoing flood recovery,” Lupardo said, referring to Tropical Storm Lee last September. “They are also managing vital infrastructure projects, such as the I-86 conversion. I want to make sure that DOT consolidation plans do not delay repairs to roads, bridges and other critical work. I’m also concerned about our workforce. We can’t afford to lose jobs at this point in our local economic recovery.”

Counties that have six senators. Eight Democratic incumbents battling for four seats in New York City. A Buffalo Senate seat that runs across a shoreline.

Those are some of the outcomes of the gerrymandered district lines that were released yesterday. It’s certainly confusing: some seats aren’t changing much, but their district numbers are.

If you want to know where you stand in all of this, check our wonderful database.

Type in your address and you’ll find your new districts in the state Senate and Assembly. You’ll also be able to pull up your new and old district maps.

Enjoy.

The new legislative maps are out this afternoon and it shows a myriad of changes to Hudson Valley seats in the Senate that could be advantageous in helping Republicans keep its slim majority.

As Gannett reported Tuesday, Sen. Greg Ball, R-Patterson, Putnam County is losing some of Dutchess and Putnam counties in the new 40th Senate District and picking up more of Westchester County.

Retiring Democratic Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer’s seat is picking the heavily sought-after town of Eastchester—a GOP-heavy town that was put into GOP Sen. Guy Velella’s district 10 years ago to help him win re-election from his Bronx home.

Velella’s district is now represented by Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, who under the new plan would lose much of the Westchester piece of his district.

Oppenheimer is retiring at year’s end and Republican Bob Cohen is planning to run for it after narrowly losing to her in 2010. He is likely to be challenged by Assemblyman George Latimer, D-Rye.

The move seems to make Oppenheimer’s seat a clear battleground for the November elections.

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn’t included selling wine in grocery stores (known as WIGS) in either of his two budgets and now we know why: He thinks it’s bad for small businesses.

“I think it would be disruptive to many stores, mom-and-pop shops,” he said. “I don’t think the benefit outweighs the cost.”

It was Cuomo’s first explanation of why he doesn’t support letting supermarkets sell wine, which is legal in many states. He indicated briefly last year he didn’t support it.

Under former Gov. David Paterson, the issue was a prominent one during budget fights in 2009 and 2010—with the state estimating revenue of about $300 million through the sale of liquor licenses to grocery stores.

It was also one of the most expensive lobbying efforts at the Capitol—with supermarkets pushing for the law and liquor stores fighting it. Wegmans spent more than $3 million in 2009 and 2010 to push for the bill’s passage, but it didn’t happen.

New York is the third largest producer of wine in the country and it is a burgeoning industry. Some wineries had supported the legislation, while others opposed it, fearing that supermarkets wouldn’t promote New York-made wines.