News Blog

Election Day is creeping closer, and one good government group says that this year's races show the increasingly pronounced effects of partisan gerrymandering.

Citizens Union, which supports a state ballot proposal revamping New York's legislative redistricting process, today released a short white paper on those effects. It says that 31 percent of all state legislative candidates are running without any opposition; that figure includes unopposed candidates who also had no primary challenger.

The group also says that 38 percent — 74 out of 191 —  of incumbents running for election face no challenger; in 2012, that figure was 28 percent. And 46 percent of incumbents face either no challenger or only token opposition.

Citizens Union argues that the current redistricting system "shields incumbents and drives competition down at the polls."