by Michael Weiss
Last month the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled the district maps to be unconstitutional and violate the anti-gerrymandering process approved by voters. The maps were then to be redrawn by a panel of equal counts democrat and republican but they were unable to come to a decision. The draft version of the New York State district lines was released on Monday by Special Master Jonothan Cervas. The County court that is housing Cervas during this process will take feedback on the current draft before releasing a final version along with the final legislative maps for the state senate on the 24th of May. The new maps according to LOHUD are a major blow to Democrats and their plan to draw district maps to increase democratic seats in the house. The new proposed draft of the district lines will have a major effect on not only Rockland County and New York City but the state as a whole. Assemblyman Colin Schmitt, who is currently an assemblyman for Stony Point and running for Congress, has had his state district lines completely redrawn and Stony Point would no longer be represented in the new district.
Schmitt running for the 18th Congressional district which includes all of Orange County, most of Dutchess County and the Southern half of Ulster County. The New District lines draft would put Rockland County, Putnam, North Westchester and South Dutchess county into the 17th district under either the current Congressman Mondaire Jones or Sean Patrick Mahoney, who is running against Schmitt.
In other news, “Erasing the Stigma” is an information event on May 20th that seeks to inform people about cannabis and cannabis cultivation. This is a free event hosted by Green Kulture: a cannabis cultivation company, and cannabis lifestyle brand Two Chicks and Flowers, alongside New York small farma. The information presented in the event according to the Rockland County Business Journal was carefully constructed with help from Rockland County local government officials, cannabis advocates, attorneys, business owners, and community leaders. The event will be from 5-8pm at the Rockland Community College Cultural Arts Center Theater on May 20th. Registration is first come first served limited to the 500 seat theater. To register, search for the RSVP app Eventbrite and use keywords “Erasing the Stigma” and “Rockland Community College.”