The state's much-maligned panel that is redrawing its political boundaries will visit the north country, Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush said today.

The Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment voted yesterday to meet in the north country on Nov. 2, with a time and specific location yet to be established.

Mr. Blankenbush, along with other Republican assemblymembers, had called publicly for just such a meeting. Essentially, it's going to give north country residents a chance to give input on what political districts we'll be in.

Senate Democrats and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have vowed to banish LATFOR and what they consider its self-interested way of drawing lines (the panel is made up of legislators, so it's like letting the person who cuts the piece of cake in half choose which half of the cake to take). Senate Republicans, though, have balked at throwing it out. It all could come down to a court decision or a last-minute compromise, as Jimmy Vielkind at the Times-Union reports.

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