Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush and Assemblywoman Addie Russell won't live in the same district on the map that LATFOR is putting together, a source tells me.

Mr. Blankenbush, R-Black River, and Mrs. Russell, D-Theresa, both live in Jefferson County and, to varying degrees, represent gerrymandered districts (Mrs. Russell disagrees with this).

A good-government group put out a map that had Jefferson County in one Assembly district, but if the Assembly Democrats get their way, the two legislators won't face one another. The districts will stay, in a word, gerrymandered.

Since I have only heard this map described to me, and don't know the intricacies of both districts, I cannot say whether or not any other incumbents are in Mr. Blankenbush's district.

Which leads me to this editorial rant: LATFOR has been described as a secretive smoke-filled room, where decisions are made to benefit incumbent lawmakers and not the people of the state of New York.

If legislative leaders had any intention of disabusing people of that notion, why would they decide to release the maps to current legislators, but not reporters, who represent the citizenry?

Same old song and dance.

But maybe not. These lines are very tentative. A veto threat — of which the firmness has not yet been established — has been issued. So we'll see. When they decide to let us see.

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer