Calling it discriminatory against Latinos and other racial-ethnic minorities, the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP) has written to the Department of Justice to ask that the Attorney General to block the implementation of changes in New York City’s term limits law. Calling it “retrogressive” in setting back gains made by Latinos in representation in elected public office, the Institute called the term limits measure, Local Law 51, a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Citing research by Dr. Allan J. Lichtman, NiLP cited the following findings in making its case:
From 1993 to the present, no minority candidate has defeated a white incumbent for any city-wide, borough-wide or city council position.
Incumbent candidates in New York City municipal elections have major advantages over challengers. Since 1993, 96 percent of municipal incumbents seeking reelection in New York City have defeated their challengers.
In the context of polarized voting and incumbency advantage, term limits have created opportunities for minority voters to elect minority candidates of their choice to municipal office.
In the context of polarized voting and incumbency advantage, the legislation extending term limits from two to three terms would have a retrogressive effect on minority opportunities to elect candidates of their choice to city-wide, borough-wide, and city council positions in New York City.
He could cite five specific examples of such retrogressive effects for minority voters in the context of city-wide, borough-wide, and city council elections in the context of the 2009 election cycle. However, the retrogressive effect of extending term limits is not limited to these examples alone.
These retrogressive effects can be remedied only by halting the implementation of this new law extending term limits for New York City municipal officials.
The NiLP letter further pointed out that the latest statistics from the Census Bureau, from the 2005-6 American Community Survey, estimates New York City’s Latino population at 2,259,069, or 27.4 percent of the total. However, combining all the elected positions affected by the time-limits amendment, which total 59, Latinos currently are likely to hold a total of 11, or only 18.6 percent of the total (special elections for Council vacancies are soon to be held that in all likelihood will result in the election of a Latino). The issue of underrepresentation, especially acute for citywide offices, continues to be a serious problem for Latinos as the largest racial-ethnic minority group in the city. The prospect of the term limits changes being advocated by New York City government having a retrogressive effect on Latino representation under these circumstances would be a violation of both the spirits and letter of the federal Voting Rights Act.
A coalition of local elected officials, candidates and voters, represented by the law firm of Gibson Dunn Crutcher LLP with Norman Siegel as co-counsel, is concerned that the City’s recently-enacted legislation extending term limits violates Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. They are submitting a comment today calling on the Justice Department to stop this change under the pre-clearance provision of Section 5 of the Voting Rights because of its retrogressive effects on minority representation in the elected offices affected (Mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, City Council and Borough Presidents).
The National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP) is a nonprofit and nonpartisan policy center, founded in New York City in 1982, that focuses on Latino policy issues. The Institute coordinates the work of the Latino Voting Rights Network, composed of Latino voting rights advocates throughout the United States.
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