On February 17, New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver introduced A5388, at the request of Governor Andrew Cuomo. It provides for a redistricting commission to draw boundaries of U.S. House and state legislative districts. It allows for the possibility of putting people on the Commission who are neither Republicans or Democrats.

The bill provides first for an Independent Redistricting Nominations Commission, which would choose the members of the Independent Redistricting Commission. The people on the Nominations Commission would be two chosen by the majority leader of each house of the legislature, two chosen by the minority leader of each house of the legislature, and four by the Governor. The four gubernatorial appointees would include two who are members of the largest party (as judged by voter registration), and two who are members of the second-largest party.

These eight individuals would then choose a “pool” of 40 individuals, of which 15 would be Democrats, 15 would be Republicans, and 10 would be “others”. The bill specifies the major parties by name. Then, from that pool of 40, eleven members would be chosen for the Redistricting Commission itself. Each of the four legislative leaders would choose two members from the pool of 40, and then those eight would choose three more members from the remaining members of the pool. Here is the text of the bill. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news of this bill.