Ra to lose Elmont, part of Franklin Square under new maps

Assemblyman Ed Ra, who currently represents the 21st Assembly District, left, will represent the 19th District under newly proposed Assembly maps. The 19th District will include the eastern portion of Franklin Square.

Courtesy Center for Urban Research, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Franklin Square and Elmont would move into the new 22nd Assembly District under the proposed plan.

Courtesy Center for Urban Research, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

The Assembly’s 21st District will move south and east, according to maps recently released by the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment.

Courtesy Center for Urban Research, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

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According to new maps released by a redistricting task force and recently approved by the State Assembly and Senate, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Elmont and Franklin Square will become part of the new 22nd Assembly District, an area currently represented by Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Franklin Square), Brian Curran (R-Lynbrook) and Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach).

The 22nd District will be an open seat in November’s election, having no incumbent.

The new maps, which are part of the required redistricting following the release of the 2010 census and will take effect for the November election, received Cuomo’s approval in a deal that included an agreement by the Legislature to put forward a constitutional amendment reforming the redistricting process.

Released by the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, the new maps are mandated every 10 years after the release of census data to address population shifts. Across the state, each new district would have about 129,000 residents.

According to the redistricting plan, the 22nd District will run from Bellerose south to North Woodmere along the city line, and include North Valley Stream, Elmont, Floral Park and Franklin Square.

Ra, who is serving his first term in the Assembly, will move from the 21st District to the new 19th, which stretches as far as Glen Head in the Town of Oyster Bay. While he will no longer represent Elmont, he'll still represent a part of the Elmont Union Free School District, with the Stewart Manor School being in the new 19th District. He'll also continue to represent the eastern portion of Franklin Square and the Franklin Square Union Free School District, under the redistricting plan.

While Elmont will be split between Assembly districts 22 and 33, under the plan, Franklin Square will be split into three districts — the 22nd, 21st (Curran) and 19th (Ra) Assembly districts.

“While I'm disappointed that the new redistricting maps place some of the communities that I have worked with for the last several years into another district,” Ra said, “as a result of this process, Nassau County will gain an additional seat in the New York State Legislature, which will only serve to strengthen our voice in Albany.”

He added that his focus now remains on representing the taxpayers and small business owners of the current 21st Assembly District.