In Texas, Democratic state legislators have flown the coup as Republicans try to manipulate the redistricting process to maximize Republican strength. Democrats elsewhere, including California, are threatening retaliation.

It’s the same old story where both sides of the aisle play games on redistricting to benefit themselves. It’s why reformers have been pushing for decades to get the process out of the hands of self interested elected officials whose only goal is to protect their incumbency.

In 2007, as county executive in Suffolk County, N.Y., I signed a landmark bill to take the task of redrawing our county legislature's lines away from elected officials, placing it instead with an independent panel. It passed with great fanfare, with the governor even coming to to lend support as I signed it.

But, lo and behold, several years later, when it was about to kick in, a Democratic legislature abolished the reform and went back to the old system of having the legislature control the process. This was done, of course, because at the time the Democrats were in control.

Something similar would later play out later at the state level. In 2014, New York voters added an independent commission redistricting system to their state constitution. But........

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