[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch created a pledge that was signed by many state politicos last fall demanding a nonpartisan solution to every decade's redistricting battles. He heads for Albany now to call his signers on it."][/caption]What's happening in the battle on whether the state's redistricting gets handed over to a nonpartisan panel or done as its always done, by state Senate partisans? Kenneth Lovett of the Daily News reports that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver "quietly introduced Gov. Cuomo's plan for an independent commission to come up with a legislative redistricting plan." Cuomo's goal is aimed at breaking the cycle of majority parties using political clout to redraw the lines in favor of incumbents. The governor's measure is currently facing a major stall in the state Senate, where Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos reversed his pledge to support non-partisanship by blocking Democratic attempts in the senate to co-sponsor Cuomo's bill there. "Despite a lukewarm response when Cuomo unveiled the plan last week, Silver last week discreetly submitted the proposal to the Assembly's government operations committee," Lovett reports. "The move comes in advance of a planned Tuesday trip to the Capitol by former Mayor Ed Koch, who has led a reform effort and will call on lawmakers to approve an independent redistricting commission." Silver was criticized during the campaign for not signing onto Koch's pledge to support an independent group to redraw political districts, while Skelos DID sign it. Under Cuomo's bill, congressional and state legislative district lines would be drawn by a bipartisan commission made up of people long removed from public office. The lines are redrawn every 10 years and are next due to be done before the 2012 elections.