Pressure From Koch

Every candidate for statewide office and a majority of state legislators in New York have publicly pledged to support a civic coalition’s agenda for a nonpartisan system for redrawing legislative and Congressional districts, stronger ethics and financial disclosure requirements, and strict controls on state spending.

“When we started this formally in March, nobody really believed we could get very far,” said former Mayor Edward I. Koch, who was instrumental in forming the coalition, called New York Uprising.

Fifty-two state senators and 77 Assembly members (but not Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker and a Manhattan Democrat) have signed the pledge. The number is expected to grow after Election Day because some incumbents who did not sign are not seeking another term or may be defeated. Sixty-nine challengers seeking Senate seats signed, as did 127 candidates for the Assembly.

“In the Senate, all the Republicans have signed our three pledges and all but eight other incumbents have signed,” Mr. Koch said on Wednesday.