Revised New York Voting District Maps Could Spark a Big Fight Over Small Changes

A decision by New York legislators to reject maps drawn by the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission has sent New York politicians into a frenzy. Yet the legislature’s maps, proposed Tuesday morning, don’t appear to change the district lines much at all.On Monday, the New York state senate rejected the IRC’s maps in a 40-to-17 vote, and the state assembly rejected them in a 99-to-47 vote. The maps had been approved by the IRC earlier this month but still required legislative and gubernatorial approval to be enacted.State Republicans backed the maps because they were nearly the same as maps that proved advantageous to the GOP in the 2022 midterms. Republicans were able to flip four House seats in the Empire State that year in part due to new maps that were drawn by a court-appointed special master.Albany Democrats, though, cited a need to “carefully review these maps, especially in light of serious concerns being raised by various communities of interest,” as the state party chairman, Jay Jacobs, put it.“The fact that Lee Zeldin — who undermined the foundation of our democracy by trying to overturn the will of the voters on January 6 — endorsed this map should give us all pause and require a thorough examination, which the legislature will now do,” Mr. Jacobs said.Congressman Lee Zeldin, who is now running the Leadership America Needs PAC, responded, calling on state legislators to “simply adopt the 2022 House map, drawn by a court-appointed nonpartisan expert, to avoid any further confusion and chaos.”Mr. Zeldin’s sentiment was echoed by the New York GOP party chairman, Ed Cox, who praised the IRC’s maps in a statement Monday, saying they represented “minor changes to the existing lines imposed by the Harkenrider Court.”“The current congressional districts are the most competitive districts in the nation and resulted because New York Republicans brought action against the illegal gerrymander attempted in 2022 by Democrats in Albany and Washington,” Mr. Cox said.Another New York state Republicans running for Congress, police officer Alison Esposito, said that “New Yorkers are sick and tired of the constant political witchcraft from career politicians up in Albany.”“If Albany truly cared about fair representation, they would have kept the 2022 congressional maps, which created some of the most competitive and close House races in the country,” Ms. Esposito said.The lines in New York have been a topic of major interest from both parties because the House majority could be won or lost in New York’s congressional races.The maps unveiled by Albany legislators, though, are not too different from either the IRC’s maps or the special master-drawn maps approved in 2022. The most significant changes are seen as a few relatively minor alterations at the Bronx, on Long Island, and in the Hudson Valley.At the Bronx, New York’s 16th district was shifted to include Co-Op City, which does not much alter the partisan makeup of the district but does add a majority Black neighborhood to Congressman Jamal Bowman’s district, which could help him defend himself against a Democratic primary challenger, George Latimer, the Westchester County executive.At New York’s Third District on Long Island, Congressman Tom Suozzi could potentially benefit from the inclusion of Huntington Bay in his district, while Congressman Andrew Garbarino would also benefit from the Democratic-leaning area being excluded from his district.In the Hudson Valley, the new maps would also make the 18th District slightly more favorable to Democrats, potentially benefiting Congressman Pat Ryan, while also making New York’s 19th District more favorable to Republicans, potentially benefiting Congressman Marc Molinaro.Mr. Ryan tells the Sun that the new district lines won’t affect his campaign, saying, “I’m running on a positive vision for the future of the Hudson Valley — to deliver economic relief, to protect and expand our fundamental American freedoms, and to actually fix the problems facing our country.”“No matter where the district lines fall, no matter which Trump-picked extremist they run against me, the choice this fall is clear,” Mr. Ryan says.The legislature’s proposal was officially introduced Monday night, meaning state lawmakers could vote to enact the new maps as early as this week.Despite the bluster over the rejection of the IRC’s maps from state Republicans and the promise that they would challenge maps they felt were unfair beforehand, it’s not yet clear whether state Republicans intend to challenge the new maps.A former congressman who has been involved in evaluating district maps from the Republican side, John Faso, declined to speculate on the prospects of a lawsuit but said that the new maps weren’t “materially different” than the maps that were rejected.“I think it’s unfortunate that the Democrats spent the last year destroying the credibility of the state court of appeals and undermining the 2014 redistricting amendment,” Mr. Faso tells the Sun. “At the same time these maps are not materially different than the maps that the special master approved.”

Revised New York Voting District Maps Could Spark a Big Fight Over Small Changes

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