After days of speculation, New York lawmakers on Feb. 28 approved a new congressional map, ending a three-year legal battle over the district lines—or, perhaps, kicking off another round of litigation.
The new maps passed the Senate in a 45-17 vote and the Assembly by a 150-33 tally—largely along partisan lines.
Formally adopting the new map, which is expected to govern elections through 2030, was fait accompli after nearly two weeks of speculation about how the Legislature’s dominant Democrats would redraw the lines, with some fearing they could rig the state’s congressional delegation, now led 16-10 by Democrats, into a 22-4 blue wedge.
But the map adopted on Feb. 28 is relatively restrained, leaving 24 of 26 districts mostly intact and tweaking two in a way that could benefit Democrats.
Following the 2020 Census reapportionment, New York Democrats launched a legal challenge to have the state’s congressional map redrawn.
The Democrat-led Legislature also voted to limit legal challenges to the boundaries of Democrat-friendly counties Erie, Albany, Westchester, and New York during the Feb . 28 “emergency” vote.
The vote was characterized as an “emergency” because Feb. 27 marked the start of the candidate filing period for the state’s June 25 general primary. If lawmakers could not get the maps on the book by the end of this week, they would either have to push the preliminary contests back later into the summer or lower qualification requirements, such as fewer signatures on candidacy petitions.
Meanwhile, the 18th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), will lose more of Ulster County to Rep. Marc Molinaro’s (R-N.Y.) 19th District.
The 22nd District, represented by Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.), has also seen some tweaks and now includes all of Onondaga and Madison counties, southern Oneida County, southern Cayuga County, and northern Cortland County.
In a statement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) praised the map as a fair compromise that will ultimately benefit the people of New York.
“The state Legislature has adopted a bipartisan congressional map that more meaningfully delivers the type of fair representation that the people of New York State deserve,” he said.
“The map reunites several communities of interest, reduces the number of counties, towns, and villages that re-split, and promotes compact congressional districts.”
According to him, the new lines would increase the odds of Democrats’ keeping the Long Island seat and make it harder for Republicans to hold onto the 22nd District. Gerrymandering is when a political party deliberately changes district boundaries to create an undue advantage for themselves.
Democrats currently hold 16 of New York’s 26 districts, and Mr. Wasserman thinks the new map will likely make 17 safe Democratic seats and three competitive districts.
Democrat Bill Magnarelli, representing the 129th District, claimed during the floor debate of the legislation that these four counties would be the best equipped to develop legal expertise to handle all future legal challenges over congressional lines.
At the same time, Republicans slammed the bill, arguing it was designed to help Democrats in future redistricting challenges. Republican Mary Beth Walsh, member of the 112th District, argued that the courts in the four counties were “predominantly Democrat” and the bill would “create a desired outcome” for Democrats.
“It’s doing the shopping under the guise of trying to avoid forum shopping, let’s call it what it is,” she said.
