New York Judge Approves New Congressional Map

People walk by the New York Stock Exchange on May 5, 2022. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Justice Patrick McAllister, a judge from the rural Steuben County, signed off on a new congressional map for New York, boosting Republican chances of gaining seats in the upcoming November midterms.

McAllister approved the map just before midnight on May 20. Jonathan Cervas, the court-appointed special master who drew the map, created it in such a way that there will be 15 Democrat-leaning seats, three Republican-leaning seats, and eight competitive districts where both parties have a reasonable chance to win the elections.

The New York congressional delegation is presently composed of 19 Democrats and eight Republicans. Democrats had earlier pushed forward maps drawn by the legislature it controls.

However, Republicans who were unhappy with the map drawn by Democrats approached the court, which ruled that the map violated a 2014 constitutional amendment aiming to remove partisan bias in the redistricting process.

These maps would have given Democrats 22 of the 26 congressional seats in the state this fall. But with the new map approved by McAllister, the GOP only needs to flip five seats in the midterms to win a majority in the House. The state will be losing one seat due to population loss as per the 2020 census.

Mondaire Jones, the U.S. representative for New York’s 17th congressional district, slammed the court decision, accusing it of favoritism toward the GOP.

“The final maps released today are the result of partisan politics–drawn by an out-of-state, Republican court appointee who has shown utter disregard for cultural, social, and economic communities of interest. It is designed to reduce the number of NY Democrats in Congress,” he said in a May 21 tweet.

Earlier, when the preliminary maps were released, McAllister had received thousands of letters calling for amending maps prior to their finalization. While approving them, McAllister dismissed accusations that he was doing so to benefit the Republican Party.

“Unfortunately some people have encouraged the public to believe that now the court gets to create its own gerrymandered maps that favor Republicans,” McAllister wrote in his approval.

“Such could not be further from the truth. The court is not politically biased … The timeframe for developing new maps was less than ideal, not by choice but by necessity.”

The final version of the map makes a key change from the draft version by placing Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights communities back into their respective districts rather than being split.

This change has done away with Democrat concerns that Democrat Reps. Yvette Clarke and Hakeem Jeffries would be forced to run against one another for the same seat.

Meanwhile, the final map also made changes on Long Island which will ensure Republicans will continue to be strong in the 2nd District.

“Today is a good day for democracy. Democrats’ scheme to rig the election is finally dead beyond revival,” state GOP Chair Nick Langworthy said in a statement, Politico reported.

The congressional and state Senate primaries in New York will be held on Aug. 23 due to the delay in map approval.