(The Center Square) — A good government group is blasting New York Democrats for pushing a plan to upend the state’s redistricting process, calling it a “cynical power grab” by lawmakers.
Reinvent Albany says a proposal asking New York voters to scrap the state’s constitutional ban on mid-decade redistricting, which is set for a vote Thursday in the state Legislature, would weaken the state’s independent redistricting process and allow partisan gerrymandering of congressional and state legislative lines.
“The proposal from New York’s Democratic leaders is not just a response to GOP congressional gerrymandering in other states – it is a cynical power grab by state leaders to exploit a hyper-partisan political environment to forever gerrymander their own lines,” the group said in a fiery statement.
Besides weakening New York’s Independent Redistricting Commission, the amendment also “inexcusably” changes the criteria for drawing both congressional and state legislative districts at any time – not only mid-cycle, but also during the regular, 10-year cycle, the group noted.
The Democratic proposal, which would be put before New York voters in the 2027 elections, thrusts New York into the nationwide debate over partisan redistricting efforts with several red and blue states proposing to redraw political maps ahead of the midterm elections.
The changes would allow Democrats to target GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ Staten Island seat, Rep. Mike Lawler’s Hudson Valley district, and several Long Island and upstate Republican districts in future election cycles.
New York’s bipartisan redistricting commission approved a plan last year after the state’s highest court ordered new congressional maps for the 2024 election. But Democrats have been beating the drums for another redrawing of the political maps in response to redistricting efforts in Republican-controlled states over the past year.
Last year, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul responded to the Texas Legislature’s move to implement a GOP-led redistricting plan by declaring that it was “game on” with plans to redraw the blue state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats.
In May, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries directed Rep. Joe Morelle, a former Majority Leader in the New York State Assembly, to meet with Albany leaders to begin the process of redrawing New York’s congressional districts. The move came after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that restricted the use of race in drawing electoral districts, potentially putting more than a dozen Democrat-held House seats at risk.
But Reinvent Albany says New York’s proposed amendment would go “far beyond” other blue as well as red states are doing in the redistricting war. It would give the Legislature “free rein” to draw its own lines, as well as congressional lines. If a court finds violations in any district lines, the Legislature, not the commission, can correct them, the group noted.
“We continue to think extreme gerrymandering in New York – including for state legislative districts – would be a big mistake that would deprive millions of New Yorkers of a meaningful vote, vastly accelerate the destruction of democratic norms, and fuel public cynicism,” the group wrote.
