by Carol Tannenhauser
The New York State Court of Appeals today struck down two of the three newly drawn electoral district maps for New York State, The New York Times first reported.
The court’s decision rejected the state legislature’s redrawing of the State Senate and U.S. congressional districts, saying it had violated the state constitution, and, in the case of the congressional districts, a ban on partisan gerrymandering — as evidenced by the reworking the Rag wrote about in February, asking “What is Central Park West doing on a Map of the Upper East Side?”
The rejected map had ceded a “sliver” of the Upper West Side, stretching from West 59th Street to West 84th Street, from Columbus Avenue to Central Park West, to the district to its east, comprising the Upper East Side and parts of Brooklyn and Queens. What Rep. Jerry Nadler lost in District 10, Rep. Carolyn Maloney gained in District 12. Allegedly, the motive was to bolster her candidacy in the upcoming Democratic primaries.
Now, the date of those primaries is in doubt. According to the Times, “The verdict, which is not subject to appeal…cast this year’s election cycle into deep uncertainty.” The judges ruled that a “special master” must be appointed by the court to draw new district maps. “To accommodate the drawing of new districts, the Court of Appeals [the highest court in the state] indicated that party primaries for the congressional and State Senate districts would have to be postponed from June until August,” The Times said.
“We’re still trying to figure it all out,” Rob Gottheim from Congressman Jerrold Nadler’s office told WSR. “But, going forward, Congressman Nadler is running for re-election in whatever lines the court will draw and is looking forward to continuing to represent the 10th Congressional District, from Morningside Heights, Upper West Side and the entire West Side of Manhattan, to Lower Manhattan.”
Whether the “sliver” will be part of his new district remains to be seen.
Terrible, so tired of ruthless and dishonest polititians whose underhanded actions keep costing us more money and wasted time.
Why no mention that the 10th ludicrously has a piece of Brooklyn, too?
Why is it that the one time Democrats do something like this, they are called out and their redistricting is rejected, while the GOP seems to get away with this type of thing – all over the country – all the time?
You answered your own query. What other states do in regards to redistricting is subject to their laws and constitutions.
For record more than a handful of recent redistricting done in other states have been struck down by local state courts.
In an odd and unusual twist establishment democrats in Washington, D.C. and Albany sought to protect Nadler, Maloney and other “old school” democrats from sort of challenges pulled off by AOC and others of her ilk. They also wanted to stop or lessen any chances of GOP taking over House in November elections.
So Albany democrats cooked up congressional districts that had two main goals; bust the few solid GOP districts such as Staten Island, but also give establishment democrats a slight edge by creating new districts that encompassed less of a threat to an AOC type challenge.
If the central park blocks of the uws are put back into NY 10. I’d be glad to have Jerry Nadler. He has a good fashion taste, the way he has his pants pulled up all the time reminds me of Steve Urkel from Family matters.
The Dem-heavy legislature was given two reasonable zoning options from the IRC. They rejected both and told the IRC to go back to the table. When the IRC refused, the legislature decided to draw up the maps themselves, completely flouting the legal process…and the dems got called out on it. So, it’s back to the drawing board.
Power drunk democrats in Albany see themselves as savior of that party in Washington, D.C., but also wish to stamp out any remote stronghold GOP has left in state (such as Staten Island).
It was long predicted super majority of democrats in Albany would reject anything that came out of IRC, and simply draw up their own maps. Once they got rid of Andrew Cuomo (possibly one of few who could thwart their plans), handwriting was on the wall.
It is unfortunate that democrats are getting called out for doing what GOP has gotten away with for decades, but things do be that way sometimes.
https://apnews.com/article/elections-new-york-ohio-legislature-state-ad8917713fa48b4385c50218989a04fa