If they did one thing in voting to scrap congressional maps drawn up by the bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission, the Democrats who run New York’s Legislature proved their contempt for the express will of Empire State voters.
Time and again, the public has voted for a neutral process aiming at fair districts; time and again, the Dem supermajorities in the Assembly and state Senate have moved to undermine that — with Senate Dems going as far as to stack New York’s highest court to enable fresh gerrymandering.
Yet beyond overruling the commission, it looks like the powerbrokers opted for caution this time.
Early analysis of their changes to the commission’s maps suggest this is less drastically one-sided than Democrats’ 2022 gambit, which wound up a humiliation as the courts intervened to prevent a blatant gerrymander.
Heck, one of the larger moves mainly makes it easier for Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-Bx./Westchester) to win his primary against another Dem, Westchester County Exec George Latimer.
Rumor suggests that’s at the behest of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who supposedly worries a Latimer win would block the Bronx Democratic machine from controlling the seat in the future.
Pretty smallball.
The other shifts will help Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-LI) hold onto his seat in November by making his district a bit more Democratic, and slightly toughen the races of several of the Republicans elected in 2022.
It’s clear the Legislature’s leaders avoided more aggressive moves for fear of a fresh court humiliation (a legal battle that would also delay the planned June primaries).
That is, Dem leaders opted to give House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-B’klyn), who’d demanded they do something more than respect the commission’s maps, only a minor boost in his quest to become speaker.
In short, they did as much as they thought they could safely get away with, without the general public noticing — while still getting something for all their trouble in forcing an “extra” redistricting.
The sad thing is, all these petty calculations to serve partisan ends is probably the least-bad performance the voters can expect for what passes as “leadership” in Albany.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
