New York State has 19 Democrat seats in the House of Representatives and eight Republican seats. But if a new gerrymandered map proposed by Democratic state legislators is implemented, Democrats would likely get 22 seats compared to Republicans only getting four. The state lost one seat because of population decline.
But wait! Democrats oppose gerrymandering, right?
Pffft… they only oppose gerrymandering when they’re not the ones doing it. Especially since this map could help protect Democrats from losing their majority in the House in November.
According to the Washington Post, the proposed map “erases the upstate seat held by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R) and creates a deep-blue district in the middle of the state.” That’s not all. “The Brooklyn neighborhoods in GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’s Staten Island-based district shift enough to turn it from one President Donald Trump won by 10 points to one Biden would have won by about the same amount. On Long Island, the seat held by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R), who is running for governor, also gets bluer.”
Related: Democrats Only Hate Gerrymandering When the GOP Does It
Partisan maps were supposed to be a thing of the past. In 2014, New York voters approved a constitutional amendment setting up an independent, bipartisan commission to redraw district lines. But, partisan infighting in the commission meant that no single map could be agreed upon, effectively empowering New York Democrats to create their own map.
Various New York Democrats praised the new map and argued that it’s not as partisan as maps drawn by Republicans in other states.
However, the New York Republican Party disagrees and isn’t letting this go without a fight.
“These maps are the most brazen and outrageous attempt at rigging the election to keep Nancy Pelosi as Speaker,” NYGOP Chairman Nick Langworthy said in a statement. “Voters spoke loud and clear in rejecting their partisan power grab last year and in 2014, but Democrats are circumventing the will of the people. They can’t win on the merits so they’re trying to win the election in a smoke-filled room rather than the ballot box.”
“Governor Hochul herself admitted she would collude with Washington Democrats to ensure that Joe Biden has the votes for his failed, socialist agenda,” Langworthy continued. “For all of their phony protestations about transparency and fairness in elections, what they’re doing is textbook filthy, partisan gerrymandering that is clearly in violation of the New York State Constitution.”
Langworthy insisted that the NYGOP is reviewing all of their legal options “to protect the voices of millions of New Yorkers.”
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