The New York Times is referring to it as an “Extinction Level Event.” The state’s highest court tossed out the partisan Democratic map that would have destroyed the GOP in New York by drawing districts that would have eliminated five Republican seats, and another court appointed a special master, Jonathan Cervas of Carnegie Mellon University, to draw a map that was a little fairer.
Since New York is losing one congressional seat, the job of finding districts for all 19 Democrats currently in Congress was going to be a challenge. Instead of a nice, orderly process, Democrats have gone nuclear on each other, with some members accusing the powerful chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), of “racism.”
Maloney responded to the court decision by abandoning his old congressional seat and running instead in the newly drawn 17th district. That district is represented by a member of his caucus, progressive freshman Mondaire Jones, who will now have to decide whether he wants to face Maloney in the 17th district or ideological ally Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D.) in the neighboring 16th district.
Another ideological ally, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.), accused Maloney of racism, saying the chairman’s allies are spreading the message that Jones, who is black, “is ideologically ill-suited to represent a Westchester County District.”
Maloney’s decision comes just two weeks after he said that hard-fought Democratic primaries could prompt an “extinction-level event” for the party, the Times reported.
Two other powerful New York Democrats have already said they will compete in the same district. Rep. Jerry Nadler chairs the powerful House Judiciary Committee, while Rep. Carolyn Maloney heads the influential Oversight Committee. This primary race promises to be a battle royal with record campaign spending in the offing.
And Politico also notes that “In addition to a possible Nadler versus Maloney contest, the maps would create four more districts that could pit multiple incumbents against each other.”
The potential Nadler-Maloney contest is the result of a larger set of draft maps for New York’s congressional districts that were drawn by the special master after a successful court case by Republicans found that the prior configurations were unconstitutional gerrymandering.
The court-led process has upended a number of potential races with national implications. The state’s 26 congressional districts will play an instrumental role in whether Democrats can retain control of the House in the midterm elections.
Indeed, the Democrat’s hyper-partisan gerrymandering was set to give Democrats an extra 4 or 5 seats out of New York. That would have put the possibility of Democrats maintaining their House majority within reach. Along with the Illinois map that gives Democrats an extra 2 or 3 seats, that New York map could have negated the Republican advantage in Texas and Florida.
Now, if that New York map is confirmed — and Cervas will make a final decision on Friday — Democrats may be in more trouble than they ever imagined going into the redistricting process.
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