Westchester’s Two Districts, 16 and 17 with Only Minor Changes
Westchester Deputy County Exec. and NYS IRC Chair Ken Jenkins
By Dan Murphy
Westchester Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins, who served as the Chair of the NYS Independent Redistrciting Commission, IRC, has completed what is almost an impossible task in today’s hyper-partisan climate, when members of the IRC voted 9-1 to agree upon a set of congressional lines for New York’s 26 districts.
The IRC was formed after New York voters passed a referendum in 2014 which called for the creation of the IRC, in the hopes that both parties could work together to come up with an acceptable, and fair set of congressional lines.
In recent years, that has not happened, with IRC members voting with their republican or democratic colleagues, and unable to come to an agreement. That resulted in NY Democrats in the Assembly and Sentate drawing their own congressional lines. And those lines were challenged by republicans in court, resulting in a special master named to draw the congressional lines in 2022.
Jenkins has avoided that fiasco by getting democrats and republicans on the IRC to agree, and compromise, and come up with a set of congressional lines that were acceptable to 9 of the 10 members.
“I am proud to say that we have worked collaboratively and cooperatively and will be voting on a single consensus plan, for the first time. Every member made a good faith effort to bring to fruition the 2014 Amendement to the (NY) Constitution. We had the goal of seeking compromise, and this is a victory for the commission process and for small d democracy in the state of New York,” said Jenkins.
The one set of agree upon congressional lines now go to the State Legislature and Governor Hochul, where they can be approved or rejected. If the NYIRC’s lines are rejected, the democratic controlled Assembly and Senate must come up with new lines within the next week; petitioning will begin for congress on Feb. 27 in NY. But the democratic drawn lines could be challenged in court, resulting in confusion again as the country will be watching the outcome of the five competitive NY congressional races that could determine which party has control of the House in 2025.
Westchester’s two congressional districts, NY-16 and NY-17, will basically remain the same, with only minor changes. In District 17, Congressman Mike Lawler, a republican, and his democratic challenger, former Congressman Mondaire Jones, both agreed and called on the state legislature to accept and adopt the lines drawn by the NYS IRC.
“I urge Albany to follow the procedures and rules spelled out in our constitution this time around, and adopt a map issued by the Independent Redistricting Commission,” said Jones.
“It is imperative that the New York State Legislature acts swiftly to adopt and pass these bipartisan maps to prevent complications with the petitioning process and the upcoming primary season,” said Lawler, who won election to the House in 2022 by defeating Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney by 2,100 votes.
In District 16, Westchester County Executive George Laitmer is challenging Congressman Jamaal Bowman in a democratic primary. Latimer said, “This is only the next step in a long process; it is now in the hands of the legislature, and we are confident in the ability of Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie to complete this process fully and fairly. Regardless of the timing or the ultimate disposition of the lines, we look forward to continuing to bring our message of progressive results that benefit the people of our area, in whatever neighborhood they live and in whatever jurisdictions are ultimately assigned to CD-16.”
Some NY Democrats were unhappy with the outcome from the NYS IRC, including Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who serves as the Democratic Minority Leader and will become Speaker of the House if democrats retake control this November.
“Instead of remedying several of the substantive issues raised by good government groups related to communities of interest, the IRC map ignores or exacerbates them in parts of New York State, including the upper Hudson Valley,” said Jeffries in a statement.
Two democratic state senators called the new maps “a disgrace,” State Senator James Skoufis, and “I thought we would be getting different maps; it appears we didn’t really get different maps,” State Senator Liz Kruger. If NY Democrats decide to reject the proposed lines and draw their own, they need a 2/3 majority in both the Assembly and Senate to do so.
NYS IRC Republican Commissioner, Charles Nesbitt, estimates the map to be more than 90% similar to the Congressional map already in place.
Westchester State Senator and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, “The Senate Majority is eager to review the proposed map submitted by the IRC. We plan to discuss and decide our subsequent actions soon, taking into account the election cycle calendar. This process is critically important and we are committed to concluding it in a manner that upholds fairness and democracy.”
We agree with the NY Daily News, who wrote, “They should end this nonsense and approve the IRC’s map.”
Most Westchester democrats we spoke to thought that the best course of action would be to accept the lines and win the congressional races needed to retake the House majority. “I would be shocked if they don’t accept the IRC lines. It was a 9-1 vote, that is a mandate to accept the lines and move on. Plus Suozzi’s win in NY-3 shows us that democrats can do it with the lines in place,” said a sound shore democrat.
