By Dan Murphy
Westchester County finally has two finalized Congressional maps, after the NYS Legisalture made minor adjustments to the maps drawn by the Independent Redistricting Commission, IRC, led by Ken Jenkins. Governor Kathy Hochul signed the new maps into law last week.
The adjustments were made to a few upstate congressional districts, but Westchester’s two congressional districts, NY-16, NY-17 were kept the same as the IRC recommended.
In District 16-Congressman Jamaal Bowman’s district added Co-Op City which will give Bowman slightly more black democrats in the district. And NY-17, Congressman Mike Lawler’s district, had not changed and remains as the IRC drew it.
But the democratic controlled State Senate and Assembly paid the price for tweaking the congressional maps, as editorial boards and good government groups criticized democrats for not taking the IRC’s maps and approving them as is.
One Daily News headline read: Redistricting’s final chapter: The Dems fought a damaging and costly fight for nothing.
The New York State League of Women Voters wrote, “The New York State Legislature has once again undermined the intent and promise of the constitutional amendment establishing the Independent Redistricting Commission by voting down a new plan for congressional districts approved 9-1 by the bipartisan IRC and drawing its own new district lines. The recent actions, including the Legislature’s redrawing of maps, leads to confusion and uncertainty for voters and potential candidates.”
Westchester County Executive George Latimer, who is running for Congress in NY16 stated, “As we’ve said before, this is the next step in a long process; the State Senate and Assembly have done their jobs to move this forward and now we will see if there is litigation. Whatever the final lines provide, we will be aggressively reaching out to all residents of this district to bring our message of electing a Congressmember who can deliver real progressive results that benefit the people of our area.”
Upstate Republican and former Congressman John Faso, who led the effort to file suit against a democratic plan to gerrymander the congressional lines two years ago, commented on the new plans and indicated that he will not be filing a lawsuit.
Congressman Mike Lawler said, “I was glad to see both the Senate and Assembly exhibit restraint when it came to their final map. While there were numerous attempts throughout this process to engage in a partisan gerrymander, the final map largely abides by the New York Independent Redistricting Commission’s bipartisan version and ensures fair, competitive districts across the state. Today’s bipartisan vote is a win for the voters and a win against partisan gerrymandering,”
David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, said NY democrats changes to the maps were “mild and not wild.” “The new NY map nets Dems perhaps half a seat vs. the current court-drawn plan. It’s designed to avoid a court fight & a far cry from the 3-4 seat swing Republicans engineered in North Carolina,” Tweeted Wasserman.
Former Congressman Mondaire Jones had previously said that he would accept the boundaries as is in NY-17.
