By Dan Murphy
Residents of northern Westchester county and Putnam County may have a new member of Congress representing them next year and his name is progressive -democrat, Rep. Jamaal Bowman. Rep. Bowman is a self-proclaimed member of “the squad,” led by Congressmember Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, AOC.
Bowman’s current district runs from the Bronx into Yonkers and includes Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and up the sound shore to Rye.
A bi-partisan redistricting commission in NY drew congressional lines that were similar to the one that democrats are now moving forward with, but Bowman’s district did not run as far north as the most recent plan.
One Sound View democrat told us “I’m surprised that Bowman is being moved all the way up to Putnam. That’s Trump country and my democratic friends in Yorktown and in Putnam are moderates. They took the Bronx away from him and gave him Putnam. That’s a bad swap.”
Bowman is facing a challenge in a democratic primary in June after Yonkers democratic Chair Tom Meier announced that he would challenge Bowman.
We previously reported that Rep. AOC may have her 14th District move into southern Westchester, but according to the maps released by NY Dems, she will stay in the Bronx and Queens. Rep. Mondaire Jones, who reportedly moved to White Plains from Rockland County, still has mid-Westchester and the hundson river communities north of the TZ-Cuomo Bridge in both Rockland and Westchester in his 17th district but he also has more of Orange county.
Finally, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s 18th districts only includes Peekskill and then runs north into Putnam, Orange and Dutchess counties.
The other oddity in the dems plan is for the 3rd congressional district, currently held by democrat Tom Suozzi. Rep. Suozzi, from Long Island, is not running for re-election, but is challenging Governor Kathy Hochul in a democratic primary.
Suozzi’s third district has been carved up to include parts of Long Island and parts of Sound Shore Westchester, including New Rochelle and almost all of the sound shore. Rumors abound that State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, from Pelham and in the 3rd district, will run to replace Suozzi.
Proposed congressional maps can be found at https://newyork.redistrictingandyou.org/?
Rep. Bowman said on Social Media that he looks forward to the challenge in his 2022 re-election. “I’m fighting for the people in my district, not the special interests. In 2022, our movement will grapple with new redistricting maps and challengers in NY-16.”
