New York state lawmakers are poised to approve new congressional districts on Wednesday that could finally put an end to three years of court battles and partisan bickering that kept the state’s political map in a near-constant state of flux.
The state Senate and Assembly are expected to take up the proposed map — which lays out New York’s 26 districts in the House of Representatives — early Wednesday afternoon in a vote that was made possible when Gov. Kathy Hochul waived the otherwise mandatory three-day waiting period for newly introduced bills.
Democratic lawmakers unveiled the map earlier this week after they rejected a compromise plan drawn by a bipartisan panel. The Legislature’s measure would add Democratic-leaning areas on Long Island and in the Syracuse area to a pair of key swing districts that could boost the party’s chances of retaking the House of Representatives in November.
But otherwise, the new map makes only minor changes to the state’s existing districts — including a Bronx-for-Bronx swap in Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s district and small tweaks in Brooklyn and Queens that don’t dramatically alter any boundaries.
Republicans have been threatening an anti-gerrymandering lawsuit for weeks and were bracing for a map that heavily favored Democrats and would have hindered the GOP’s chances in November. Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay told reporters on Tuesday that the state’s GOP congressional delegation is generally OK with the new lines, and said he expects some of his members to vote in favor of them.
Wednesday’s pending vote is the latest in a multiyear saga over New York’s congressional maps.
Democratic state lawmakers drew a map in 2022 that would have heavily favored their party — 22 of the proposed 26 districts voted for Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Republicans sued and successfully convinced the courts that the map violated the state constitution’s rule prohibiting the drawing of political maps to benefit a particular party or candidate.
A court-appointed expert then drew the map for the 2022 elections, and Republicans performed well, making key gains that helped them win a thin House majority. Then Democrats sued last year and won a new map on procedural grounds.
Under the state’s redistricting process, a bipartisan panel known as the Independent Redistricting Commission, or IRC, gets the first crack at drawing maps. But if the state Legislature rejects the panel’s proposals twice, state lawmakers get to step in and make their own changes.
That’s what happened on Monday: The Legislature’s Democratic majorities voted down the commission’s second proposal, clearing the way for the new map drawn by Democrats.
The new congressional map would remain in place until 2032 once it’s approved — unless a lawsuit throws the matter back to the courts.
Barclay said on Tuesday that he didn’t know if a GOP lawsuit — once seen as an inevitability — was still in the cards now that Republican House members appear generally pleased with the lines.
“I have no idea,” he said. “I mean, anyone can do what they want. It’s hard to tell if someone wants to sue or not.”
Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt of the Buffalo area declined to say whether his conference will support or oppose the map, but he said the GOP remains troubled by the process that allowed Democrats to draw the lines.
“I know we were disappointed with the vote on the IRC map, we were disappointed with the rejection of the independent, bipartisan process, and that dissatisfaction remains,” he told reporters on Wednesday morning.
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