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After redistricting shuffle, Queens senators stake out their turf
By
Jon Campbell
Published May 30, 2022
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By
Jon Campbell
Published May 30, 2022
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Eastern Queens is in for a political shakeup thanks to New York’s new, court-drawn state Senate districts.
Longtime Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, a Democrat, announced Sunday she will run for re-election in the newly drawn 11th District, a backward C-shaped seat that stretches from LaGuardia Airport around to Queens Village and a slice of Jamaica. It’s a change for Stavisky, who since 1999 has represented the Flushing-based 16th district.
State Sen. John Liu, a fellow Democrat, says he will run in the new 16th District, which includes the neighborhoods of Bayside, Flushing, Fresh Meadows and Oakland Garden – and bears little resemblance to his current district, which includes Beechhurst and College Point.
The maneuvering comes after a court-appointed mapmaker drew new congressional and state Senate boundaries earlier this month after the Court of Appeals threw out a prior set of maps, which the Democrat-led Legislature drew after the state’s once-a-decade redistricting process imploded.
It means Liu and Stavisky will avoid having to face each other in a primary. Liu’s residence is within the 16th District, as is one of Stavisky’s addresses. But state ethics records show she also owns an apartment in Beechhurst in the 11th District that, as of last year, was not her primary residence.
“After reviewing the courts' newly drawn maps, I am happy to announce I am running for Senate District 11, a district with which I have a great deal of history,” Stavisky said in a statement. “It is the community I raised my family in, a community I've represented in the past and a community I consider to be home.”
In his own statement, Liu said he’s lived in the new 16th district for the last 29 years.
“Let’s do this," he said.
This story has been updated.
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Politics
new york legislature
Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.
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