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NY’s Democrat-drawn congressional maps will stay in place for now
By
Jon Campbell
Published Apr 4, 2022
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By
Jon Campbell
Published Apr 4, 2022
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New York’s recently redrawn congressional and state legislative districts will remain in place for the time being after Democrats won a temporary reprieve.
State Appellate Division Associate Justice Stephen Lindley of Rochester issued an interim stay Monday allowing the Democrat-drawn maps to remain in place for at least much of this week, a key period in which candidates running for office are required to turn in petition signatures they’ve gathered from the district they’re running in to get on the June 28th primary ballot.
The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, will hold a hearing Thursday on whether the stay should remain in effect while multiple appeals are heard, with a decision expected by the end of the day. From there, Lindley expects the court to decide on the full appeals on a fast-tracked timeframe, he wrote in a message to attorneys on the case.
Read more: Judge tosses NY's redistricted maps, but Democrats hopeful for a stay
New York Democrats – including Gov. Kathy Hochul and the leaders of the Senate and Assembly – are appealing a ruling last week that invalidated New York’s new congressional and state legislative maps, which were drawn based on new data from the 2020 Census.
The congressional maps would give Democrats an edge in 22 of the state’s 26 districts, based on the voting results from the last presidential elections. The court case could have major national implications, with Democrats hoping to cling to their narrow majority in the House of Representatives this fall.
“The appeal will be greatly accelerated for obvious reasons, and I anticipate that a decision could be rendered within the next three weeks, if not sooner,” Lindley wrote Monday.
State Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister, a Republican from Steuben County, issued a ruling late Thursday that found the new maps were unconstitutional, concluding that the congressional maps were gerrymandered by Democrats to favor their own party.
For state Senate and Assembly maps, he found the Democrat-led state Legislature failed to follow the correct process for drawing the district lines. He ordered the Legislature to come up with maps drawn in a bipartisan fashion by April 11th, and suggested the primary could be pushed back to August. Democrats appealed the ruling within hours.
The Democrat-led state Legislature was able to draw the congressional and state legislative maps itself earlier this year after a bipartisan panel known as the Independent Redistricting Commission was unable to reach consensus.
The result was a congressional map that leaned heavily toward Democrats. Republicans immediately objected, filing the lawsuit that resulted in Thursday’s ruling and appeals.
The interim stay issued will allow the state’s normal primary process to go forward – at least for now.
The state Board of Elections has advised candidates to continue collecting petition signatures based on the current set of maps. Candidates for Congress and state office have to collect a certain number of signatures from registered members of their party to get on the June 28th ballot, in most cases.
This year, all 26 congressional seats and 213 state legislative seats are on the ballot, along with statewide offices like governor, lieutenant governor, comptroller and attorney general. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer of New York is also up for re-election.
The petition signatures are due by Thursday with the state Board of Elections, except for candidates who are their party’s official designee, who do not have to petition their way onto the ballot.
“The filing period for designating petitions will remain April 4 to April 7 and all other deadlines provided for by law are still in effect pending further court determinations,” the Board of Elections posted Friday on Twitter. “All designating petitions must be filed during that time period.”
As it stands, New York has 27 congressional districts and eight of them are held by Republicans. The state lost one seat for the coming election cycle because it gained population at a slower rate than other states in the 2020 Census.
In a statement Monday, former Hudson Valley Rep. John Faso, a Republican who has been serving as his party’s de facto spokesman on the redistricting lawsuit, accused Democrats of trying to run out the clock.
“While Democrats want to delay the judicial process so that they can run one election on these unconstitutional maps, we are confident the Courts will see through that gambit and will order constitutional maps for the 2022 elections,” he said.
Tagged
lawsuit
redistricting
new york
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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