New York state Democratic lawmakers Monday voted down a congressional map proposed by a bipartisan redistricting committee, giving them another shot at drawing new lines.
It will be the second time state Democrats have tried to put forward their own map. In 2022, the state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature passed maps that so significantly boosted Democrats congressional prospects that state courts tossed them out in favor of a court-drawn map. Fueled by strong Republican turnout in the midterms, that map elected 11 Republicans and 15 Democrats in 2022.
Democrats went back to court last year, arguing that the state’s independent redistricting commission hadn’t had an opportunity to fully play out when the court’s map was implemented. Republicans warned then that Democrats would use the process to enact their own gerrymander, but the court ruled with Democrats, and the state’s Independent Redistricting Committee was again convened.
The committee approved a new congressional map in late February that made modest changes to parts of the state’s court-ordered maps, leaving large parts of the state’s congressional district boundary lines intact.
Favorable Democratic lines could be hugely influential in the battle for control of the House, where Republicans have a razor-thin majority, this fall. But an aggressive gerrymander like the one New York Democrats passed in 2022 would certainly draw another legal challenge.
It could also put Democrats — who have for years advocated for a ban on partisan gerrymandering — in a politically uncomfortable position.
