New York judge approves congressional map, throwing Democrats into disarray By Reuters

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – A New York choose authorized a brand new congressional map that pits two veteran Democratic incumbents in opposition to each other and boosts Republican odds of capturing extra seats in November’s midterm elections, additional endangering Democrats’ fragile U.S. Home majority.

Justice Patrick McAllister, a choose in rural Steuben County, signed off on the map simply earlier than midnight on Friday, weeks after New York’s high courtroom dominated that the redistricting plan handed by the Democratic-controlled legislature was unconstitutionally manipulated to learn the occasion.

The Democratic map would seemingly have given the occasion management of twenty-two of the state’s 26 congressional seats this fall, serving to counterbalance equally partisan maps handed in Republican-dominated states equivalent to Florida, Georgia and Texas.

Republicans must flip solely 5 seats in November to win a majority within the Home, which might allow them to dam a lot of President Joe Biden’s agenda.

The court-appointed particular grasp who drew the brand new map, Jonathan Cervas, stated in a courtroom submitting that his plan creates eight aggressive districts, together with 15 Democratic-leaning seats and three Republican-leaning seats.

The map merged the Manhattan districts of Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, who’ve every served within the Home for 30 years and now seem headed for what shall be an costly and high-profile August major battle.

In Westchester County, north of New York, the properties of two Black Democratic first-term congressmen, Mondaire Jones and Jamaal Bowman, had been drawn into the identical district.

In the meantime, Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the Democratic Celebration’s nationwide congressional marketing campaign arm, stated this week he would run in a brand new district that included most of Jones’ present seat, angering lots of Jones’ allies who stated he could be compelled into operating in opposition to both Maloney or Bowman.

However Jones stated early on Saturday he would as an alternative run within the new tenth district that features elements of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Invoice de Blasio, the previous New York Metropolis mayor, has already introduced his intention to run for the district, which is anticipated to attract a crowded discipline of candidates.

The brand new map represents a bitterly disappointing final result for Democrats, who used their legislative majorities to push by an aggressive gerrymander. However after Republicans sued, the courts dominated that the Democratic map ran afoul of a 2014 constitutional modification geared toward eradicating partisanship from redistricting.

Cervas stated he had reviewed hundreds of feedback for the reason that launch of a draft model on Monday and made some adjustments, together with reuniting a number of Black communities and Asian American communities in New York Metropolis that he had initially cut up.