New York Democrats are proposing a redistricting plan that could reduce the state's Republican seats in Congress from eight to three.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), issued an "Interested Parties" memo titled "Preserving and Strengthening Communities of Interest," urging the legislature to "correct the errors of the past."
New York is being reduced from 27 congressional districts to 26 in the next election, and Maloney's pitch would combine the rural agricultural areas of the 23rd and 27th Districts into one, he wrote.
"These counties are also very sparsely populated, with only two or three cities like Batavia and Bath claiming more than ten thousand residents," his memo read. "Ideally, all of these communities would be joined together in one district, so their representative in Congress can be laser focused on their issues."
Under Maloney's plan, the 26 districts in New York state would render 23 Democrats and three Republicans, according to The Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman. The current makeup is 19 Democrats and eight Republicans.
Maloney had rebuked partisan gerrymandering last June.
"While Republicans clearly think their best way back to power is suppressing and gerrymandering their way to a majority, Democrats are committed to the fight of protecting and expanding voting rights for all Americans," he wrote in a statement.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., from the 11th District is among the Republican seats that would be redistricted to favor Democrats.
"The people of this district and the state of New York voted not once, but twice, for nonpartisan redistricting," she told the New York Post. "To gerrymander a blatantly partisan map dilutes the voice of my constituents, defies the will of New York's voters, and is a direct assault on the state Constitution.
"Democrats know they can't win on policy, merit, or debate, so this is just another desperate attempt to tilt the scale to their advantage, just as they've attempted to pack the Supreme Court, change the filibuster, or pass radical election law changes. Despite their charades, we've prevailed before and will do so again."
The lone "safe" Republican seats in the Democrats' "dream" map, according to Wasserman's analysis, are those of Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.; Chris Jacobs, R-N.Y.; and Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y.
Other than the potentially vulnerable Malliotakis, the other current New York Republicans in the House are:
- Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., who is running for governor.
- Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y.
- Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., who is retiring from Congress.
- Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., who is retiring from Congress.
State Republican Party Chairman Nick Langworthy vowed a fight to block Democrats' partisan redistricting.
"Democrats from Kathy Hochul on down have made clear their crooked plan has always been to sabotage the work of the independent commission and put the process back in the hands of power-hungry politicians," Langworthy told the Post in a statement.
"What they're attempting in NY-11 is a gross exhibit of the lengths they will go to amass even more power so they can ram through their socialist agenda. We are looking at all our options to stop them."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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