Chris Jacobs, Max Della Pia

The new congressional maps approved by a Stueben County State Supreme Court Judge boosts Republican odds of capturing more seats in the U.S. House in November’s midterm elections.

Reuters reports Judge Patrick McAllister signed off on the map just before midnight on Friday, weeks after New York’s top court ruled that the redistricting plan passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature was unconstitutionally manipulated to benefit the party.

The Democratic map would likely have given the party control of 22 of the state’s 26 congressional seats this fall, serving to counterbalance similarly partisan maps passed in Republican-dominated states such as Florida, Georgia and Texas.

Republicans need to flip only five seats in November to win a majority in the House, which would enable them to block much of President Joe Biden‘s agenda.

Court-appointed special master Jonathan Cervas, who drew the new map, said in a court filing that his plan creates eight competitive districts, along with 15 Democratic-leaning seats and three Republican-leaning seats.

The new map represents a bitterly disappointing outcome for Democrats, who used their legislative majorities to push through an aggressive gerrymander. But after Republicans sued, the courts ruled that the Democratic map ran afoul of a 2014 constitutional amendment aimed at removing partisanship from redistricting.

Cervas said he had reviewed thousands of comments since the release of a draft version on Monday and made some changes, including reuniting several Black communities and Asian American communities in New York City that he had originally split.

The new 23rd District, that includes Chautauqua County, stretches from Erie to Schuyler and Chemung Counties.

Current 27th District Representative Republican Chris Jacobs of Orchard Park announced he would be running in the new 23rd district. He has been endorsed by the Erie County Republican Committee. State Senator George Borrello who had considered running in the special election to fill out the term of Representative Tom Reed, issued a statement offering Jacobs his “strongest support.”

Jacobs was first elected in 2020 and currently serves on the House Agriculture Committee, the House Budget Committee, and the House Education and Labor Committee.

For the Democrats, Max Della Pia announced Friday he is running for the special election for the 23rd Congressional District. He had previously announced his candidacy for the November midterms in the new district.

Della Pia was unanimously endorsed by the Democratic Committee Chairs from each of the counties in the district. He is a former Senate Liaison Officer for the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.

The resignation of Republican Representative Tom Reed on May 10 triggered the need to fill the vacancy with a special election. Former Reed staff member, Joe Sempolinski, announced that same day he would be running on the Republican line for that special election.

The date for the election has yet to be announced but will be held sometime between July 20 and August 8 prior to the primary date for the new Congressional districts on August 23.

Top – Proposed Congressional District Map
Bottom – Proposed State Senate District Map
(May 16, 2022)

The court appointed, special master tasked with redrawing New York’s Congressional and state Senate district maps released a draft version of both maps Monday.

City and State report the interactive version of the maps were posted online by Jonathan Cervas, a scholar on apportionment who was tasked with the job.

The House district map seems to spell bad news for New York Democrats, who could have more competitive general elections than ever. Cervas seemed to prioritize that, drawing at least eight of the state’s 26 House districts in a way that either party could be competitive in November. The lines have national implications as well. Democrats have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives currently, and are expecting difficult conditions in this 2022 midterm election.

The initial lines drawn by the Democrat-controlled Legislature and approved in late January would have given Democrats an advantage in 22 of the state’s 26 congressional districts.

The proposed 23rd District is geographically smaller, covering 7 counties compared with the current district lines that cover an 11 county region. The new district would include southern and central Erie County to the north before stretching along the Pennsylvania-border counties to Chemung and Schuyler Counties to the east.

Cervas reconfigured the state’s 63 Senate seats from the State Legislature’s original plan struck down by New York’s highest court for unconstitutional gerrymandering last month to have between 315,450 and 329,505 constitutents each.

The lines were released just before 5 p.m. Monday, about five hours after the draft congressional maps were published.

Cervas wrote, “Because of relative population loss, two districts have been shifted and there are necessary changes throughout the state to reflect population changes.”

The new Senate map reflects 38 districts that lean Democratic, 10 that lean Republican and 15 in the 45 to 55% competitive range, based on 2016 and 2020 election data.

Cervas did not take incumbent addresses into account when redrawing the congressional or Senate districts, basing the lines on standards outlined in the state constitution.

The proposed 57th district still includes all of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties, and now would include Wyoming and Genesee counties. A tetris-like chunk of Allegany County is also in the proposed 57 district.

The maps are just a draft, with the final Congressional and state Senate maps due this Friday, May 20. The public has through Wednesday to submit testimony regarding the maps to Steuben County Acting Supreme Court Judge Patrick McAllister. McAllister has been overseeing the redistricting process following a successful, Republican-backed legal challenge to the maps passed into law by the state’s Democratic controlled legislature and signed by Governor Kathy Hochul. With that short timeline, observers do not expect major changes to be made to the maps.

​Primaries for U.S. House and state Senate races were pushed back to August 23, with the primary for statewide offices and state Assembly races set for June 28.

Meanwhile, there are still some question marks about how the election process will proceed. A new lawsuit filed Sunday in Manhattan Supreme Court seeks to invalidate the Assembly maps and delay the primary election until new lines could be drawn.

Two of the three plaintiffs in the case, Gary Greenberg and New York Young Republican Club President Gavin Wax previously filed legal action in the Steuben County suit to have the maps tossed, but McAllister tossed out their request last week, stating that while he agreed the Assembly maps were also drawn in violation of the constitution, it was too close to the scheduled June primary to redraw the lines.

Queens attorney and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Nichols joined the two in filing the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.

The proposed State Assembly redistricting map that challengers want thrown out

New York State of Politics reports a Steuben County State Supreme Court judge has upheld the lawmaker-drawn district maps for the state Assembly.

In his ruling, Judge Patrick McAllister said the maps of state Assembly districts were also “unconstitutional in the manner in which they were enacted” by the state Legislature. But the judge said it would cause “total confusion” to allow the people challenging the Assembly maps—Democratic activist Gary Greenberg and conservative political commentator Gavin Wax—to join an ongoing lawsuit over the Senate and congressional maps.

McAllister said Greenberg and Wax knew about the lawsuit when it was filed in February, “Yet they chose to do nothing at that time.” The judge said the pair could still file a separate lawsuit challenging the Assembly maps. But he said letting them raise their argument in the ongoing lawsuit would likely mean New York wouldn’t have all of its maps ready in time for a primary this year.

Wax has previously indicated he will appeal to a higher court.

The ruling from McAllister is in contrast to the rejection of the maps for the U.S. House of Representatives as well as for the state Senate in New York, which were found to be unconstitutional.

A court-appointed expert has been tasked with redrawing the congressional and state Senate maps by May 20. Primaries for those elections have been moved from June 28 to August 23.

Steuben County Courthouse

WSKG reports more than two dozen people from around New York state gathered at the Steuben County Courthouse Friday to provide input to the independent expert redrawing the state’s congressional and state Senate districts.

A number of different racial, religious and other community groups showed up to express their thoughts on new legislative lines in the only hearing before the court-appointed special master, Carnegie Mellon University professor Jonathan Cervas.

Several people said they drove to the Village of Bath from New York City and Long Island – a nearly seven-hour commute for some.

They said making sure their communities were kept whole and had accurate representation in the state Legislature and Congress was important enough to make the trip, though several asked the court to consider opening up more hearings.

The hearing comes the week after the New York State Court of Appeals ruled maps drawn by the Democratic-controlled Legislature to be unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders.

The judge overseeing the case, Patrick McAllister, has ordered Cervas to present draft maps by May 16. He hopes to finalize them by May 20.

The proposed State Assembly redistricting map that challengers want thrown out

One lawsuit filed Sunday night and another that is planned to be filed today call on state courts to invalidate the new State Assembly district maps.

The New York Post reports New York Young Republican Club President Gavin Wax filed an emergency motion calling on Steuben County State Supreme Court Judge Patrick McAllister to throw out the Assembly maps.

The attorney for the New York Republican Club president, Aaron Foldenauer, said in the motion, “In its decision last week, the Court of Appeals determined that the Assembly map was subject to the same unconstitutional procedures as were the congressional and state Senate maps. The only reason that the State Assembly maps have not been struck down is because of a procedural technicality, which is hardly a justification for unconstitutional maps to stand.”

He added that there is ample time for the special master to redraw the 150-district Assembly maps along with Congress and the Senate.

The New York Daily News reports Vernon Downs Casino part-owner Gary Greenbert plans to file a lawsuit today calling on courts to invalidate Assembly maps.

The Court of Appeals ruled last week that the State Legislature lacked the authority to draw up congressional and state Senate maps earlier this year after an independent redistricting commission failed to reach a consensus.

In a footnote, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore wrote that the panel could “not invalidate the assembly map despite its procedural infirmity” since the lawsuit that wound its way through the courts only challenged the Senate

In addition to violating a 2014 constitutional change meant to take the politics out of the redistricting process, the court also agreed with lower court rulings that Democrats gerrymandered the congressional maps in their favor.

A court-appointed expert is now tasked with drafting up new, less partisan Senate and congressional districts. Special master Jonathan Cervas, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University, may have to add the Assembly to his list if Greenberg’s and Wax’s suits are successful.

The Court of Appeals decision has already turned New York’s election calendar on its head as Judge McAllister on Friday set August 23 as the new date for congressional and Senate primaries.
McAllister said it’s up to the Legislature to determine whether or not to hold the remaining primaries for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, the Assembly and other local races on June 28 as scheduled.

The court-ordered maps are supposed to be finalized by May 20 after getting proposals from the interested parties this week.

Congressional District Map Approved by NYS Legislature on Feb. 2, 2022

CBS News reports an State Appeals Judge has declined to slow down New York’s primary elections amid a battle over the state’s redistricting plan, but said he would allow a lower court judge to hire an expert to draw up alternative congressional district maps in case the disputed ones ultimately get tossed.

The ruling by state Appellate Division Justice Stephen Lindley on Friday essentially hands the decision about the constitutionality of the redistricting plan over to a higher court, while creating one possible contingency for keeping the elections on schedule. Lindley sits on the state’s mid-level appeals court in Rochester.

Lindley’s ruling said the state board of elections can still accept petitions filed by candidates running for office in the new districts.

New York’s primary season was potentially upended the previous week when Judge Patrick McAllister declared that new political district maps heavily favoring Democrats had been drawn up illegally.
He ordered the Legislature to quickly redraw the district boundaries, or he would appoint a neutral expert to do it for them.

That ruling has been put on hold while the state appeals.

An appeals court panel has scheduled another hearing for April 20. The case could ultimately be decided by New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. The primary has been scheduled for June 28.
In his ruling Friday, Lindley said he would allow McAllister to retain a neutral expert to draw up a new congressional map, if he wishes to do so, to be used if the Legislature’s maps are eventually struck down.

Lindley said the legislature could also draw up a contingency map, if it desires.

If they survive court challenges, the maps will mean re-election trouble for several Republican House members, while scrapping the maps could affect House Democrats’ efforts to maintain their majority.

The contested lines would give Democrats a strong majority of registered voters in 22 of the 26 U.S. congressional districts New York will have in 2023. Republicans, who now hold eight of the state’s 27 seats in the U.S. Congress, would only have an advantage in the remaining four districts.

The state is losing a congressional seat due to the 2020 Census data; New York fell just 89 residents short of holding onto all 27 of its districts.

Lawyers for the state Senate and Assembly assured Lindley on Thursday that the maps will pass constitutional muster.

Legislative leaders have said they don’t plan to redraw the maps, and defended them as reflecting population loss in former Republican upstate bastions.

Lindley said Thursday he was chiefly concerned about the prospect of allowing voters to pick candidates based on unconstitutional maps, and said New York must be ready for the possibility of congressional primaries delayed as late as August 23 or 24.

The state judge also struck down the Assembly and Senate maps on procedural grounds.

But Lindley did not allow backup plans for legislative maps in his Friday order. He said there was “less need” for a court master to draw up new legislative maps because the lower court didn’t find they were unconstitutionally gerrymandered.

Congressional District Map Approved by NYS Legislature on Feb. 2, 2022

ABC News reports a New York appeals judge said he will “likely” rule Friday on whether to continue blocking a lower court ruling that declared the state’s new congressional and legislative district maps unconstitutional.

New York’s electoral landscape was thrown into question last week when a Republican trial court judge ordered the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature to redraw the district boundaries.

State Judge Patrick McAllister gave state officials only until April 11 to submit new maps, saying the districts they had drawn up were illegally gerrymandered to favor Democrats.

The ruling came even as candidates have begun campaigning in the disputed districts ahead of a June party primary.

State Appellate Division Justice Stephen Lindley has already issued a temporary stay on that ruling. He said he’ll decide sometime after Thursday’s hearing whether to leave the stay in place for now, pending more legal action in the weeks ahead.

He could also lift the stay, which would put state lawmakers on an incredibly tight deadline to come up with new maps. Judge McAllister has said if lawmakers don’t meet his deadline, he would appoint his own expert to draw up new maps. The state would likely cover the cost of a special master. Courts sometimes designate an attorney not directly involved with a case, known as a special master, to address such concerns.

Lawyers for the Assembly and Senate argued Thursday that the ruling should be blocked for at least 30 days, and criticized the trial judge’s decision to strike down largely uncontroversial Assembly maps.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for the Republican voters demanded that lawmakers or a court master start working up new maps soon.

Judge Lindley said his primary concern is ensuring New York is ready if appellate judges agree that the new Congressional maps — and potentially Senate maps — are unconstitutional and must be redrawn.

Lindley said that back-up maps could be tossed if the appellate court decides the contested maps pass constitutional muster. He said New York could hold its federal primary as late as around August 23 or 24.

Thursday’s hearing likely won’t be the final word on the main issue: whether the new maps are so politically biased toward Democrats that they violate the state constitution.

The arguments are “just a skirmish along the way,” according to former U.S. Rep. John Faso, a Republican who has been helping muster support for the lawsuit challenging the maps’ legality.

A hearing for more arguments has already been scheduled for April 20.

Congressional District Map Approved by NYS Legislature on Feb. 2, 2022

The Associated Press reports a trial court ruling that declared New York’s new congressional and legislative district maps unconstitutional was temporarily stayed by a state appeals court judge Monday.

The interim order from state Appellate Division Justice Stephen Lindley is in effect until Thursday, when oral arguments in the case are scheduled. Another decision on whether to extend the stay is expected later that day.

The order comes four days after a trial court judge in Steuben County threw the state’s primary season in turmoil by ruling the state’s districts were illegally gerrymandered to benefit Democrats. The ruling by

Judge Patrick McAllister on Thursday had given state officials until April 11 to submit new maps.
Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders promptly appealed that decision.

Primary elections are scheduled June 28 and candidates are already campaigning in the new districts.

Congressional District Map Approved by NYS Legislature on Feb. 2, 2022

Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James both announced they intend to appeal the Stueben County Supreme Court‘s rejection of the state’s current redistricting plans.

The Associated Press reports Judge Patrick McAllister issued a ruling Thursday ordering lawmakers to draw maps with “sufficient bipartisan support” by April 11 or have a neutral party draw the lines.
The state’s primary elections are scheduled June 28 and candidates have already begun campaigning in the new districts.

McAllister acknowledged in his opinion that trying to redraw the maps now could upend the election cycle. But he proposed that the state could delay its primaries to as late as August 23 without disrupting the general election.

He said the Republicans who challenged the map had proven “beyond a reasonable doubt that the map was enacted with political bias.”

The maps, drafted by lawmakers and approved by Governor Hochul, ensured that Democrats made up a strong majority of registered voters in 22 of the 26 congressional districts the state will have for a decade.

An appeal could send the case to a mid-level state appeals court or New York’s Court of Appeals, who could set the judge’s decision aside. All seven members of that high court were appointed by Democrats.

Congressional District Map Approved by NYS Legislature on Feb. 2, 2022

A Stueben County Supreme Court Judge will not delay elections as a lawsuit over the state’s redistricting process moves through courts.

New York Daily News reports Judge Patrick McAllister said he will not make a ruling on whether to strike down recently redrawn congressional and state maps, approved by the Democrat-controlled Legislature, until after he hears expert testimony from both sides.

McAllister said he believes the tight timeframe means that this year’s federal and state elections should carry on since it’s “highly unlikely” new maps could be drawn up ahead of the June primaries or even the November general election.

He said, “striking these maps would more likely than not leave New York State without any duly elected congressional delegates.”

In the event McAllister does determine the new lines are unconstitutional, elections could be reheld in 2023.

The Republican-led legal challenge was brought last month on behalf of 14 New York residents who claim the maps violate the state constitution.

The Democratic-led Legislature took the lead on drawing up the maps after the Independent Redistricting Commission split along party lines and failed to reach a compromise or submit one set of plans to lawmakers.

Plaintiffs in the suit say Democrats gerrymandered the maps to favor themselves, violating a 2014 constitutional provision that created the independent commission that was meant to take politics out of the process.