By Anthony Cacciato
Last week, the New York State Legislature voted along party lines to begin the process of dismantling independent redistricting and pave the way for an aggressive partisan gerrymander of our state. While Democratic leaders like Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Prospect Heights) and Governor Kathy Hochul (D-Hamburg) claim that this effort is to combat redistricting in other states, history shows that this is ultimately just another attempt at a decade-long attempt to undermine the will of the voters and disenfranchise their constituents.
Since 2014, New York has had the Independent Redistricting Commission, an entity charged with drawing legislative districts for the state’s legislature and congressional districts. The initiative was propelled by legislators who believed it was necessary to ensure the voice of the voters was never diluted by partisan power grabs during the redistricting process and sought to create a strong institutional check against gerrymandering.
When it came time to redistrict following the 2020 Census, however, New York Democrats got to work and attempted to sidestep the commission they created less than a decade earlier.
In 2022, following a deadlock in the Independent Redistricting Commission, Democrats went about drawing their own map, creating an extreme partisan gerrymander for Democrats in our state and congressional districts. The maps, which included ridiculously carved-up districts such as one that stretched from Smithtown to Rye, were drawn to protect the entrenched Democratic establishment and deny hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers a voice. Fortunately, after facing a legal challenge in Harkenrider v. Hochul, the New York Court of Appeals struck the map down and appointed Special Master Jonathan Cervas to draw a new map.
While the map Cervas drew was one of the fairest in the nation, a stellar performance by now EPA Director Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) against Hochul for the governorship helped flip several swing seats to Republicans, prompting Democrats to move yet again to redraw the maps. After more lawfare and the appointment of a Hochul loyalist to the Court of Appeals, a new map was ordered, and the Legislature modestly redrew the map to knock out several Republicans and protect incumbents like Congressman Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove).
While they tried yet again to redraw the map earlier this year, targeting Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island) and attempting to break up a heated primary contest between Rep. Dan Goldman (D-Tribeca) and former City Comptroller Brad Lander (D-Park Slope), the United States Supreme Court stepped in and prevented them from drawing a more favorable map for Democrats.
However, while prior efforts have either fallen flat or made modest change, Governor Hochul has been determined to join other Democratic governors throughout the country in aggressively gerrymandering their state’s congressional districts. While both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of this political sin, few other states have so blatantly and consistently attempted to disenfranchise voters after promising them fair elections the way New York has.
An overlooked but critical detail of this effort is the related legislation that was passed to allow the Legislature to have greater say over the language of a referendum. If voters could easily be duped by Proposition 1 in 2024, a ballot measure which radically diminished parental rights, voters should be extremely worried about what sort of deceitful and twisted language could be used by the Legislature should the legislation be approved.
New York voters are smart, and they’ve rejected attempts by Democrats to rig our elections before. In 2021, when Democrats first attempted to lower the threshold for approving legislative maps, voters handily rejected the attempt by a 10-point margin. The bill must also pass again early next year before appearing on the ballot in November, meaning that legislators have the opportunity to do the right thing and vote to protect the voices of their constituents.
With no other statewide races on the ballot in 2027, all eyes will be on this ballot measure. Voters, especially young ones, are fed up with being treated as pawns for political games in New York State. During debate on the bill, Democrats consistently spoke about amplifying the voice of the people and giving them the opportunity to hold them accountable. I have faith that even as New York Democrats continue to try and subvert the will of their constituents, they will speak loudly in opposition at the ballot box and hold legislators accountable come November of 2027.
Anthony Cacciato is an incoming law student at Touro Law Center. He is an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied under Dr. Jonathan Cervas on the topics of election data and redistricting. He is a lifelong Suffolk resident and currently resides in Huntington.
