Long Island native, former Congressman, former State Senator, and New York Gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin pulled no punches when describing the sorry state of our state:
“This state is falling to sh*t,” said Zeldin
Zeldin threw the job during a press conference with Republican State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt and Democratic Attorney Bobbie Anne Cox from the group “Stop New York Corruption.”
Their bi-partisan message concerned an upcoming deadline of February 28th when the Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC), made up of five Democrats and five Republicans, must submit new boundaries for all 26 congressional districts across the state, from Brookhaven to Buffalo.
“I myself am a lifelong Democrat. This is not about one political party or another. This is about fair elections, protecting our sacred right to vote and the power to vote for our representatives, “said Cox, who is based in Westchester County.
Every ten years each state is responsible for drawing new boundaries for congressional districts based on population gains and losses. When a state like Florida gains population, they earn more congressional districts and more clout in Congress.
States like New York consistently lose population every ten years, thus we lose congressional seats and we lose influence on Capitol Hill. All of this is based on census data, every ten years.
Here in the Empire State, voters approved creating this independent commission in 2014, the IRC, with the hopes of a bipartisan effort to draw new lines in a fair manner that doesn’t favor one political party over another.
“A decade ago, on a statewide ballot, people from all walks of life wanted to take this process out of the legislature's hands, and created an IRC,” said Zeldin.
When the IRC struggled to produce new maps on its own for the 2022 midterm elections, the Democratic controlled Senate and Assembly stepped in and drew their own boundaries. Conservatives and Republicans cried foul, claiming the Democratic drawn maps were biased. Those partisan maps favored Republicans in only four of the 26 congressional districts across New York.
Republicans sued and won in court. A special master was appointed and ordered to draw fair and balanced maps. Those new maps/districts led to quite a balance of power in New York, with 15 Democrats and 10 Republicans currently serving in those congressional districts.
This time around, Democrats were the ones crying foul, claiming in court that the current law only allowed the courts to draw new lines for one election cycle, not ten years. The Court of Appeals agreed, and ordered the IRC to draw all new maps by February 28th.
“There is a logjam,” said NYS Conservative Party Chairman Gerald Kassar.
While a redistricting logjam most definitely exists, Ortt, Zeldin, and Cox encouraged the IRC to simply keep the current maps and submit that as their new “plan” by February 28th. The point of the two Republicans and one Democrat: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. An independent, Special Master drew fair maps once already, just submit them again as their own.
“This is a huge deal. It will determine who controls Congress. The right answer is the current map that reflects the current lines. Redistricting is supposed to take place once every ten years. Not every two years. Let’s face it. Democrats are unhappy with how elections went in 2022. Had they won control of Congress, had they won more seats in New York, we wouldn’t be here today,” concluded Ortt.