New York Will Lose A Congressional Seat. Where?

the battle over the state's next district map [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] New York Is Losing A Congressional District. Where? By James Ramsay and David Cruz [a sign in Ithaca, New York, marking the end of a turnpike] Doug Kerr/[Flickr]( When the 2020 Census count was finalized, New York state came up exactly 89 people (!) short of keeping all of its 27 congressional seats. As a result, the independent panel in charge of drawing the boundaries for State Assembly, State Senate, and congressional districts has to come up with a new map that divides the state into 26 districts. But instead of making that happen through an easy, amicable process, the panel — which is made up of an equal number of Democratic and Republican appointees, plus two nonpartisan commissioners — released two very different looking maps. Now, [this redistricting commission is holding public hearings across the state]( to solicit feedback. Under the Democratic plan, the 23rd District — which includes Ithaca, and is currently represented by Republican Tom Reed — would dissolve into a more Democratic-friendly district that would include Syracuse and Utica. In the Republican version of the map, the 19th District — a Hudson Valley swing district that's currently represented by Democrat Antonio Delgado — would get redistributed into neighboring districts. Republicans on the panel blamed Democrats for misinterpreting some of the guidance on creating these new maps, accusing them of potentially violating a federal law requiring all congressional maps to hold the same number of people per district. "I can not help but be disappointed and regret the fact that we were not able as a commission to actually put a single product together," said Jack Martins, a Republican appointee and former state senator. At first glance, it may seem like the fairest redistricting method would be to have a computer model divide the state into similarly-shaped chunks with equal populations. But Fordham professor Ivelisse Cuevas-Molina, a member of the redistricting panel, [told WNYC's Brian Lehrer yesterday]( that what may look like partisan gerrymandering is actually an effort to create districts that give real power to communities of interest — such as ethnic or racial minorities — whose political power would be nullified if they weren't grouped together within odd-looking boundaries. "Having commissioners from all over the state who know their regions — and having this process of public hearings — provides us with the human element that is necessary to provide real representation for the people of New York," said Cuevas-Molina. "I think computers are incapable of taking into account the idiosyncrasies of communities." Once the hearings wrap up, the commissioners will take the public's feedback and create second drafts of the congressional, Assembly, and State Senate maps. But advocates fear the group will still fail to reconcile their maps and release two versions again. This could open the door for the State Legislature to reject the maps altogether and draw their own versions. In that case, the Democrats, who hold majorities in both legislative chambers in Albany, might not be able to pass their preferred versions as easily. Following the rejection of Ballot Proposal #1 this past general election, the maps will still need to be approved by two-thirds of the members of both chambers. (The proposal, if passed, would've allowed a "simple majority" in the Assembly and Senate to approve new maps.) If lawmakers reject the next round of maps the commission presents — or Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoes them — the panel has until February 28th to submit a second set of map proposals. Elizabeth OuYang, a leading advocate for redistricting that protects communities of interest, said she hopes this process of creating second draft maps is more transparent than the first round. "How could they say, when they released the first set of maps, that they listened to the community, when they came out with two very different maps?" OuYang said. "We need to know, and have credibility in the system, to know what took place." The public input hearings, which have been happening around the state, are taking place in the five boroughs and surrounding suburbs this week and next. 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