A draft New York congressional map drawn by a court-appointed special master released Monday would deny Democrats pickup opportunities they had devised in a previous map.
The new map, which could be finalized as soon as this week, also could put some of the House’s most senior Democrats into primaries with each other. It comes after the state’s top court rejected an earlier map drawn by Democrats who control the Legislature for being unconstitutionally gerrymandered. The wrangling also led a federal judge to postpone the state’s congressional primaries from June to Aug. 23.
Before the map was thrown out, Democrats considered New York a bright spot in the nationwide redistricting landscape, with the party possibly able to pick up three additional seats even as the state lost a district to reapportionment. Now, more districts could be competitive.
Members of the New York delegation began to weigh in Monday afternoon on where they intend to run this year if the draft map is approved.
“While the process to draw these maps without the legislature is against the will of voters, if the newly-announced maps are finalized, I will run in New York’s 17th Congressional District,” Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said on Twitter. “NY-17 includes my home and many of the Hudson Valley communities I currently represent.”
Maloney currently represents the 18th District, while first-term Rep. Mondaire Jones represents the 17th.
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik said she would run in the 21st District. Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko said he would run in the 20th District around Albany, but he urged the special master to unify the state’s capital region in one district.
Longtime Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn B. Maloney are set to face off in a primary in the 12th District, which would cover midtown Manhattan. Nadler, who ranks 10th in House Democrats’ seniority, chairs the Judiciary Committee, while Maloney, who ranks 16th, chairs the Committee on Oversight and Reform.
On Sunday, the two appeared together with fellow Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez to introduce legislation meant to reduce nonessential helicopter flights.
The map would also make certain districts that Democrats hoped to be competitive this November less Democratic. GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis had appeared vulnerable under the previous map, but former President Donald Trump would have won the district drafted by the special master by 3 percentage points in 2020. Malliotakis is likely to face a rematch with former Rep. Max Rose, whom she beat by 6 points in 2020.
Democrats had also hoped to pick up seats on Long Island, but those districts would be less friendly to their candidates under the draft map and could stay in Republican hands if the political winds are blowing the GOP’s way in November.
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