Candidates are in limbo, June primary election looms as redistricting heads to appeal
By Andrew Harris
The political turmoil of redistricting, which occurs after every US Census, is a high stakes game someone always calls gerrymandering. Every ten years the government uses the latest population data and other analytics to form congressional and state legislative districts. For example, US Congressman Tom Reed currently represents the 23rd Congressional District of New York, Joe Giglio represents the 148th Assembly District of New York. Those territories don’t exist anymore, politically speaking.
Those who intend to campaign and run in the upcoming election can’t really get started, because they don’t know who will be voting for them. The Democratic ruling party in the state has been carefully crafting the new boundaries under the guise of a “bipartisan commission,” for over a year. While that processes prevents the ruling party from redistricting in blatantly partisan fashion, Steuben County Judge Patrick McAllister, a Republican, saw it differently. He ruled that Democrats had clearly redrawn districts for political advantage and ordered a redrawing by April 11.
That ruling keeps the boundaries of future political careers in flux, as the New York Democrats announced they will take the matter to the state appeals court. Top Democrats Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James issued the following joint statement in response to the New York Supreme Court’s rejection of the state’s current redistricting plans:
“We intend to appeal this decision.”
