Democrats’ Redistricting Power Grab is “disgraceful”
From the Office of NY State Senator George Borrello,
“Albany Democrats are in the process of shredding one of the most significant good-government reforms New Yorkers have won in a generation.
The proposed constitutional amendment passed today by the Democrat-controlled Legislature would, if approved by voters next year, eliminate the State Constitution’s ban on partisan gerrymandering, allow Democrats to redraw congressional districts whenever it is politically advantageous, and lower the threshold for approving new maps from a supermajority vote to a simple majority.
As if that weren’t enough, Democrats are also pursuing separate legislation that would strip the bipartisan Board of Elections of its authority to draft the ballot language and hand that power to the Democratic-controlled Legislature so they can disguise this power grab in whatever opaque, feel-good language they choose when it goes before voters.
This whole shameful scheme is in direct defiance of the will of the voters, who twice approved constitutional reforms intended to take partisan politics out of the redistricting process and place mapmaking in the hands of an independent, bipartisan commission.
The hypocrisy is breathtaking. These are the same Democrats who once advocated independent redistricting reform, who told New Yorkers that voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around.
No one should be fooled about who actually started this redistricting war. Albany Democrats want to blame Washington, but they wrote the playbook. In 2022, unhappy with lines drawn by an independent special master that allowed Republicans to gain a handful of congressional seats, they launched a strategic court challenge that ultimately paved the way for Democrats to redraw the maps to their own advantage in 2024. The current White House didn’t give them this idea. If anything, it was the other way around.
The real reason Democrats are resorting to these tactics is because they know their record is indefensible. New Yorkers are struggling under crushing taxes, soaring utility costs, an affordability crisis, public safety failures, and years of population loss as families and businesses flee to states with lower costs and greater opportunity. Rather than change course, they are attempting to change the rules.
Every New Yorker, regardless of party, should be alarmed by this effort. The purpose of elections is for voters to choose their representatives. Albany Democrats are attempting to guarantee the opposite.
This proposal is not about protecting democracy. It is about protecting political power. It is disgraceful and it deserves to be rejected.”
